[phonomat]

Okay, best to start at the beginning; bear with me, this might take a while, but hopefully not *too* long. So, when I first joined in 2013, it seemed like every other avatar consisted of two transparent red stones. I, being a total noob at the time, had no idea what they were, but I sure knew I liked the look of them. Well, it didn't take a lot of research to identify them as Ultimate Ears CIEMs. From what I could gather, they company was held in high esteem by most everyone, heralded as great innovators always at the front of the driver race, having introduced state-of-the-art, cutting edge technologies ... As for me at the time, I appreciated that something outré like §1000 earphones existed, I cherished the concept, but not in my wildest dreams would I have entertained the idea of ever spending that much money on something so small. People who actually went out of their way to have some sort of goo squished into their ears and then wait months for their 'phones to arrive struck me as a little ... well, excentric. I went for some Westone 3's and got the hell out of here. But I knew one thing: If I was ever going to be rich and/or crazy enough to try something like this, my CIEMS would have the UE signet on them.
 
Fast forward two years (i.e. eons in tech time), and in one way the game seems to have totally changed while on the other hand it is almost as time stood still. There are companies that keep churning out (C)IEMs with eight, ten, twelve drivers like it's nothing ... and there's Ultimate Ears. If I am not mistaken, the company's latest product must have come out about the time when I stumbled upon this very site for the first time, even a little earlier, not counting the UE PRM. The flagship in the PRO line, the UE 18 PRO, has been introduced in 2010. Again, that is AGES when it comes to tech stuff! Consequently, there are no newer threads here on UE products. The company seems to have quietly slipped out of head-fi'ers' collective minds, politely standing by while companies like JH Audio or Noble have risen to divide the cake between themselves. Please do correct me if I'm wrong here, perhaps I'm missing something. Is my impression wrong? Or have they just stopped doing any R&D? Where is the new UE flagship with twelve, ten, heck, even eight drivers? Do they simply decline to participate in the ol' rat race? Do they, like Bartlyby the scrivener, just say: "I would prefer not to"?
 
I do, of course, have a motive to ask this. Even though I like to think of myself as being perhaps a little crazy, but certainly not rich, I had a couple of years to work and earn some money, a "round" birthday came about, I thought I might treat myself to something special ... and finally decided to make the jump to CIEMS to finally see/hear what alle the shiny happy people are on about. (Yeah, it didn't take me *that* long to go from "you all crazy" to "me want" -- thanks, Head-Fi!) Being perhaps a little crazy, but not enough to buy without trying, I ventured to seek out a dealer in Munich, where I live. As luck would have it, there is an audiologist here who also carries a small selection of CIEMs. AFAIK, they have products from two German manufacturers, Vision Ears and InEar, as well as ... the whole Ultimate Ears product range. So, it comes down to one of these models, since I'm not up for a blind (read: deaf) bargain.
 
What I'm currently losing sleep over is this: I like a fair amount of bass in my music, so I figure the UE11 might be to my liking. BUT: that thing is ALMOST TEN YEARS OLD by now. That's ANCIENT!!! Is it technically up to par? Of the four drivers it has, two are reserved for bass output, if I'm not mistaken, so mathematically speaking, there would not be an awful lot left, correct? Also, I read some reviews that stated that the 11 was sort of overpriced even when it was still brand new and is more or less a fancy basshead 'phone and that you could get almost the same performance out of a more contemporary IEM for *way* less cash. And the price difference to the "new" flagship, UE 18, is only a measly € 200, which is almost negligible once you find yourself in these lofty regions. Then again, I'm afraid the 18 might be lacking in bass for my taste. Well, I guess that I can find out about. But can it still compete with offerings like JH's Siren Series or Noble Kaiser?  I suspect I would need the bass of the 11, but I just can't wrap my head around the fact that they would not lower the price on a CIEM that is EIGHT FRIGGIN' YEARS OLD! I guess my main question is this: Are people still buying these things? Or would I be making a fool out of myself and basically throw money out of the window? I feel like an Heir Audio 8.A or something by JH or even Noble might suit my needs better, but I just can't bring myself to dole out the cash for something I haven't heard in advance, so it seems like i'm stuck with UE. I guess there are worse spots you could find yourself in, but it certainly isn't ideal. I just wish they would come out with something fresh. As it is, I'm afraid of buyer's remorse or at least a lessened joy because I would not get to experience the feeling that I have the newest and latest sxxt -- and be it just for two weeks.
 
So, how do/did you acquire your first CIEM, everyone? Did you have a chance to try before buying or did you just take the leap of faith? And do you think it might be worth waiting for a new UE CIEM? Will there ever be one? Or are they satisified with selling BOOMS and MEGABOOMS and ROLLS? Are CIEMS, being a  niche market, just less lucrative and not worth the effort? Or is it the other way around, and sales of the CIEMS are, unbeknownst to me, so steady that they are just satisfied with the status quo? Somehow, I just can't imagine that.
 
Anyway, excuse the rant, and I hope you can enlighten me. Hopefully my questions are not all too dumb. And if they are, perhaps someone can at least show me the elephant in the room.
 
Thanks!

 

[H20Fidelity]

To my understanding, Ultimate Ears was once owned by Jerry Harvey who semi recently sold the company to Logitech who took on the name Ultimate Ears in continuation. Jerry then moved on to create (JH) Jerry Harvey Audio and Logitech don't really focus as much or as seriously as Jerry once did under the same name. Please keep in mind this may not be entirely correct, though what I've come to understand and I'm going to give you some directions.
 
Your questions is quite past the levels for an introductions thread, I suggest you start searching some of the main CIEM threads and pasting your questions. Alternatively, you could private msg project86 who uses many customs and may fill you in with this history and personal recommendations as he's tried a heap of CIEM.
 
Project86 profile: http://www.head-fi.org/u/51179/project86  
 
its true though, many companies are popping up everywhere, Vision Ears, Noble, Earwerkz, the list goes on.

 

[jjcha]

  So, how do/did you acquire your first CIEM, everyone? Did you have a chance to try before buying or did you just take the leap of faith?

 
It is by definition a leap of faith.  The universals sound fairly different from what you end up getting.
 
You are way too paranoid about the age of the technology.  Yes, when it comes to IEMs stuff gets better, but we're talking incremental improvements at best.  I wouldn't hesitate to buy a CIEM whose design is a decade old, especially as you seem to be concerned about price.
 
Having said that, I owned a UE11 Pro for a whiles, before eventually losing them.  They were fine.  Didn't blow me away compared to other custom IEM.  I find I like my JH13 Pros a lot more.  Every so often I think I should upgrade my JH13s, but that's more for better treble than bass.  I have a feeling that would cost me $2.5k in the form of the Layla, but given my current IEM usage is only maybe once or twice a year, it's not all that compelling.

 

[ProtegeManiac]

 
What I'm currently losing sleep over is this: I like a fair amount of bass in my music, so I figure the UE11 might be to my liking. BUT: that thing is ALMOST TEN YEARS OLD by now. That's ANCIENT!!! Is it technically up to par? Of the four drivers it has, two are reserved for bass output, if I'm not mistaken, so mathematically speaking, there would not be an awful lot left, correct? Also, I read some reviews that stated that the 11 was sort of overpriced even when it was still brand new and is more or less a fancy basshead 'phone and that you could get almost the same performance out of a more contemporary IEM for *way* less cash. And the price difference to the "new" flagship, UE 18, is only a measly € 200, which is almost negligible once you find yourself in these lofty regions. Then again, I'm afraid the 18 might be lacking in bass for my taste. Well, I guess that I can find out about. But can it still compete with offerings like JH's Siren Series or Noble Kaiser?  I suspect I would need the bass of the 11, but I just can't wrap my head around the fact that they would not lower the price on a CIEM that is EIGHT FRIGGIN' YEARS OLD! I guess my main question is this: Are people still buying these things? Or would I be making a fool out of myself and basically throw money out of the window? I feel like an Heir Audio 8.A or something by JH or even Noble might suit my needs better, but I just can't bring myself to dole out the cash for something I haven't heard in advance, so it seems like i'm stuck with UE. I guess there are worse spots you could find yourself in, but it certainly isn't ideal. I just wish they would come out with something fresh. As it is, I'm afraid of buyer's remorse or at least a lessened joy because I would not get to experience the feeling that I have the newest and latest sxxt -- and be it just for two weeks.

 

The HD600 has been in production since, what, the mid-1990s? There are people on Head-Fi who were babies at the time it came out, and it's still in production. Sure, it has dropped in price, but Sennheiser can churn out thousands of them from the factory whereas CIEMs have a very low production run and comparatively very slow production process.

It's not just the HD600, it's just that it's one of the oldest headphones still in production. You can go into headphones that are out of production but still sought after, like the K1000 - which to us now is like harking back at the 1969 Mustang "Boss" 429 in post-oil embargo November 1973.

 

Chances are those earspeakers are older than that kid, depending on when that photo was taken.

 
If anything the real improvements over the past few years have been easier to use planars (and amps to match). With CIEMs there isn't really any new groundbreaking tech - at best you can get a hybrid DD+BA CIEM. You could look into those so they use drivers that do what they do best - dynamic drivers for pounding bass lines and balanced armature for smoother midrange and treble response.