The Multiverse of Unique Melodies!

PROS: natural revealing tonality, balanced sound signature, immersive soundstage, exotic shell material, comfortable fit, premium brand name cable and accessories.

CONS: price, nothing to nitpick unless you prefer a different sound sig.

The product was provided to me free of charge for the review purpose in exchange for my honest opinion.

Manufacturer/product website:  UM.  Available for sale from authorized retailers like Musicteck.

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Intro.

Unique Melody (UM) is a… unique brand.  I’m sure many noticed their model names usually start with “M”, such as Mason, Mentor, Mest, Mext, Maven, Mavis, MacBeth, Mirage, ME1.  They even doubled down in their latest Mentor release, calling it Mentor Multiverse (MM).  I was kind of surprised UM decided to break their sequential naming pattern, starting with the last year’s release of Mason by calling it Fabled Sound (FS) instead of Mason v4 or the new Mentor being called MM instead of Mentor v4.  Perhaps, they wanted to differentiate from their previous Mason/Mentor v3 and v3+ releases which I had a pleasure to cover as well.  Those had plenty of unique, no pun intended, features including dB-GO bass adjustment module and reversible dual-tone cable, and a different driver count with Mason having 16xBAs and Mentor – 12xBAs.  Then, with a launch of the original Mest a few years ago, UM entered an all-new design phase by introducing Bone Conduction drivers (BCD) in many of their IEMs.

Today, FS and MM releases feature 12xBAs + BCD per shell, each with the same number of drivers and premium brand name accessories, putting them both on the pedestal where they share a flagship status.  But there is so much more to it than just a different name, shell, and cable material.  They both have a unique variation in sound-tuning.  At the end of the day, it is all about the sound and how a manufacturer utilized different building blocks of either DD, BA, EST, BCD, etc. to arrive at their final tuning.  I received a lot of questions about FS and MM comparison, including if one is the upgrade of the other and even how it stacks up against Mest Indigo.  And of course, everybody wants to know how MM compares to other popular flying and gemstone flagships.  I will do my best to cover all this in my review, especially since I’m aware that many people don’t have access to audition and to compare different flagships, unless you are planning to visit CanJam NYC in a few weeks. So, without further ado, let’s proceed!

Unboxing and Accessories.

MM arrived in UM’s traditional double drawer storage box, this one having a blue finish to fit the overall color theme.  Once a magnetic top cover is lifted, you are presented with a beautiful navy-blue leather storage case by Dignis, pure Italian vegan leather.  The case has a zipper top and a bigger size in comparison to Mest/Indigo cases, probably to fit its thicker cable.  It also has a flexible partition to keep shells separated from the cable.  The second drawer is at the bottom which slides out from the side to give you easy access to the rest of the included accessories.

There is a premium material grey cleaning cloth/pad to keep shells fingerprint free.  Then, you have a complete set of black silicone eartips with a blue-heart core in S/M/L sizes and another set of popular AZLA Xelastec SS/MS/M eartips.  Those provide a superior isolation and a very secure fit.  The largest Xelastec is only in M size, but due to a slightly bigger nozzle diameter of MM, medium was fine for me.  Another interesting accessory was an oval wire clamp for the cable, made with a blue leather material to match the leather case.  Also, a few spare sets of replacement mesh tip-filters for the nozzle were included.

Starting with the original Mest release, premium Dignis leather case and brand name Azla eartips became permanent addition to stock accessories.  Another one everybody expects now with higher end UM releases is PWA cable by Peter Wong Audio, a well-known popular manufacturer of premium replacement cables.  Included with MM was a new PWA Deep of Universe 4-core Shielding cable, each wire being 26awg thick with the additional layer of shielding material outside the pure copper and silver-plated copper wires.

The wires feature soft polyvinyl chloride and nylon coats, in blue color, a traditional braided nylon coating which still has some microphonics.  The cable hardware is custom, all metal and in a shade of blue, with a matching finish chunkier 4.4mm plug housing, y-split and retractable chin-slider, and the same finish slim 2pin connector housing.  Earhooks portion of the cable has a flexible pre-shaped heatshrink.

Design.

As I already mentioned, MM and FS share a similar driver config with 12xBAs + BCD, but that is just a total driver count while the rest varies.  MM has a 5-way crossover with a driver partitioning of 4BAs for bass (hand trimmed at the back end to enhance bass performance), 2BAs for mids, 2BAs for mid-treble, 4BAs for treble, and one new Frequency Shift Piezoelectric Bone Conduction driver which covers a full 20Hz to 20kHz frequency range.  FS has a similar config except it switches to 4BAs for mids and 2BAs for treble, and its BCD driver is dual-side piezoelectric with a frequency range of 500Hz to 20kHz.  It is clear to see that UM continues to work on BCD improvements, evolving from single sided, to dual sided, and now with frequency shift tech that covers a wider range.

Btw, a lot of people continue to ask me about the sound effect of BCD driver.  It is hard to describe it because you can’t hear it standalone and there is no switch to turn it off to hear how IEMs sound with and without it.  BCD driver is just like DD, BA, or EST, and will contribute to overall sound tuning, sound dynamics, and sound expansion, especially since MM stepped it up with a new Frequency Shift BCD that now covers the full frequency range from 20Hz to 20kHz.

Shells are being offered in either Universal or Custom designs.  The one I received for review is a uni which has a stock shell made out of aviation grade carbon fiber, ink-blue ceramic inner frame, and an exotic Banksia Seed faceplate in a 3D curved setting.  While there is no DD driver, upon closer examination I did spot a pinhole port, probably to relief the air pressure.  The 2pin socket is partially recessed for a more secure connection with the cable.  Also, there is a replaceable mesh nozzle tip which makes the cleaning of IEMs a lot easier if/when it gets clogged with earwax.

The overall shape of the shell is very ergonomic and comfortable to wear during extended listening sessions.  And with the right set of eartips, you also getting a rather good passive noise isolation.

The fit.

Page 2 – Sound analysis and Eartips selection.
Page 3 – Cable pair up and Source Pair up.
Page 4 – Comparison and Conclusion.