Under the Starry Night of the Desert.

PROS: fuller body smooth analog tonality, neutrally-balanced sound sig, naturally resolving treble, expanded soundstage, exotic material shells, hi-end PWA FirstTimes Shielding Pro cable (or can be purchased without a cable at a reduced price), premium leather accessories.

CONS: price, source pair up dependency.

The product was provided to me on a short loan 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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Preamble / Intro.

Unique Melody (UM) is well-known for generating a lot of buzz in audiophile communities, though often for different reasons.  3 years later and their Mest MK2 IEMs popularity hasn’t faded yet, still considered to be one of the best price/performance ratio monitors offering quadbrid design bundled with top brand name accessories.  But on the other side of the spectrum, they have Mentor and Mason line of premium flagship IEMs with TOTL performance and pricing.  Unfortunately, the latter one is the reason for the other type of the buzz.  When it comes to cars, as an example, people accept that Toyota makes more affordable models under their main brand name and upper end premium models under Lexus, similar to Nissan and Infiniti or Hyundai and Genesis.  But when you have the same brand name with such a wide price span, sometimes it is hard to comprehend a jump from the entry and mid-fi level to the flagship level.

So, when UM announced their new flagship model, UM Mason FS Soleil Tombe (ST) and UM Mason FS Nuit Etoilee (NE) – the same IEM in different color schemes, the focus shifted straight to the MSRP price.  Yes, it does have an eye watering price tag, but in reality, after 2 years since their last Mason-series flagship release of UM Mason FS Le Jardin (LJ), the new 2024 model is just $499 more and this price increase includes newly developed tech with BC-turbo micro booster for BCD, new limited edition PWA FirstTimes Shielding Pro custom cable (sold by itself for $3.5k), and newly designed Gogh Bag Italian leather shoulder carrying bag.  The 2022 release of LJ already had $8k MSRP baseline price, sold out pretty quickly, and to my surprise didn’t stir as much controversy.  The same as the recent collab between UM and Cayin, Amber Pearl IEMs ($8k MSRP), which almost sold out by itself and together with Cayin N30LE DAP in a bundle.  It’s not an opinion, just stating facts considering there is an apparent demand.

I usually don’t start my reviews with a discussion about the pricing, but had to address the white elephant in the room (a déjà vu from 4yrs ago while reviewing ‘the Bird’), because that was the dominant topic of discussion after ST and NE announcement, overshadowing the IEM itself.  Some were not aware about the history of UM flagships and didn’t even realize that Musicteck offers these new IEMs without its premium cable at a reduced price.  But anyway, I’m not here to justify the price, wouldn’t even know where to begin, and I don’t want to add more oil to the fire.  I’m just a reviewer who had a chance to borrow and to spend a week with these new IEMs and want to share what I found, how they sound and compare, and how they pair up with different sources.  One thing to note, with a growing name and all extra acronyms, I will be referring to these new models as NE (blue) and ST (red), or just FS ’24.  So, without further ado and with an open mind, let’s proceed.

Unboxing and Accessories.

For the review purpose I received these IEMs on a short loan without the original packaging, just monitors with a cable by itself.  Thus, I can’t share any unboxing pictures, but I have no doubt the unboxing experience will be similar to Multiverse, Amber Pearl, Le Jardin, and other latest UM flagships.  Also, as it was listed on their product page, both Mason FS NE and ST will arrive with a complete set of AZLA Xelastec eartips (SS/MS/M sizes) and UM own Silicone eartips (S/M/L).  Furthermore, expect to find changeable nozzle tip mesh filters, custom oval leather and ring leather cable organizer clamps, high-grade cleaning cloth, warranty card, and maintenance guidelines.

UM Canvas Tote bag was mentioned, assuming similar to the one found with their other Mason and Mentor flagships.  The new addition to the accessories included with Mason FS NE/ST is the Gogh Bag Leather case which looks like a roomy carry-on premium bag with a shoulder strap.  According to its description, this Italian leather bag will feature a multifunction design with different compartments fitting not just IEMs, but also DAP, extra cables, dongles, etc.  And specifically for IEMs there going to be a Shell Leather case with separate compartments for individual Mason shells inside the spool to wrap the cable around it.  The Shell case will have a matching color/finish as Gogh Bag case and should fit inside of it.

Cable.

Now speaking of cable, UM continuous their collaboration with PWA (Peter Wong Audio) premium cables, this time featuring a custom designed PWA FirstTimes Shielding Pro cable with a nylon jacket matching the color of IEMs theme, either in blue or red.  This version of the cable by itself is sold for $3.5k.  I’m not planning to go into further discussion of the cable price, but I’m aware that both FirstTimes and Orpheus (almost double the price of FT) are quite popular as standalone cables.  That is a reason Musicteck decided to offer Mason FS NE/ST with and without a cable because quite a few people already have FT Shielding, allowing them to purchase these new IEMs at a reduced price.  But you should still keep in mind that this cable will be customized with a color matched hardware and jacket, matching IEM shells, and it will have non-recessed 2pin connectors for a cleaner look with Mason’s flush-mounted sockets.

The last UM Mason FS LJ flagship also featured PWA premium cable, but that one was PWA MeetAgain Shielding Pro, also sold by itself for $3.5k.  And before Le Jardin release, the original UM Mason FuSang featured PWA Atilla cable, $2k price tag.  From what I understand, cables are not randomly selected and UM uses them while finalizing the tuning of their IEMs.  I’m not saying one cable is superior to the other, but FirstTimes Shielding is based on their Orpheus cable design structure, though it is not as bulky as Orpheus.  FirstTimes Shielding is still a copper cable with four 26.5AWG conductors and combination of soft pvc and colored nylon jacket.  The cable hardware is typical of other PWA cables custom-made for UM.  The thickness is not too far off from the non-Shielding FT version, but this Shielding version is a bit stiffer, probably due to extra shielding material.  As I already mentioned, the cable is less bulky in comparison to Orpheus, thus being more portable on the go.  And, as many other PWA cables with a nylon jacket, expect some microphonics.

Design.

Mason series typically features 12xBA drivers at the core of the design.  But after the V3+ and starting with Mason FS, these drivers were complemented with the addition of 13^th Bone Conduction driver.  BCD driver also evolved over the time, from the dual side piezoelectric BCD (dBC-s) to silver-palladium alloy piezoelectric BCD and these latest models now featuring FreqShift BCD with BC-turbo micro booster to enhance and to stabilize its performance by boosting the driving voltage level.  Basically, while realizing that improvements at the Bone Conduction driver level reached its limitations, UM added the micro booster to create a dedicated electro-acoustic system build around BCD.

Similar to previous FS releases, the design still utilizes 5-way crossover with 13 drivers partitioned as 4 bass drivers, 4 mids drivers, 2 mid-treble drivers, 2 treble drivers, and 1 FreqShift BCD with BC-turbo micro booster.  Everything is packed inside beautifully crafted shells with matching seamless faceplates from exotic materials in two color themes, Nuit Etoilee (blue theme) and Soleil Tombe (red theme).  Internally, between these two IEMs the design and the tuning are the same.  Furthermore, you will find a flush-mounted 2pin socket, metal tunnel nozzle, and a removable/replaceable nozzle tip mesh filter, making it easy to clean accumulated earwax.  Under the nozzle filter, you can see 3 acoustic tunnel metal tubes per diagram below.

The fit.

The shells of Mason FS ST/NE are just a little bigger in comparison to previous Mason FS models and MM/AP models from Mentor-series.  They are still going to occupy the same concha cavum area in your outer ear, just will stick out a bit more, assuming the shell needs a bit extra room to accommodate BC-turbo micro booster.

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