[MrNodi]

I'm also in the proceedure of deciding on a pair of IEM's for mixing & mastering at the moment. There seems to be a wealth of useful information surrounding most IEM's, but very little given from a sound engineers perspective. I am looking for a pair of customs, as i've decided that they're worth the extra initial outlay for what they offer, but deciding on which set has the transparent sound signature that i'm looking for can be quite difficult. Ultimate Ears 'Reference Monitors' seem an excellent choice, particularly as they were tuned with sound engineering as the main focus. However I've recently taken a serious interest in the Unique Melody 'Miracles', after reading some shining reviews. Both IEM's are well on the way towards £1000, but if you're still interested i'd fully recommend you check them out.

 

[keynote]

From what I have already heard (and I have SE 3-way Reference, which I love), I'd get really interested in SE 5-way Reference also: http://www.spiralear.com/en/products/se5-reference/

http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/541494/custom-iem-resource-thread-summary-reviews-info-custom-iem-manufacturers

 

[s1rrah]

Great question; appreciate the candor.
 
I've been recording live music and mixing studio tracks for a long while, now ... about 20 years, and at the "prosumer" level.
 
Short answer ... research the Shure SE535 if you want a pretty damn accurate/neutral universal IEM; I've been using Shure mics for years and the pedigree of their upper rank IEM's does not fall far from their traditional approach of catering to music creating professionals (ie > neutrality first, accuracy first while designing a driver set that can be EQ'd from here to kingdom come should one want to experiment with different sounds.) 
 
Also, the upper end from JH Audio (should you desire to move beyond the 500 dollar mark) cannot be overlooked. Seems I remember a Head-fi.org front page notice that JH Audio is producing a new IEM *specifically* for audio mastering purposes but for the life of me I can't find the add ... but just check out their website.
 
But for the 500 dollar range? And specifically for audio mastering/production, I can unabashedly recommend the Shure SE535 (or even better if you don't mind non-detachable cables) the Shure SE530 which has the same driver set but no detachable cable ... and it can be found online in the 250 dollar range (the best deal in IEM's in my opinion but then again I'm biased by my music production background). Another aspect of the Shure 535/530 IEM's that I absolutely love is the fact that they retain their solidity and discipline to insanely high volumes; this is more so because I enjoy demo'ing tracks under a gazillion different listening scenarios, among them being, Uber Loud(tm) ... than it is because I actually enjoy listening at perforation levels ... ... and the Shure's just go and go ... never heard any distortion, no matter the forced volume ... 
 
Good luck.
 
.joel
 
PS : no personal experience but I've also read a lot of good things about the sensaphonic phones.

 

[MrNodi]

 
Quote:

From what I have already heard (and I have SE 3-way Reference, which I love), I'd get really interested in SE 5-way Reference also: http://www.spiralear.com/en/products/se5-reference/

http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/541494/custom-iem-resource-thread-summary-reviews-info-custom-iem-manufacturers

Those Spiral Ears look interesting, I've never heard of them before.

 

[keynote]

Quote:

 


Those Spiral Ears look interesting, I've never heard of them before.

Based on the ones I have, I can highly recommend them.
 

 

[gregsq]

The spiral ears do look interesting. Effective moving mass even with armatures that incorporate a fair bit of iron is relevant even at these small dimensions. So the 'super tweeter' looks interesting. ( The best transients I can accomplish at the high end in ordinary loudspeakers are with some ribbons I have that are 8Kg of ferrous magnets concentrated in a tiny airgap filled with a sliver of custom ribbon material that floats like a feather. )
 
I need to hear crossover solutions though. Phase shift can't be physically compensated at these dimensions ( at least without some serious curved space ) though, so I'll be interested to hear the effect of them.
 
Reading some reviews, the JH Audio JH16PRO's do get praise, so thats another I'm going to look at. The Sensaphonics may or may not. There is said to be some colouration with these. But I'll investigate these further, and now take opinions as I should. As ones subjective point of view.
 
With the Shures, thats a difficult one. In many of the posts here, they are quoted in shoot outs that tend to concentrate on the listening preferences of music appreciators, rather than for their analytic characteristics, which monitors for this purpose need to have.
 
But their ability to take punishment is not a surprise, given the companies record.
 
Still looking!!

 

[calipilot227]

Quote:

Calipilot227, I have a question for you given your rigs. I know the Grado / Allessandro sound pretty well, as well as the Sennheisser. My HD580's are wider in soundstage than the Grado's, maybe you'll agree, but otherwise reduced front to back, and this characterstic can really mislead with instrument depth. How would you describe the aural view you get from the UM3X's you have.

I would say that the UM3X doesn't exactly have a huge soundstage (pretty difficult to achieve with an IEM), but it's better than many other IEMs out there. I would say that it's on par with the Triple.fi 10 (haven't heard the IE8). The UM3X has a narrower soundstage, but it is still fairly deep (front to back) and instrument separation is very good. I have never found them to be congested in busy passages.
 

 

[Eric_C]

Interesting point on the soundstage. How wide a soundstage would be necessary for mixing on IEMs? What would be an example of an IEM with an appropriately sized one?
 
OP: JH16 has been described by the company's founder, Jerry Harvey, as being akin to speakers you'd use to demo a track after mixing. The JH13 is what he compared studio monitors to.

 

[calipilot227]

Quote:

Interesting point on the soundstage. How wide a soundstage would be necessary for mixing on IEMs? What would be an example of an IEM with an appropriately sized one?
 
OP: JH16 has been described by the company's founder, Jerry Harvey, as being akin to speakers you'd use to demo a track after mixing. The JH13 is what he compared studio monitors to.

I remember reading somewhere (I'll remember later probably) that most closed monitoring/mixing headphones are deliberately designed to have minimal soundstage in order to maintain accuracy for mixing (same reason you wouldn't use bass-heavy headphones for monitoring). You actually want to hear the flaws in the recording so that you can correct them. This is probably why the ER4 and UM3X are popular for monitoring. (I hope this makes sense)
 

 

[ClieOS]

Try looking into j-phonic K2 SP. My review is here.

 

[JackKontney]

The j-phonic K2 is indeed an intriguing choice among universals.
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by gregsq /img/forum/go_quote.gif
 
The Sensaphonics may or may not. There is said to be some colouration with these. But I'll investigate these further, and now take opinions as I should. As ones subjective point of view.
 
Still looking!!

The 2X-S and 2MAX are, in fact, used as a reference standard by many touring monitor engineers, precisely because of their lack of coloration.
 
Check out this detailed review of the 2MAX.