If you haven't decided, I joined the recent drop and can give you my thoughts when I receive my UE900S. I don't have the MD+ to do A/Bing but I have heard them previously at another occasion and should be able to share some thoughts. In short, the MD+ is great but it's soundstage and treble politeness may not be everyone's cup of tea. Good value? Yes, like the UE900s. But the key is whether it fits what you are looking for :)
The cables look like they are very prone to tangling. In general, if I’m going to spend this much on headphones, I expect a high quality, wrapped or coated cable. Anyone have any experiences on this cable to share with us?
I have not heard the UE900s, but I demoed the Primo 8 and didn't like it. It behaves almost like a stage monitor for vocals. Although Primo8 has a decently extended FR, the tuning makes vocals (not even mids in general, only vocals) sound 'in your head/face' while everything else in the mix is placed at your usual spatial locations e.g. guitars at the side, etc. That made it a bit disorientating to me as the sound was fine, but I was getting very confusing spatial cues with a singer inside my head and everything else spaced out normally. Sound wise though, very nice smooth sound and great mids. Because of the spatial cues I would think of them more as a vocal monitor then an daily carry.
SchiitMyPants samelight100 maybe Millguy can help you out, if not search for his comparison further down, he found the UE900s not too bad after some initial adjustments.
UltimateEars is the 900s the one with the new blue unibody MMCX housing like in the banner of the Massdrop page? The video shows that it is the older 900 body with the MMCX jack housed in black plastic instead. Anyone knows?
These definitely have a break-in period of at least 150 hours of use. But I've found a definite change.
The biggest change is it's stereo imaging ability. Despite being right in your ear, these manage to make a decently wide soundstage and have a frighteningly precise ability to image within that soundstage.
I find the mids are not the brightest part, but you don't listen to these and feel like you're missing out. I listen to a fair bit of female vocals (Soccer Mommy, Chvrches, Bjork, Grimes, Little Dragon, etc.) and some male vocals that are in higher registers (Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Rhye, Son Lux) and at no point do I feel disappointed with the performance of these buds.
And this is coming from a guy who used to daily a mids and highs heavy hitter, the Shure se425.
Honestly the ue900s shine the most on tracks with lots of great transients as well as really deep sub-bass. So synthpop like Little Dragon, jazz like Miles Davis, and downtempo like James Blake really make these IEMs all-stars.
Awesome that sounds great! My daily mix is Jazz like Hiromi, Classical, Pop/Rock of anything from Toto to Sara Bareilles, and the random soundtrack - I noticed Disney has been coming up with stuff great for testing vocals (may seem funny but especially so for Frozen and Moana). Personally coming from mid centric B100 then fuller DD Mee PX. Cheers :)
Hey Massdrop, We've signed up for this drop and were informed you're missing the March 30 target ship date. Now we're another week past that and it would be nice to have an update on our order status. Thanks!
I got a Email said the shipping has been delayed. Does anybody know why? and when it will be shipped according to the new plan? I've already waited for 3 weeks which is pretty long already. Really need it without long wait anymore.
Mine just arrived!! 6 days ahead of when FedEx said it’d arrive, no less.
Paired with my Sound Blaster E5 DAC, these sound *amazing*. Some people equate “amazing” with “bass-heavy”, but these ones are balanced in a way I can really appreciate—I’m hearing way more details in the mids than I was able to hear before.
I have to agree. I recently got my pair and they seem pretty well balanced. I feel vocals may be just a little recessed, but definitely aren’t lost, kind of smooths out the sound and makes them relaxing a bit. But man is the imaging on these amazing.