Getting the perfect seal on a pair ofwireless in-earsis the single biggest impact you can have on their sound quality – from delivering better bass to an improved sense of scale and volume, the importance a good fit should never be underestimated.
Traditionally, custom headphones have been the very best way of getting this fit down to a tee, but this has usually been reserved for musicians and those with enough money to throw at the issue. Even then, you’d need to visit a specialist for moulds and then wait for them to be made before you could get your hands on them. With the UE Fits, you can get a custom-fit design at home in 60 seconds.
The company has quite the history in custom-fit earphones market, so it knows a thing or two about what it takes to make them good. But do the UE Fits prove their worth over and above other buds at this price? We took a listen to find out.
The custom fit of the UE Fits make them some of the most secure and noise-isolating true wireless headphones we’ve ever tried, however we find their default sound setting a bit polite for our tastes. You’ll need to feel happy tweaking the EQ to hear them at their best.
The UE Fits look a little different than the majority of their competitors. Instead of the ever-popular Airpod-esque lollipop design or a more traditional all-in-one earbud, the eartip sits in the middle of a stem-like design, which you twist to fit into your ear. It means there is no stem hanging down outside of your ear, which helps them to feel quite secure and well balanced – even before you’ve run the moulding process.
Unboxing the UE Fits is quite a unique experience. The buds and case are in sealed tight in packaging to prevent any premature moulding, so you need to break the seal and peel off the protective layer to get the process started.
There are three colours to choose from – Dawn, our review sample, which is a pastel shade of purple, Cloud, which is white and Eclipse, which is black.
The buds themselves have a nice matte finish with a light-up UE logo on each – giving you at-a-glance details on battery level and pairing status – while the palm-sized pebble-shaped case has a more shiny finish, with the Ultimate Ears logo on the lid. This is charged via USB-C and only USB-C, as there is no wireless charging, which we can’t help but be a bit disappointed with at this price.
Getting the perfect fit
The moulding process is very straightforward. You’ll need to download the UE Fits app in order to get the action started, and then place the buds into the case to pair with your phone. Once that’s all done (it’s a case of following the instructions on the screen so nice and easy), you are prompted to put the buds into your ear and get a fit that feels comfortable.
In all honesty, the one-and-only supplied photopolymer eartip is pretty chunky, and also quite firm, so we weren’t able to get as snug and secure a fit at this stage as we are used to. But that’s when the magic happens…
Once you’re ready, the app will walk you through every step. You will need to put the buds in your ear and hold them in place while the ultraviolet LightForm technology does its thing. It takes about 60 seconds and you’ll feel a gentle warmth in your ears as it goes, as well as the buds glowing a bluey/purple colour for the duration.
You do feel a bit under pressure to make sure you’re holding them exactly where you want them to sit, because once the process is done, it can’t be repeated – with these eartips at least. If, after moulding, you feel they don’t fit quite right you can submit a request to receive new tips – we discovered UE even offer smaller or larger initial sizes as well, but you will have to request them and wait to receive them. A shortcut to this would be to include the different sizes in the box, but we’d suspect this is a cost decision.
While we suspect the smaller size may well have worked better for us, the standard fit absolutely improved after the moulding process, and we felt the buds shape - in real time - to fit much more snugly in our ears. To look at them, the shape isn’t drastically changed, but you do notice subtle bumps and indents where the buds have expanded to fit your exact ear shape.
They do just feel a little on the large side for our ears, and so it’s a bit hard to forget you’re wearing them. But they’re very comfortable, brilliantly noise isolating (particularly considering there is no ANC here) and stable too – these buds won’t budge an inch.
Outside of their self-moulding skills, the UE Fits are pretty straightforward in terms of their feature offering. As we mentioned, there’s no ANC – not that it’s missed – and no wireless charging for the case either, which is perhaps a bit more of a disappointment.
The buds are IPX3 rated, so can be used for exercise, and have customisable touch controls on each stem for tweaking volume, track and playback with a series of taps.
There’s no wear detection though, so your music will keep playing when you remove them, and since there’s no ANC, there’s no transparency mode either. That means you do end up taking these buds out a fair bit to have a quick chat, and so wear detection feels like it would’ve been a nice addition.
As far as battery life goes, you can expect a very respectable eight hours from the buds themselves on a single charge, with around 1.5 charges from the case for 20 hours in total. This is far from market leading, but should have the majority of people covered for some good chunky listening sessions over a full week.
Performance
So, now they fit your ears perfectly, how do they actually sound? Really quite nice, actually. For a start, you don’t really miss the lack of ANC here due to the fit doing the legwork in keeping external noise at arm’s length. Of course, there are limitations to this, but unless you want perfect silence – in which case you should absolutely invest in something likeBose’s Quietcomfort Earbuds II– this should see you somewhat aware but suitably unbothered by a lot of what’s going on around you.
In the UE Fits app, you are given a number of presets to play with, with the UE Signature being the default. The problem is, we aren’t blown away by it. There’s nothing offensive about it – in fact, it’s a very listenable presentation, but we’re left craving a bit more clarity through the midrange, and a bit more bite in the treble. It’s just a bit polite for our tastes, and we find ourselves pushing the volume all the way up to try and inject a bit of oomph to proceedings.
Don’t take that to mean these are boring though. There’s richness and rumble a-plenty in the bass, and it’s all very well controlled too, but a bit more punch wouldn’t go amiss, so you really feel the impact when those big bass notes land.
It’s similar in the top end – once again, the UE Fits offer up a largely clear and clean the treble, but are just lacking some snap that means the finger clicks in Billie Eilish’sBad Guycome across a bit flat. Vocals are also slightly set back in the mix, which – all in all – creates a rather easy-going, but soft-sounding presentation.
There is a touch of sibilance on some S sounds, that said. It’s not overly distracting for the most part, but does catch your ear at volume. If you’re battling weaker low-level dynamics by pushing these headphones louder, this is more likely to rear its head.
We delve into the EQ to see if we can squeeze a bit more attack out of them without bothering the volume key, and we can. With some subtle tweaks, we are able to get something that sounds much more forward and dynamic, without sounding pushed – but do go lightly with your adjustments to avoid this.
This might sound a bit overwhelming for some, but the five-point EQ is very accessible and you can hear the changes you make in real time, and easily go back a step or two if you make a mistake. Even a flat EQ proves a worthwhile addition to your presets, in our opinion.
With our changes in place, Hans Zimmer’sCornfield Chasehas much more presence, with improved clarity and fidelity that brings more detail and definition across the frequency range - but in particular the mids. Organ keys now seem to be played with more energy and there’s more texture and variance here too. There’s a greater sense of light and shade. As the song builds from quiet to loud, and soft to frenetic, the music keeps you informed at every step change, as it drives forwards with purpose to the big chaotic finale.
However, it’s fair to say these buds are more suited to our pop, rock and hip hop playlists than they are classical, and are at their best when given something upbeat that they can really get their teeth into. So back to Billie Eilish’sBad Guywe go, and sure enough, the low-end bounces along with a real keenness and confidence, while the breathy vocals are packed with plenty of fine detail and expression.
Reassuringly, the UE Fits have a firm hand on timing too, and even on the busiest of tracks, things are always kept in line. The various rhythmic elements of Chase and Status’No Problem, and the dynamic shifts between them, are kept in check individually, without sounding clinical – there’s still plenty of fun to be had here. For in-ear buds, there’s a decent soundstage too, so you can zone in on any element and hear it in isolation, without something else barging in.
The touch controls situated in the bud stem work reasonably well, and you can customise the taps and what they do (play/pause, next track, previous track or volume control) within the app. The app itself works pretty smoothly for the most part too, save for some lag (and the occasional flat out refusal) when switching between presets. Most listeners won’t be switching between them as often as we were to test though, so you probably won’t find this a problem.
There’s no doubt that UE Fits are a unique pair of headphones, and we love the potential this technology has. Without question, the buds fit our ears better once the moulding was done and provide exceptional noise isolation – just be aware there are other tips you can order from Ultimate Ears directly if you feel they are still a little on the large (or indeed, small) side once moulding is complete.
There aren’t a lot by way of other features though, and some – like wireless charging or wear detection – may feel missing at this sort of price.
From a sound perspective, these buds sound good but the UE Signature preset is a bit too mellow for our tastes – and there’s not a good all-round alternative out of the box either. At the moment, you’ll need to dig into the EQ yourself to get the best from them, but once you do, they absolutely deliver.
However, at $199/£200 the UE Fits have plenty of competition, and with buds like theSony WF-1000XM4available for the same price or less, you can arguably find better sound elsewhere. But if the custom fit appeals - as well it should - UE Fits offer a simple and more affordable way to jump on board from home. It’s almost quite fitting that to get the best from them, they require a custom sound to match.
