Ultrasone IQ And IQ Pro

Sound

Unlike the Grado GR10, I do not unequivocally love the IQ. Certain genres sound amazing through it. Those genres keep mid-bass tones down. They are: trance, classical, folk, most rock, most heavy metal, basically all jazz, and pretty much John Denver’s entire catalogue. For those genres, IQ rules.

Of course, in order to like the IQ, I had to ditch the included ear tips. They are awful. If you’re interested in IQ, or have it but don’t like what you hear, pony up for Shure’s Olives or low-density yellow foamies. Do it and thank me.

NOTE: the observations of this review are taken using Shure Olives and yellow foamies.

Despite housing both a balanced armature driver and an 8mm dynamic driver, IQ makes few, if any, missteps in blending bass with mids, mids with highs, and back and forth ad infinitum. It has the semi-steep U-shaped signature we’ve come to expect from hybrids, and its high contrast sound image helps bring out small stereo details. But apart from the Tralucent 1Plus2, there really are few hybrids that remain 100% coherent from top to bottom.

Its contrast is heavy. And its bass, at once slamming and foot-tapping, tends to bottom out when given a job too big. Jobs too big for it include lots of slamming mid and upper bass. Let’s keep on about it strengths for a bit more. They are many. IQ is contrasty. Its bass is elevated, and its highs are sparkly, but not over-extended. Bass keeps to its channel, and mids keep to theirs. Ditto treble. Decay is fast, and stereo image is wide, just not deep. IQ tosses up well-defined, detailed 3D image. It’s not that wide, nor is it that round. Rather, edges are defined by fine gradients between parts, and each frequency band is carved up neatly.

Where IQ trips is in the mid-bass and high-bass, specifically when either really put the pedal to the metal. IQ bottoms out when fed too much of either signal. This happens no matter the DAC/AMP/DAP you use. You won’t drive IQ away from its proclivity to boom when fed too much of one, or the other, or both. Its headroom is surpassed surprisingly easy. The good news is that you won’t run into unless you listen to a lot of late-90s / early 2000s hip hop. That bottoming out isn’t accompanied by gobs of distortion; it’s just that one moment there is bass detail, and then there is boom.

The other, less-reported problem is that IQ picks out every bit of hiss your source has. IQ Pro fixes almost all of IQ’s problems.

First, it isn’t nearly as sensitive as the IQ. As a result, it hisses much, much less, and, in transporting clean signal from moderately dirty sources, is almost on a level with Earsonics’s SM64 and EM32. Another plus of its lower sensitivity is that there is far more volume wiggle room from aggressive, DACs, and DAPs. What used to be loud at a volume setting of 20/75 on AK100, is now comfortable at a setting of 30/75. Love that Cypher Theorem 720, but hate its hiss? Or find the gain on the 1st-gen Vorzüge Pure and DUO to be too aggressive for the IQ? IQ Pro straightens out most of that.

Then, its bass never bottoms out like the IQ’s does. It retains, full and round in spite of the sound pressure coming through even the rowdiest of mid and high bass frequencies. Still, that bass remains elevated over the mids, but just slightly so. As a result, IQ Pro’s mids are able to jump out more than the IQ’s mids. Most midrange pressure comes an octave below the busiest transitions into high frequencies. Vocals are incredibly clear and sharp. Strings, friends: strings are to do for. Like the IQ, decay is quick, and transition zones are seamless. Highs aren’t hugely different to IQ’s highs. But taken in context of IQ Pro’s milder gestalt, the overall feel of the IQ is younger, and raunchier. And yet when in its element, IQ is truly great. But IQ is greater more of the time.

IQ Pro has all the good of the IQ and almost none of its bad. It is more laid back, more mature. In a way, it is HiFi, not Car-Fi. I feel that it is fair to put it on a level with both versions of Dita Audio’s The Answer.

Conclusion

Put simply, it’s just a cable and some bass that separate the two earphones. If your music doesn’t jump too much in the bass region, IQ may be a good bet. Just change out the god-awful ear tips that come with it. If your catalog of favorite tunes is stuffed with high-strung bassy stuff, IQ’s low headroom may ruffle your feathers. It has mine. Then again, it may not. It’s a hit-and-miss thing. And yet I can say with all honesty that I prefer IQ Pro to IQ.

And the IQ Pro’s insensitivity to hiss and dirty sources deserves attention. Of course, if you need every last dollop of volume from your phones, IQ is the better bet.

The deciding factor for many may be the detachable cable. IQ and IQ Pro’s cables, while strong, while resilient to the nasties of biology and the environment, lack something in ergonomics and practicality to aftermarket options.

So at the end of this back and forth, I’m left wondering: when will IQ be updated with the internal spec of the IQ Pro? As an audiophile, I’d love the freedom of an interchangeable cable. And as an audiophile, I’d love the lower sensitivity, and larger overhead given by the Pro. Still, I love both. I hate both. I have dreamt of both. I’ve had nightmares of both. These earphones have etched an indelible scratch on my brain.

Spec: IQ
Driver: 2-way hybrid technology:

High performance BA-Driver + 8 mm dynamic driver

Frequency range: 17 Hz – 21 kHz

Impedance: 20 Ohm

Sensitivity (@1 kHz) SPL at 0,1V: 106 dB

maximum output (SPL): 119 dB

Weight: 10 g


Spec: IQ Pro
BA-Driver + 8 mm dynamic driver

Frequency range: 17Hz – 21kHz

Impedance: 20 ohm

Sensitivity (@1 kHz) SPL at 0.1V: 101 dB

Maximum output (SPL): 114 dB

Weight: 10 g

4.1/5 - (20 votes)
Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedin

Back before he became the main photographer for bunches of audio magazines and stuff, Nathan was fiddling with pretty cool audio gear all day long at TouchMyApps. He loves Depeche Mode, trance, colonial hip-hop, and raisins. Sometimes, he gets to listening. Sometimes, he gets to shooting. Usually he's got a smile on his face. Always, he's got a whisky in his prehensile grip.

6 Comments

  • Reply March 15, 2015

    ohm image

    Really?

    • Reply August 9, 2015

      Shoghi Sadeghi Afshar

      For Trance Is there any other iems you would recommend over the IQ Pro (at any price)? I love balanced sound btw. So do you know how some other iems compare, like Sony Z5, DN2000J, IE800, Westone W60, etc, basically I’m asking what is your all time favorite iem for Trance music.

  • Reply September 29, 2015

    derSchallhoerer

    Do you still use your IQ’s, Nathan? I ordered the Pro today. I’m curious if they can compete with my Stagediver 2.

    • Reply October 20, 2015

      ohm image

      I still do use them. I even love them. I’ve met a number of people that really dislike them. And a number of people that really like them. These are very divisive phones.

      The Pro are quite different: no bottoming out, softer highs.

      Is it the Pro or the regular IQ that you dislike? My guess is that it is down to personal preferences. I’m part of the CK10/DT880/ER4 posse. IQ is a wilder evolution of each.

      If you’re not part of that posse, I understand. I’m glad you got return.

  • Reply September 30, 2015

    derSchallhoerer

    Got them today, listened for 2 hours and repacked them. What a waist of money. I really don’t know what Nathan heard in them. Not only that the packaging looks incredibly cheap (not that it really matters, still strange though) but they also sound like some 100-150 EUR IEM’s and not like 450 EUR. Thank God for Amazon and their Money-Back Service.

    BTW: I got a good seal and know when something sounds “off” because of lack of isolation. But they just don’t sound good to me at all.

    • Reply October 20, 2015

      ohm image

      For clarification: did you get Pro or regular IQ? I’m sorry you didn’t like them. Like I said: it’s really a personal thing. Even Joker likes them. But I see where and why you could hate them.

      I think when using them in genres that don’t ruin their low bass overhead and don’t excite highs too much, they are lovely. But then again, they can be problematic.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.