Review: Ultimate Ears Custom “In-Ear” Personal Monitor System

 

When you think of a musicians monitor system, what comes to mind are huge PA System Monitors or stage equipment that blasts out the beats in defining levels or bulky headphones that can’t be used on stage because wires can get tangled or they fall off during a performance. As a musician, a drummer specifically, it was hard to hear what I was playing without having to aim the monitors directly at my head, which often made it hard to do what I needed to do without having to spend three hours or more after the performance hoping to get my hearing back. Recently while at the 2012 NAMM convention in Anaheim, I was excited to learn about and get fitted for a revolution in personal monitoring systems. The Ultimate Ears Custom “In-Ear” Personal Monitor System by Logitech is, I feel is what a personal monitor system is and should be- perfection!

 

 

The Ultimate Ears Custom “In-Ear” Personal Monitor System is designed to give the wearer the ability to hear music in its perfect tone and level, in short, it brings the music to you directly into the inner ear canal, no need raise the volume to damaging levels or try to listen for missed sounds while trying to “focus” on the part that you are trying to hear. Using the UE Custom System, you hear every note, sound and effect, and with the system being custom fitted to fit your ears perfectly, it also cancels out background noise so you only hear what you want. The word “Headphones” does not do the UE System justice, headphones cover the ear, but don’t focus the sounds into the ear and in addition, headphones mask and muffle pure sound because of the foam or cloth covers they have. The UE System may appear to be similar to ear-buds or ear plugs, but that is where the similarities end, because they are designed for perfect tone and pitch, they carry the music’s ambience and soft tones into the ear, so you hear more than Bass or High Notes, you hear all the tones High, Lows and Mids.

 

Here is an excerpt from the UE Website,

The Ultimate Ears In-Ear Reference Monitors are designed for professional studio engineers and producers for use during recording, mixing and mastering original music content. Other applications include FOH venue tuning, live recording and mixing. This is also an excellent product for “audiophile” or serious music listener because of its natural and authentic sound reproduction.

The Ultimate Ears In-Ear Reference Monitors are an industry first and are a combination of the Ultimate Ears pro audio sound along with a flat frequency response curve that has been developed & tuned in collaboration with the historic and widely respected Capitol Studios engineering team. The Ultimate Ears In-Ear Reference Monitors allow the user to record, mix and master anywhere, anytime because they provide up to -32 dB of noise isolation. Since they are noise isolating, there is no need to be concerned with environmental acoustics and noise. Lightweight and portable, they can be used as an honest base line reference source when recording and mixing in unfamiliar venues. In addition, they can be used on an airplane, in the waiting room or anywhere you can find time to work!

If you demand nothing but the best for recording, mixing or mastering, the Ultimate Ears In-Ear Reference Monitors provide the comfort, quality and sound that our professional artists and engineers have come to expect since 1995. They combine a new proprietary design featuring three speaker balanced armature speakers. Other new technology includes a rugged low profile, low distortion cable, dual acoustically tuned sound channels and multiple passive crossover points creating the ultimate in separation, detail and clarity.

 

Technical Specifications

Input Sensitivity: 98 dB @ 1 kHz

Efficiency: 112 dB @ 1 kHz, 1mW

Frequency Response: 5 Hz to 20,000 Hz

Impedance: 21 ohms @ 1 kHz

Internal Speaker Configuration: 3 proprietary precision balanced armatures

Noise Isolation: -26 dB (100% acrylic housing) and -32 dB (soft silicone material option)

Input Connector: ¼” jack adapter gold plated; 3 pole 1/8" (3.5 mm) standard jack

 

So, like I said, I was fitted for the UE4 Personal Monitors and after sitting in a chair with the Audiologist for less than 20 min, they made a perfect mold of my ear canals, and set them off to be made. Within 3 weeks my UE set arrived, and I would like to say this is not normal, they usually arrive much sooner, mine were delayed due to the high volume of orders at the NAMM convention. Upon arrival I used My UE Set for listening to some albums I was reviewing. The sound was incredible, I was able to hear everything and on each album, whether Classical to Metal, every note was audible, I missed nothing. I then went into my home studio and tested on the mixing table while I remixed some tracks I had from when I played drums with a band back in the 90’s, and I tell you, I wish I had the UE Set back then, not only did I hear parts of the song where “I should have” been better, but I found parts that were missed in the mix and would have made the tracks better.

 

 

Want to see who else feels the same about the UE System like I do, Click Here and see the professionals that trust their ears and their music to the Logitech Ultimate Ears Custom “In-Ear” Personal Monitor System. Logitech and the UE System do have many other quality models that are not custom and fit any and every budget or price point. Logitech and the UE designers have created units that can be purchased in locations such as Best Buy for use with personal digital players, computers and sound systems for the average home user that, even though are store bought, meet the quality and sound conscious levels of the UE Custom System, you can learn more about the consumer lines here: http://www.logitech.com/en-us/ue. Your hearing matters, using quality designed products that protect your hearing as well as promotes hearing music and tones better is the only logical choice, and so is Logitech’s Ultimate Ears Custom “In-Ear” Personal Monitor System.

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