First Listen: Ultimate Ears UE Pro Reference Remastered CIEMS

If you spend much time in the company of serious high-performance earphone and CIEM enthusiasts you will inevitably encounter the famous Irvine, CA-based firm Ultimate Ears. During its formative years Ultimate Ears was a standalone specialist company exclusively producing custom-fit in-ear monitors (CIEMs) and a range of universal-earphones, though it would probably be fair that UE’s CIEMs are the products that really put the company on the high-end audio map. In more recent times, UE has been acquired by the consumer electronics powerhouse Logitech, with the result that part of the UE range has been spun off into a Logitech sub-brand whose products are often branded as “Logitech-UE” models. However, the original, highly performance-minded core of UE has continued under the name Ultimate Ears Pro, which to this day offers a broad range of CIEMs at various price and performance points, plus a very ambitious high-end universal-fit earphone called the UE900S.

Over the years, I’ve taken some time to get to know the UE team and have visited their production facility to learn more about their CIEM fabrication process. From those experiences, I’ve come to trust that UE will as matter of course put a terrific amount of thought, care, and planning into any new model it chooses to release. (UE model launches are never, ever haphazard or casual affairs; everything new product is designed to address a very specific market need and/or ‘mission profile’). I mention this point because I now have in my hands, er, ears, a sample of UE’s brand new UE Pro Reference Remastered custom-fit in-ear monitor, priced at $999.

To understand the role of the UE Pro Reference Remastered in the Ultimate Ears product lineup, a brief UE history lesson is in order. As of just a few months ago, the top three models in UE’s product range were as follows:

·      UE Personal Reference Monitors – or PRMs, for short ($1999). While all CIEMs are in a sense customised (because they offer a custom-moulded, user-specific fit), the PRM takes customisation to an almost unimaginable extreme in that it—get this—allows the owner to personally specify the precise voicing curves for both the left and right PRM earpieces (you read that correctly; the left and right earpieces can have completely different voicing curves, if desired). There is also a powerful element of visual personalisation, in that PRM earpieces are offered with gorgeous exotic hardwood endcaps that are not available on any other UE models. I own a pair of PRMs and can vouch for the fact that they’re pretty darned glorious, though of course I would say that inasmuch as their voicing curves were hand-tuned by me, for me.
 

·      UE Pro Reference Monitors—also known as the In-Ear Reference Monitors or IERMs, for short ($999). The IERM was, in its day, one of the most neutrally-voiced of all UE models and it also enjoyed the distinction of having been co-developed by UE and Capitol Studios, so that the IERM was—upon its inception—the only CIEM to receive Capitol’s blessing for use in recording (and mastering) studio monitoring applications. As you might expect, the IERMs traditionally have been audiophile favourites owing to their overarching tonal neutrality. I have a set of Pro Reference Monitors in my collection and can tell you they are wonderful CIEMs for multi-genre music listening sessions in that they are fundamentally honest and impose very little in the way of unwanted tonal colourations on the music. What you hear is what you get and I like audio products like that.
 

·      UE 18 PRO ($1350). The UE 18 PRO is billed as Ultimate Ear’s top musician’s CIEM in that it offers a voicing curve that, while admittedly not quite neutral, is highly complementary to many types of live music—especially from the vantage point of a musician performing upon the aforementioned stage. Heaven help me, but I also own a pair of UE 18 PROs and can advise that they are terrifically ‘fun’ CIEMs to listen through, though perhaps not quite the last word in tonal neutrality or strict-interpretation accuracy. Still, they offer a very enjoyable listening experience.

Given this background, where does the new UE Pro Reference Remastered fit in? The simple answer is that it is the new and improved successor to the original Pro Reference Monitor, and as such it is a model passionate audiophiles need to know about (and possibly consider owning). In short, Pro Reference Remastered represent an attempt to improve upon the accuracy of what was already arguably UE’s most accurate model (no small task, that).

Excellent though the original Pro Reference Monitor was and is, however, the UE team identified several areas where the new Pro Reference Remastered could take meaningful steps forward in terms of performance.

First, the Pro Reference Remastered uses UE’s new proprietary True Tone Drivers in a three-way, triple-bore configuration that is said to “extend the frequency range and deliver response to 18 kHz”.

But make no mistake; the benefits of the True Tone Driver system are not limited to improved high-frequency response. In fact, UE says that the True Tone drivers improve response extension at both the upper and lower ends of the audio spectrum, thus enabling listeners to, “Hear the harmonic structure and overtones that are usually missing from most headphones.” Finally, UE adds that the “Pro Reference Remastered features an internal mechanical structure that makes sure frequencies are faithfully presented.”

These improvements, though presented by UE in somewhat vague terms, nevertheless sound good on paper. But what sonic impact, if any, do they have in terms of practical, real-world listening?

My finding was that the Pro Reference Remastered not only preserves but actually dramatically improves upon the neutrality of the original Pro Reference Monitors. Where the original had a very, very subtle touch of bass lift, the new model delivers more deeply extended bass and an ever so slight more tautly controlled bass presentation. And where the original Pro Reference Monitors had a tendency to sound softly focused or even slightly rolled-off at the highest frequencies, the new model has noticeably great treble extension, superior focus, and better overall top-to-bottom resolution than its predecessor. Although it’s an overworked expression, the fact is that, musically speaking, there is simply more ‘there’ there in the Pro Reference Remastered, making for a significantly more engaging and rewarding musical experience overall.

In simple terms, the Pro Reference Remastered is a worthy successor to the original Pro Reference Monitor—one that, in my view, is better than the original in every way, while still selling for the same price! It’s hard to argue with a rock-solid value proposition like that.

Watch for our upcoming review of the UE Pro Reference Remastered CIEMs in an upcoming issue of Hi-Fi+, and until then we wish you happy listening.