Ultimate Ears Pro has packed a total of 42 drivers into the UE Premier and slapped a $3,000 price on these wild IEMs. Can they possibly be worth the money?
Ultimate Ears Premier MSRP $2,999.00 Score Details DT Recommended Product “The UE Premier cost a fortune, but their sound has few, if any, equals.” Pros Cons The thought of paying $3,000 for a set of wired earbuds is likely to raise an eyebrow, even if you’re no stranger to high-end audio gear. That’s especially the case if the earbuds in question haven’t been inlaid with precious gemstones or cast from an exotic metal alloy normally reserved for aerospace applications.
Using the UE Pro website, you start with the base Premier IEMs at $2,999. At this point, you have two choices: go with either the standard fixed faceplate version or UE Pro’s Switch swappable faceplate system, which adds $199, but comes with three sets of faceplates. Either way, UE Pro offers dozens of colors, textures, and graphics to choose from. Can’t find one you like? Upload your own artwork for an additional $200 and get whatever you want on your IEMs.
One thing to know, especially if aesthetics matter to you, is that the ambient port can’t be covered by a faceplate, so the shape of the faceplate will be different than what UE Pro shows on its website preview function. Keep in mind that getting professional ear scans can cost anywhere from $50 to $75, so you’ll have to tack that on to the final price of your Premiers. Mine would’ve rung up for $3,248 before taxes with the Switch and Ambient options I had selected, if UE hadn’t provided them for review. Wow.UE Premier: design The Premier don’t actually look like you just spent $3,000 .
Other than the IEMs, their cable, and the optional ambient port plugs, UE Pro includes a cleaning tool, a small black microfiber polishing cloth, and a virtually crushproof metal case that’s lined with a rubber gasket. It ain’t much to look at, but this thing is a vault that provides excellent protection, as well as having enough room inside to pack a high-quality DAC/amp dongle and cable.
The notion of a product that has been custom fit to the exact contours of your body is inherently desirable. A bespoke suit from Savile Row is the height of sartorial indulgence, and every Formula 1 driver gets a steering wheel that has been molded to the size and shape of their hands, and a seat molded to that end, too. And yet, a set of earbuds that feel like someone has poured molten plastic into your ears takes some getting used to.
One of the best parts of having a set of earbuds that are so perfectly shaped to your ear is that external noise is hardly ever a concern, especially when you insert the plugs into the ambient ports. But those plugs are a pain in the ass. They’re tiny, they are hard to push into the ports , and if you don’t cram them in just right, they pop out again all too easily. Good luck finding a 3mm clear piece of silicone on your carpet. If you take them out, you’ll need a place to store them.
When you take them all together, their breadth is huge. From a low of just 5Hz to a high of 40kHz, in theory, there’s no human-audible frequency they can’t reproduce. But that precision is more than just a separation of frequencies. It also maps those elements across the soundstage with astonishing accuracy. The sphere of sound extends from just in front of your face to several feet away in all directions. That depth becomes really noticeable as you listen to Emily Wolfe’s White Collar Whiskey. The reverb on her guitar and the echo on her vocals decay into space like ripples on a pond’s surface.
Sticking with the magnifying glass analogy from above, seen from several feet away, a painting and a photo of the painting might look similar. If you were to look closely at the painting, you’d be able to appreciate all of the subtle details in each brush stroke, but a similar inspection of the photo would likely only reveal the dots of ink that make up the photo. The same is true for music.
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