Disclaimer
: I am not affiliated with Unique Melody. This is my personal review about the Miracles. My experience about IEM’s is moderate since I’m an IEM guy ever since. I currently have two CIEM as of the moment (UM Mage and UM Miracles).
Build Quality: I went with the new color which is dark blue from faceplate to the tips. The build quality of my Miracles is topnotch. The shell is smooth and free of bubbles. However, there is only slight flaw on the socket of the left earpiece where you can see the difference from the other earpiece (See picture below). Beyond that, everything is flawless.
Service: I can only take into consideration mostly for the part of UM Philippines, courtesy of Doc Rj and Sir John, since they are the ones who personally communicated with me all throughout the process. UM Philippines service is great and responsive. They’ll reply to your message or email as soon as they are available. The turnaround time for my Miracles was 5 weeks. It was relatively fast and worry-free.
Packaging: I’m a bit off with the way UM packs their products. The outside presentation is good, hands down and you’ll already know that this is your order and your custom model. However, my concern was the included goodies inside. I just don’t find the new case of the UM Miracles useful. It seemed that it geared towards for home use only rather than for portable use. Opening the case and you’ll be greeted with the monitors but the internal layering of the case is white. White is prone to dirt and dust, making it less aesthetically cool in the future. I wish that UM would really settle with a case that combines portability and a color that would not make the case look awful in the future.
Setting aside the case, will give you a look to the FR graph, poster, product catalogue, metal warranty card and cleaning tool. The warranty card will show you the warranty period and serial number. The next concern about the packaging is the paper weight which shows you the model of your monitor. This is a 50-50 fun for me. The paper weight that is included is cool, yes you can use it but at the same time you might want to preserve the scratch-free body of the paper weight itself or prevent from falling from your desk. My paper weight is kept primarily inside the box to preserve its quality.
Fit and Comfort: The fit of my Miracles is spot-on. It’s a matter of having good impressions and using the proper bite block. The fit on my Miracles is really snug and I can’t hear a thing when riding a train or car (when the music is playing). I have used these monitors for about five hours straight (sweet spot volume) and there were no fatigue on my ears. Ear impressions really matter.
Sound Quality:
The highs of the Miracles are full of sparkle and detail. The sparkle of these earpieces are neither piercing nor creeping down to other frequencies. It did not overdo its audio reproduction with its sparkle, something to note for. It is also engaging and energetic. Nuances and detail retrieval is superb, you can hear those details crystal clear. Listening to the binaural songs of Amber Rubarth, the presented instruments which would fall under the highs category is really good and sublime. Something I would expect from the Miracles. The instrument separation of these is precise; you can moderately point where the instruments are. The Miracles is also great in blending with the same instruments. Take for example the group of violinists in an orchestra, the audio reproduction of Miracles with that group is excellent. Going to the drawbacks of the highs, the instrument separation is what I would like to have an improvement. I have stated earlier that there is a precise placing of the instruments but not accurate. You can tell where the instruments are but it is hard to tell how far they are from you.
Going to the mids, here I can safely say that Miracles really locked me for music listening. The mids of these monitors are neither forward nor laid-back. It is presented wherein you could listen carefully to the lyrics at the same time enjoying the other frequencies. The strumming of guitar and taps on the guitar is palpable. Listening to Chaka Khan, Luther Vandross and Josh Turner, the mids does not have any bias on male and female vocals, it sounded natural and life-like. However, there are some songs that would make you feel that the mids are laid-back or recessed. Take into the case of hip-hop genre, where the producer would intend to accentuate the bass and dip the mids. At some point you would feel that the sound signature of the Miracles is a V-shaped sound signature rather than being neutral.
Moving to the lows, the lows of the miracles still lies on the quality rather than the quantity. The quantity of these has much content than my Mages. The bass extension of the Miracles is really deep; it also has a solid transient attack and decay, excellent for trance and fast-hitting bass songs. The bass quantity essentially has more power and impact but it is not relatively that much of a strength of the Miracles. Watching the concert of Rihanna: Live at O2 (720p, DTS 5.1), I can feel the deep bass extension. It is prominent and has a quick decay. The only thing that I would ask for is the extra quantity to the lows (about 10% more). Try adding that extra punch then it would be better in my opinion. Setting the score for the soundstage, the stage of these earpieces is true to its marketing claim which is wide and tall. I didn’t find any problem with the soundstage of the miracles, it is accurate. Giving you a picture of the soundstage would be a perfectly sketched square with dimensions of 20 x 20, not unlike other soundstage presentation where it is a widescreen (sacrificing the tall soundstage for wide soundstage). It presented the soundstage with justice.
Is the Miracles worth it? Of course yes! It is an all-rounder custom. The best genres are acoustic, classical, country, trance and rock. I felt that UM Miracles should be priced at $1100 rather than $950. For its value and sound, I think it should be more than that. To sum it all up, here are the keywords for the Miracles.
Highs: Full of sparkle, detail, energetic and non-fatiguing
Mids: Natural and life-like
Lows: Deep extension, quick attack, decay and impressive soundstage
This is my review of the Unique Melody Miracles.
Thanks for taking time to read my review.