What's Next?
While extremely happy with their current selections, the folks at Ultimate Ears are a lot like the rest of us - in the words of Mike Dias, they're all audio junkies and lab rats, and they're always looking to both improve their existing products and invent new ones.Ultimate Ears also recently announced a partnership to help bring their quality earphones to the masses: the super.fi products will be rebranded and sold by M-Audio, an established, popular brand among recording enthusiasts. M-Audio will remain the exclusive provider of Ultimate Ears' universal-fit monitors to music industry channels. The new "IE" line of earphones by M-Audio began shipping October 1 of 2006.
Joining Ultimate Ears' esteemed product line are two products well-deserving of the Ultimate Ears name -- the Triple.Fi, a triple-driver, universal-fit earphone with a sound signature somewhere between the UE-7 and UE-10 (to my ears, the brief time I listened, the Triple.fi had the clarity and punch of the UE-10 with a slightly stronger low end), as well as the company's brand new flagship, the UE-18 Pro, a true three-way earpiece with dual-drivers for each frequency band: low, mid, and high stacked drivers along with a passive three-way crossover. Stay tuned for detailed review.
One thing is certain: Ultimate Ears' market share is well deserved. Their products are well-built, with exceptional sound quality. Their commitment to excellence is obvious: even their least expensive offering, the super.fi 3, provides superior sound quality at a bargain price. Their high-end offerings, including the $900 UE-10, certainly aren't cheap -- but as many sound engineers, professional musicians, and hard-core audiophiles will tell you, there's little else that performs as well.
A special thanks to the folks at Ultimate Ears, especially Brad Jensen and Mike Dias, for both their help in understanding Ultimate Ears' mission and production line. Ultimate Ears, now a Logitech company, can be contacted via www.ultimateears.com, as well as 1-800-589-6531.
