Logitech Ultimate Ears 350vi review

Logitech Ultimate Ears 350vi review

1.      Intro/features

2.      Sound (Music)

3.      Reliability and support experience

4.      Comfort

5.      Overall

Intro/Features

The Logitech Ultimate Ears 350vi are an entry level premium In Ear Monitor set. They’ve been laser tuned for heavy bass response and are tuned for listeners of electronica, house, and hip-hop. The vi’s feature iphone/ipod controls for answering calls, switching tracks, adjusting volume, pausing, previous and next tracks, etc.

Sound (music)

The UE 350vi IEMs have a very deep bass response in comparison to the Maximo imetal i390s that I have.  (Please note: I was unable to obtain a response curve from Maximo, neither have I gotten a reply from their support about it)

Here’s the frequency response curve of the UE350s

As you can see it’s tuned for bass for EDM fans. I really love that for my kind of music, however those that prefer a more balanced soundstage for acoustic or guitars would be best off with one of their other models or look into another brand.

The music it did the best for me was Hands-Up style music. Hands-Up is a type of music that originated from Commercial Trance around 2002-2003 that can be described as the brighter, harder side of Trance. The style is complex and very fast paced. That style is very bass heavy and the highs are fast as well. This style requires fast bass response and the UE350s deliver on that. However the mids are drowned out occasionally, depends on the song. The accuracy for this style of music was the best genre for the UE350s I’ve tested. The i390s had a much more defined midrange and vocals were presented better, however the i390s lacked a lot of the bass response needed to fully enjoy this style of music. Hardstyle has results that are like this as well since both genres are fairly close.

The UE350s did good for Trance music on the lower end and the higher end. Both parts of the spectrum were tight and powerful, however the mids were washed out and the soundstage is not as wide for this genre of music. However, the bass was very layered sounding and not boomy unlike the i390s. The i390s had a wider soundstage for Trance, however had lacking bass response for the extra thrill.

Pop had some more life brought to it with enhanced bass response. The highs were not as clear for this style of music. Midrange sounded comfortable and not as harsh as the i390s for this style of music. However the nuances of the midrange were lost a little in the UE350s.

Rock music is not recommended for the UE350s. Guitars are not as present and heavy EQ is required to correct and may cause distortions. The bass was good for this, however mids are lacking.

Reliability and support experience

I have had these for 1 week and 2 days. I purchased these directly from Logitech. The right driver unit suddenly got quieter, even though I’ve babied these. I was listening fine with these and I set them down on my desk gently to get a cup of coffee and I came back, put these on and the right driver unit is 40% quieter. I have eliminated my sound card as the problem by pugging them into my phone and they still had the same problem. I also connected another set of IEMs I had (the imetal i390s) and both driver units work fine. I also connected the imetals to my phone and both sides work fine as well. So that eliminates my devices as being the cause of the right driver unit not working properly.

I have called them at call time 6:50PM friday march 8^th call duration: 21mins 3 secs Rep was easy to get a hold of (2 rings and they answered) Will send replacement UE350.

One good thing is I was not required to send back the defective set so this makes it easier to deal with.

Received my replacement UE350vi’s on 3.18.13 and we shall see how long these last!

I will post an update when this changes!

Comfort

I wore these for 12 hours (one 7 hour session with a 45 minute break and then another 5 hour session) and they were starting to get irritating after a while with Comply tips. I do not recommend wearing the standard silicon tips for more then 4 hours, as when I had a 6 hour session my ears kinda hurt.  I did this on a day after I took a shower so my ears are extra clean. I recommend keeping your ears very clean with all IEMs if you wanna have them last longer as well as not making you feel icky.

Overall:

I highly recommend these for someone seeking a cheap pair of IEMs that have a lot of bass for EDM music and something  to work with iphones. There is a model made for Android called the 350vm, however I do not have that one, as the vi is the one that you get by default if you order directly from Logitech.com. I hope the driver unit issue is resolved with this replacement and I will keep you all posted and updated on this.

Rating: 7.8/10 overall

Recommended: Yes

Update: Soundcloud file added