Altec Lansing UHP606 Backbeat Pro Reference Earphones (Black/Gold)

Comment: The sound quality was far below my Skullcandy's that I paid $10 for.
The Left one popped and was half the volume of the right one.
The earbuds are not comfortable at all.
Customer Service at Altec Lansing was super nice but after 3 trys still hadn't sent my replacements.
I have returned to Amazon and will buy SkullCandy.

Comment: I consider myself an audiophile enthusiast who love trying different earbuds/IEM. I having own more than a dozen different IEMs/earbuds. So when I saw a deal $20 for an IEM bearing $99 MSRP, I took the bait.

Before this one, I own a pair of UHP306 which is the lowest model in this series (306, 326, 606, but not 336 which is a cloned UE fi.3). I am expecting a much better sound from the 606 with armature design. The UHP306 sounds very much like something I paid $15 for, decent lows/mid/highs, lacks some clarity, not a bad replacement/upgrade of the one comes with your mp3 player.

When I received the UHP606, I could not wait to try it on my beloved Sandisk Fuze. But the minute I put UHP606 into my ear, I was very disappointed. It sounds even WORSE than UHP306: no bass, no treble, mid-range is warm but muddy. I thought, well, maybe it needs some burn-in time. So I plugged it to my desktop, played a whole week 24/7. That is more than what I usually do on new phones. And my experience is: if the headphone/IEM/earbud sounds bad out of the package, it is crap no matter how long the burn-in is. After playing continuously for 150 hours, the UHP606 still sounded bad, really bad. Any improvement? Maybe, but very subtle. So I am sending it back. For $20, I would choose sound-magic PL-30, which I think is the best choice for IEM under $20.


PS: I don't know how AL names its products. One of my favorite UHP336 (under $50, of course) does not belong to UHP306/326/606 series. Some people said UHP606 is also a UE OEM, they are wrong! Another Altec Lansing IEM that I like is the iM606 (Etymotic OEM): beautiful mids and highs, very detailed and musical.

Comment: A few nights ago, I happened to be browsing eBay for some reason and in that time, I came across the Altec Lansing Backbeat Pro IEMs. I did some research on them and saw that the MSRP was about $100 but they were retailing at most online retailers I saw (including Amazon) for about $30. Apparently, Altec Lansing has a number of IEMs on the market and many of them are simply rebranded versions of IEMs from Ultimate Ears with the Backbeat Pros being Altec Lansing's version of the Super.fi 4 IEMs from Ultimate Ears. After doing a little more research into the sound quality, I said "what the heck" and ordered them.

First off, I was immediately slapped in the face by the midrange presentation. The midrange is the dominant frequency range on these IEMs by quite a bit and is very forward and aggressive. Because of this, it's also somewhat fatiguing. I did notice a tiny bit of harshness when listening to some busy tracks. High end and treble is in many ways, similar to the midrange in that it too is quite aggressive. Treble is sharp and sparkly and pretty much devoid of harshness but it's also somewhat edgy and fatiguing. The low end on the other hand is somewhat recessed and lacking in comparison. Bass is there and makes its presence known when it needs to but it lacks in quantity in sub-bass levels and there's a prominent midbass hump. Texture and definition are also lacking in regards to the low end.

Upon taking them out of the box, I wasn't wowed by the clarity of these IEMs because they sounded somewhat veiled to my ears, despite the aggressiveness of the midrange. After a few hours of listening to them with various types of music, the veil seems to have been lifted. In comparison to the RE0s, my benchmark in terms of overall sound quality and clarity, the Backbeat Pros can't compete but they are still very clear to my ears. Soundstaging is less impressive, as it is pretty narrow but separation is good. The result of this somewhat narrow soundstage is a very intimate listening experience.

Overall, the sound signature is pretty good, if surprisingly aggressive. While the low end doesn't impress, the quality of the mids and highs goes a long way towards making up for it. I will say that the Backbeat Pros sound a tad artificial and, in a word, clinical in comparison to my other IEMs. This may just be one of the cons of the balanced armature design and it's not something that I consider a big turn off.

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't at least partially impressed by the Backbeat Pros. Fit and comfort are surprisingly great and I can hardly feel the IEMs in my ears when using the standard single flange eartips. Sonic performance is good considering the current retail price, which typically hovers around $30 but honestly, I'm having more fun with my M9Ps than I am with the Backbeat Pros. In my current collection, these are in a strange position. When I'm in the mood for fun, I'm going to reach for my M9Ps and when I want to feed my inner detail freak, I'm grabbing my RE0s. These are difficult to recommend in that regard. Are they good? Certainly. But at either end of the spectrum, there are better choices. I will say that these are probably going to be better than the M9Ps for some genres due to their emphasis on the mids as opposed to the low end so my advice is to give them a trial run and see how they work for you. Who knows? You may like what you hear.

Comment: After experimenting with the various size ear pieces I finally found the answer to the bass problem referenced by others: the bass is in the fit. With the right size ear piece the sound is well balanced across the spectrum. While not as good as my Bose QC2 over the ear headphones these babies are damn fine for the price.

Comment: I cannot believe these ear buds were $99 at some point. The treble is insane, not a trace of bass. I originally ordered the v-moda bass ear buds but they never came; however, I was offered a replacement set. Since i had these coming I declined... oh boy what a mistake. Bad, bad, bad!