M-Audio IE Reference Earphones with Ultimate Ears Technology
M-Audio IE Reference Earphones with Ultimate Ears Technology
The story that starts with Van Halen and continues with you
The story that starts with Van Halen and continues with you
M-Audio’s IE-series reference earphones with Ultimate Ears technology represent the latest chapter in a story that has unfolded over the last 12 years. Before co-founding Ultimate Ears, Jerry Harvey toured as a monitor engineer with platinum-selling bands including Van Halen and KISS. When drummer Alex Van Halen demanded a better solution for the outdated wedge monitors that blasted his ears every night, Harvey evaluated—and discarded—the available in-ear options. He then leveraged his experience with high-performance live monitoring systems to engineer the first dual-driver, custom-fit earpieces. Alex Van Halen was amazed by the result.
It wasn’t long before artists like k.d. lang, Aerosmith and Skid Row joined Van Halen as satisfied customers. To seize the opportunity, Jerry Harvey teamed with Mindy—his wife at the time—and founded Ultimate Ears. Today, the company boasts a large endorsee roster featuring diverse talents such as Stevie Wonder, Seal, Depeche Mode, Celine Dion, Norah Jones, Big & Rich, Bette Midler, Julio Iglesias and many more.
“Most of the time, our artists say they've never heard their music like this before,” Jerry Harvey explains. “Because of the isolation, frequency response and headroom of these earpieces, most people are blown away by the audio quality.”
A state-of-the-art manufacturing facility lets Ultimate Ears maintain rigorous quality control over the custom product line. Each model is hand-assembled, hand-tuned and subjected to a dozen quality-control procedures. “We do things inside the earpiece that no one else does,” Harvey says. “We have a patent pending on the nozzle. There is a specific recipe we developed to get a two-way earpiece to resonate out to 16k, and if you change any one of those parameters it'll roll off at 8k. Even with boost and EQ, you'll never get anything above 8k out of that earpiece.”
From custom to universal fit
As you might expect, custom earphones—while worth every penny—carry a price tag beyond what many musicians can justify. Fortunately, Harvey and his team have leveraged their expertise in hand-crafting custom earpieces to create superior universal-fit earphones. In fact, many believe the Ultimate Ears technology built into M-Audio’s IE-10, IE-20 XB and IE-30 models is the best available on the market today. “We've taken everything we've learned about building custom monitors—the secret sauce, our intellectual property—and we've put that into the canal, the crossover network and everything inside the earpieces,” Harvey explains.
Like reference monitors, M-Audio IE professional earphones are designed with different types of listeners and budgets in mind. While the IE-10 represents the entry level of the line, one listen will confirm that there is no finer monitoring experience available at this price. Like all IE models, the IE-10 includes a universal fit kit to ensure a tight seal, which is critical in reproducing bass frequencies and providing isolation from outside sound.
The IE-10 and IE-30 both deliver 26dB of isolation, which is enough to render a noisy airplane flight almost silent. Where the IE-10 uses a single driver, the IE-30 employs separate drivers and aural canals for the highs and lows, complete with a crossover—just like premium monitors. As a result, the IE-30 delivers an amazing 20Hz-16kHz frequency response.
Like the IE-30, the IE-20 XB features dual-driver technology. In addition, the IE-20 XB boasts an extended low end designed especially for dance music. So if you’re used to monitoring on a system with a subwoofer, the IE-20 XB effectively places a sub inside your head for critical listening anywhere you like.
In M-Audio’s partnership with Ultimate Ears, Jerry Harvey’s original solution has developed into a complete line of professional reference earphones for mobile and performing musicians of all types. IE models with Ultimate Ears technology are perfect for making music on the go, in addition to providing an alternative to stage monitors. And you’ll never be satisfied using standard earbuds with your personal music player again.
It wasn’t long before artists like k.d. lang, Aerosmith and Skid Row joined Van Halen as satisfied customers. To seize the opportunity, Jerry Harvey teamed with Mindy—his wife at the time—and founded Ultimate Ears. Today, the company boasts a large endorsee roster featuring diverse talents such as Stevie Wonder, Seal, Depeche Mode, Celine Dion, Norah Jones, Big & Rich, Bette Midler, Julio Iglesias and many more.
“Most of the time, our artists say they've never heard their music like this before,” Jerry Harvey explains. “Because of the isolation, frequency response and headroom of these earpieces, most people are blown away by the audio quality.”
A state-of-the-art manufacturing facility lets Ultimate Ears maintain rigorous quality control over the custom product line. Each model is hand-assembled, hand-tuned and subjected to a dozen quality-control procedures. “We do things inside the earpiece that no one else does,” Harvey says. “We have a patent pending on the nozzle. There is a specific recipe we developed to get a two-way earpiece to resonate out to 16k, and if you change any one of those parameters it'll roll off at 8k. Even with boost and EQ, you'll never get anything above 8k out of that earpiece.”
From custom to universal fit
As you might expect, custom earphones—while worth every penny—carry a price tag beyond what many musicians can justify. Fortunately, Harvey and his team have leveraged their expertise in hand-crafting custom earpieces to create superior universal-fit earphones. In fact, many believe the Ultimate Ears technology built into M-Audio’s IE-10, IE-20 XB and IE-30 models is the best available on the market today. “We've taken everything we've learned about building custom monitors—the secret sauce, our intellectual property—and we've put that into the canal, the crossover network and everything inside the earpieces,” Harvey explains.
Like reference monitors, M-Audio IE professional earphones are designed with different types of listeners and budgets in mind. While the IE-10 represents the entry level of the line, one listen will confirm that there is no finer monitoring experience available at this price. Like all IE models, the IE-10 includes a universal fit kit to ensure a tight seal, which is critical in reproducing bass frequencies and providing isolation from outside sound.
The IE-10 and IE-30 both deliver 26dB of isolation, which is enough to render a noisy airplane flight almost silent. Where the IE-10 uses a single driver, the IE-30 employs separate drivers and aural canals for the highs and lows, complete with a crossover—just like premium monitors. As a result, the IE-30 delivers an amazing 20Hz-16kHz frequency response.
Like the IE-30, the IE-20 XB features dual-driver technology. In addition, the IE-20 XB boasts an extended low end designed especially for dance music. So if you’re used to monitoring on a system with a subwoofer, the IE-20 XB effectively places a sub inside your head for critical listening anywhere you like.
In M-Audio’s partnership with Ultimate Ears, Jerry Harvey’s original solution has developed into a complete line of professional reference earphones for mobile and performing musicians of all types. IE models with Ultimate Ears technology are perfect for making music on the go, in addition to providing an alternative to stage monitors. And you’ll never be satisfied using standard earbuds with your personal music player again.
