A Slice of the Premium Sound!

PROS: unique 10-driver tribrid design (2DD/4BA/4EST), balanced sound sig with a clear detailed tonality, huge soundstage expansion, solid build Titanium shell and faceplate, quality PWA copper cable, and premium accessories including Dignis storage case and Azla Xelastec eartips.

CONS:  eartips dependency on the sound tuning, despite having 2DD drivers these IEMs are not exactly basshead tuned if that’s what you are looking for.

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

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

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Intro.

I have always been a big fan of Unique Melody releases, especially, Mason, Mentor, and Mest.  For those who are not familiar, most of their IEMs start with ‘M’ and carry unique, no pun intended, names such as Mext, Maestro, Miracle, Merlin, Mage, Martian, Mavis, ME.1, and Maven.  The latter one, Maven, is the flagship model of the Titanium Series, with the original version released in 2018, followed a few years later by the Maven Pro blue-titanium model.  I heard both Mavens in the past at CanJam NYC shows and appreciated their warmer-colored tonality but still considered Mason, Mentor, and Mest to be my favorite.

When I recently heard that UM is releasing a new version of Maven II Crescent, limited to only 799 sets Worldwide, I thought I could wait until after the upcoming CanJam SoCal ’24 where it would be introduced to the world.  But it already became available for sale at Musicteck, and I got pinged by a few people whose opinions I trust and respect, strongly encouraging me to check it out.  Of course, I had to hear it, requested a review sample, and am so glad that I did!  After spending the last three weeks with these IEMs, I added them to my list of favorite UM monitors without a single hesitation.  So, what has changed?  Let’s find out!

Unboxing and Accessories.

Maven II arrived in familiar packaging (from my Mest IEMs unboxing experience), a quality gift box with the UM logo.  Once a magnetic top cover is lifted, you are presented with a blue leather case labeled with the UM logo.  At the bottom, of the box there is a draw that slides out from the front to give you access to the rest of the included accessories.

The selection of accessories was also quite familiar from Mest series unboxing.  As already mentioned, you will still find a blue leather Dignis brand name case with a zipper top, roomy enough for your IEMs and the cable and other extra accessories.  Inside, it has a flexible velcro partition so you can separate shells and the cable.  This is a premium brand-name product, not some filler.

Furthermore, you will find PWA brand name copper cable, a leather organizer clip for the cable, a warranty card, high-quality grey cleaning cloth, and 2 sets of eartips.  One was a set of UM’s black silicone tips with blue-heart silicone core (S/M/L) and another one was a set of popular AZLA brand name Xelastec SS/MS/M tips.  Those provide superior isolation and a very secure fit.  I’m always surprised the largest included Xelastec pair is in medium size since I typically use their large size tips, but due to the nozzle diameter of Maven II and the grippy texture of Xelastec silicon, even M pair was just perfect for my ears.

Typical of many UM releases, I’m always impressed with their selection of accessories featuring many brand names, such as the Dignis leather case, PWA copper cable, and AZLA Xelastec eartips.

Cable.

It’s becoming a tradition to see PWA (Peter Wong Audio) cables featured with every UM product. Mest MK2 introduced their new copper cable labeled as UM Copper M2.  The cable included with Maven II was labeled as UM Copper M2 RE, also featuring 4 conductors with 24AWG gauge high-grade OCC copper wires, updated with a fiber core.  The wires are braided between the plug and y-split and twisted in pairs going up above the IEM connectors.  The cable is very flexible and soft and features PVC coating which reduces the microphonics down to a minimum.  When ordering Maven II, you have the option of single-ended 3.5mm or balanced 4.4mm.

It features a familiar PWA cable hardware with a uniquely shaped metal plug with gold screws, a matching design of a metal y-split, also with gold screws, a retractable matching metal chin-slider, and a matching metal 2pin connector housing with a faint L/R labeling (not easy to see the label).  You will also find a pre-shaped heat-shrink ear hook.  One big difference here is that cable hardware has a brushed aluminum finish to match closer (but not exactly) the Titanium finish of the shell.  And the 2pin connector is non-recessed, meaning it will attach flush to the shell without any “plastic” gap in-between for a cleaner look.

Design.

Maven II shells and faceplates use aerospace-grade Titanium material, known for its exceptional strength (being 5x stronger than stainless steel), low density, and lightweight.  According to UM, they use high-end 3D titanium alloy printing equipment and advanced titanium “printing” technology to manufacture these 0.4mm thin shells, different from a regular CNC process.  The shells are very smooth, have a solid surface, and feel nice to the touch, with a custom-like fit in my ears.  It is very different from their original Maven (titanium) and Maven Pro (blue sapphire titanium) which had a busier shell design with 3D-printed “etched” triangular shapes across it.  But the faceplate is very similar to Maven Pro, with a Crescent moon shape and triangular patterns inside of it.  I do like much better the new clean look of the Maven II Crescent shell design.

Inside the shell, you have 10 drivers under the control of a 5-way crossover circuit, partitioned into 2DD lows, 2BA mid-highs, 2BA highs, and 4EST ultra-high drivers.  The 2xDD lows config was first introduced in the UM line-up in 2014 with their Martian and Mavis releases that featured two 6.8mm DD drivers.  Then, it was implemented in the original Maven back in 2018.  Maven II features an arrangement of 9.8mm and 6.9mm vertical dual dynamic driver array, with both being proprietary drivers.  Here, a bigger 9.8mm driver is responsible for core bass sound while its 6.9mm driver is responsible for ultra-low sub-bass frequency.

Considering that Maven II has two DD drivers, I wasn’t able to find any pinhole vents in the shell typical of other IEMs with DD drivers.  Later, someone pointed out to me that vents are indeed there, hidden within a crescent pattern on the faceplate.  I was also pleased to find no driver flex.  And as already mentioned, the fit was just perfect.

The fit.

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