Ultimate Ears Personal Reference Monitors: The *Custom* Custom In-Ear Monitor

[yjkimnada]

My question is they only have five drivers per ear.
How will they compare the jh16...
will jh audio create their own version for this?
etc

 

[Swimsonny]

5 vs 8 means nothing necessary. Tuning cross over does. We will have to wait and see, looking forward to Jude's impressions!

 

[yjkimnada]

oh...i see.
sorry i just joined the audiophle community
i was wondering what to buy as my first iem.
was thinkin bout the jh16 and this comes up..
DAYUM

 

[jude]

Quote:

That sounds like a process that could take days or even weeks considering your ears would have to first adjust to the new sound signature each time and certain headphones have to ability to grow on you while others impresses at first but are a disappointment later down the road. One would have to be very knowledgeable and know specifically the type of sound they are after. Nevertheless a very interesting concept indeed. 

 
Again, the process is straightforward, but I've given UE some minor suggestions that I think would help make the tuning process even more intuitive.
 
For me, there was a five- to ten-minute window that involved a lot of extreme left-right turning of the tuning knobs, just to get a handle on their effects, and the range of their effects. As I got more comfortable with my understanding of what they were doing to my music, I continued from there.
 
Given that I already have several custom IEMs of different sound signatures, I admit I was rather adventurous with my tuning of the PRM, not so much in terms of tonal balance overall, but especially in trying to tune out the left-right discrepancy of my own ears. I'm very curious to see how I did.

 

[Techno Kid]

This seems very interesting indeed, and for 2K I hope they put the tuning box in more locals because Nashville would be the closest place for me.  I've been looking into getting a custom for quite sometime now and though these are really expensive it sounds like something I'd be interested in getting.  The fact you can tune it to your preference awesome and I could see these being something I'd use for years and years, very cool.

 

[PorkStore]

It is very reasonable to take your time and adjust the knobs to understand their individual effects on the overall sound signature...once the effects are understood, then you tune to taste....you did the right thing Jude. It is definitely intended to make up for Left/Right deltas in one's hearing ability....so great work!

 

[Pepito]

This is crazy awesome. I think I would spend a few hours trying to decide what sound I would want. With something this customizable I feel like I would spend forever trying to get it "perfect" 

 

[Anaxilus]

Sub'd!

 

[slwiser]

With these no one could claim your iem is not neutral..
They would always be neutral for the owner.
This is a benefit of the black box iem.

 

[Llloyd]

man i was ready to instantly buy them until i saw the price tag that's too much for a custom for me.  I was hoping for something around 1200.  Looks really amazing though.

 

[Joshatdot]

I don't get these things .. custom/personal sonically tuned?  basiclly a IEM with an EQ?  Also the sound will change when you change sources.

 

[imackler]

Quote:

Also the sound will change when you change sources.

I wonder. Do you bring your source in with you? 

 

[catscratch]

Al I see is endless potential for people to mess up their sonic preferences and then complain about it afterwards.

Intrinsically, I don't think this is a bad idea at all, especially for professionals that have some degree of uneven hearing loss. This way they'll have something pre-tuned to them that doesn't need a separate equalizer to fix.

 

[ChrisSC]

I wonder how much UE will charge for re-tunings? Seems to me like a good amount of people will second-guess their preferences once they get their customized CIEMs back and want a do-over

 

[CEE TEE]

This is a cool new concept and would really help in the case of getting a complimentary CIEM or after spending enough time with one pair- knowing what you want out of your next pair.

Or, listening to YOUR recordings and tuning for the range of recordings that you listen to!

Also exciting is the move towards tunable CIEMs in the future...

(And I would absolutely love wood faceplates!)