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The UE-10 and their successor, the UE-RM, are seen by many as the best in sound reproduction for stage, studio, and personal listening; with it's clean, accurate sound signature and custom-fit quality, the UE-10 quickly became the standard for those with the need for the highest quality sound reproduction.
It's not just audio professionals; many audiophiles and home recording studios joined the UE-10 bandwagon to meet their monitoring needs.
The UE-11 Pro was released in August to much fanfare in the pro audio and audiophile communities, and picks up where the UE-10 left off -- and exceeds many expectations.
A Look at the UE-11 Pro
The UE-11 Pro is based around a quad-driver design with a passive 3-way crossover network, placing four balanced armature drivers in each ear. The design takes the successful formula of the UE-10 a step further, with dual low-frequency drivers wired in sequence alongside a proprietary high-frequency driver, while adding a separate mid-range driver.
Most high-quality speaker systems operate on a similar three-way design, separating the highs, mids, and lows into separate speakers specially designed to handle their respective frequencies. The advantages to such a design are quite simple: better detail, intelligibility, and greater dynamic range can be achieved by spreading the work out multiple drivers.
Aside from the inner workings of the UE-11 Pro, the basic Ultimate Ears design, using a full-shell mold of the ear, remains the same.
A new feature on all of Ultimate Ears' custom products is their basic coloring schemes and artwork options; starting soon, Ultimate Ears will be offering nine standard colors along with a silver "UE" logo standard on all custom monitors, while continuing to offer custom artwork available for an added fee.
Included Accessories
Included with the Ultimate Ears UE-11 Pro is a cleaning tool (very useful to keep your earphones working in top-notch condition) as well as a much-improved metal carrying case, compared to the earlier, smaller case.
Inside the case, there's a smaller, more portable metal case which the earphones themselves fit into. Next to the smaller case's compartment is a foam cut-out for both common sizes of Apple iPod -- perfect for storing your preferred audio player alongside your earphones.
The other modification shipping with the UE-11 Pro is the cable used to connect the monitors to an audio source. According to Ultimate Ears' Paul Manfrini, many professional users were requesting a lighter cable that took up less storage space, and the new cable reflects that.
The new cable is indeed quite a bit lighter than the cable on my UE-10; it also takes up significantly less real estate in the storage case provided with the monitors. However, the new cable -- at least in my testing -- has a higher tendency to tangle while being removed and placed in the storage container, but compared to the bulkiness of the previous Ultimate Ears stock cable, the small, infrequent tangle issue is a small price to pay for a much more efficient design.
Fit & Isolation
As with any custom product, your comfort and fit quality will be determined by the quality of your ear impressions that are used to make your earmolds. Ultimate Ears suggests that a qualified audiologist do an "open mouth" impression, filling the entire outer ear, in order to make a suitable impression. Keep in mind, you need to send your impressions in ASAP so they don't shrink.
Once you've placed your first custom order with Ultimate Ears, a 3D scan of your ear impression is kept on file for easy remolds.
My UE-11 Pro fit nearly perfectly, ordered using my year-old impressions. I did notice that, when compared to my UE-10s, the UE-11 Pro were physically larger to accommodate the extra driver; this isn't very bothersome, but it's something to consider if you've got smaller ears.
As with the other custom products, the UE-11 Pro advertises -26db of acoustic isolation. I found that my UE-11 seem to block just slightly less outside noise compared to my UE-10 as well as other manufacturers' custom products I've evaluated. This may be a function of the marginally larger size, as the areas I noted as slightly larger are the areas where my seal tends to break more often, most notably in the top part of the ear.
Aesthetics aside, sound quality is where the UE-11 Pro really shines.
The UE-10 is a very neutral sounding monitor earphone; some have described it as "flat to a fault" -- having a very understated yet remarkably solid low-end, in contrast to it's thick mid-range and detailed high end. The UE-11 takes those attributes above and beyond the UE-10's performance level.
Deep, Rich Audio Reproduction
A thick, powerful bass response sets these earphones apart from predecessors; the bass response feels almost as if there's a perfectly tuned subwoofer in your head, without being overbearing or fatiguing.
The added mid-range driver adds a level of dimensionality that the UE-10 lack; vocals, guitars, and other mid-range heavy instruments stand out in a mix in a lifelike, three-dimensional way.
The high end reproduction in the UE-11 is equally remarkable; in comparison, the UE-10's high end seems slightly rolled off (very similar to it's universal-fit competitor, Shure's SE530). The UE-11 sound much more "alive" with greater detailing; with the UE-10, I would hear new details in my music, but with the UE-11, I hear even greater depth to those details.
Compared to other custom monitor products reviewed on this site, the UE-11 has a much wider sense of soundstage, better mid-range detail, and a better bass response. The only monitor product that beats the UE-11 in the bass department is the Future Sonics Atrio M5, as reviewed here.
The sense of soundstage and depth of the UE-11 are the real prizes; mixing studio audio on the UE-11 is a pleasure, as is listening to an onstage monitor mix. Listening to a stereo personal monitor feed through a Sennheiser EW300-G2 beltpack, the wide, natural imaging of the UE-11 allowed a very accurate monitoring experience with natural positioning, a huge asset when using personal monitors.
The UE-11 retails for $1150 (plus ear impressions, around $50 at your local audiologist) and is available now directly from Ultimate Ears.
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