Unique Melody UM Maven III

The Smoother Side of the Moon!

PROS: unique 12-driver quadbrid design (2DD/4BA/4EST/2BCD), balanced sound sig with a natural, resolving tonality, huge soundstage expansion, solid build Titanium alloy shell and faceplate, quality PWA thicker wire 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, such as Musicteck.

Intro.

As I mentioned back in my Maven II review, I have always enjoyed 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 Mason, Mentor, Mest, 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 of these early Mavens at past CanJam NYC shows and appreciated their warmer tonality, but still considered Mason, Mentor, and Mest my favorites.

After the CanJam SoCal ’24, when Maven II was introduced, it quickly made my list of another favorite UM release. Then, out of the blue, a month ago, they announced Maven III. Even when I pinged Musicteck, who usually gets it early in, I was told they don’t have it yet and don’t even know how it will sound. I really enjoyed Maven II and was well aware of its popularity based on all the comments I received and continue to receive after my review, even two years later. So, it was a no-brainer to request a review sample because I was very curious about what this new version could bring. After spending the last two weeks with these IEMs, they are still on my list of favorite UM monitors. So, what has changed in this 3^rd gen of the Titanium Series? Let’s find out!

Unboxing and Accessories.

Maven III arrived in familiar packaging (from my previous Mest and Maven IEMs unboxing experiences), a quality gift box with the UM logo. Once the magnetic top cover of the box is lifted, you are presented with a premium white drawstring cloth bag and, inside of it, a black rectangular leather case with an “ice-pattern” cover design. The case’s leather is imported Turkish cowhide and feels premium to the touch. At the bottom of the packaging box, there is a drawer that slides out from the front, providing access to the remaining included accessories.

The selection of accessories was also quite familiar, as seen in the unboxing of the Mest and Maven series. As already mentioned, you will find a black leather Dignis brand-name case with a zipper top, roomy enough for your IEMs, 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 a PWA brand-name copper cable, a black leather organizer clip for the cable, a warranty card, a high-quality grey cleaning cloth, two separate drawstring protective pouches for shells, and 2 sets of eartips. One was a set of UM’s black silicone tips with a blue-heart silicone core (S/M/L), and the other was a set of popular AZLA-brand Xelastec SS/MS/M tips. Those provide superior isolation and a very secure fit. I’m surprised that UM includes the largest Xelastec pair in medium, since I typically use their large-size tips, but thanks to the grippy texture of Xelastec silicone, even the M pair worked well with my ears.

As with many UM releases, I’m always impressed by their selection of premium accessories from many brands, such as the Dignis leather case, PWA copper cable, and AZLA Xelastec eartips, which give a higher value to the product.

Cable.

It’s a tradition to see PWA (Peter Wong Audio) cables featured with every UM product. Mest MK2 introduced its new copper cable, labeled UM Copper M2. The cable included with Maven II was labeled UM Copper M2 RE and featured 4 conductors with 24AWG high-grade OCC copper wires, updated with a fiber core. In this release, Maven III features a new PWA pure copper cable, named MistRock, with thicker 22AWG wires. The wires are loosely braided between the plug and the Y-split, then twisted in pairs and run above to the IEM connectors. The cable is very flexible and soft, has a greyish finish, and features a PVC coating that minimizes microphonics.

It features familiar PWA cable hardware: a uniquely shaped metal plug with gold screws; a matching metal Y-split with gold screws; a retractable matching metal chin-slider; and a matching metal 2pin connector housing with printed L/R labels. You will also find a pre-shaped heat-shrink ear hook. The cable hardware has a brushed gunmetal finish with a slightly bluish tint that has a nice color match with a greyish cable finish. 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 III continues to use aerospace-grade Titanium alloy in the design of its shells and faceplate, similar to previous titanium Maven models. This material is known for its exceptional strength (5x stronger than stainless steel), low density, and lightweight nature. Using high-end 3D titanium printing equipment and advanced titanium “printing” technology to manufacture these 0.4mm-thin shells, UM perfected the process, making the shells very solid yet still smooth, nice to the touch, mirror-polished, with a custom-like fit in my ears. This is very different and more complicated from a regular CNC process. According to UM, the faceplate features a highly complex 3D-printed design, drawing inspiration from celestial patterns and incorporating the hexagonal shape of a snowflake. Maven II, named Moon Bud, had a crescent-moon theme, while Maven III, named Moonshard, includes its own star element in the form of this snowflake design, which is not the same as a six-pointed star, as they wanted to be clear about.

Inside the shell, the design of Maven III was upgraded to 12 drivers under the control of a 6-way crossover circuit, partitioned into 2DD lows, 2BA mid-highs, 2BA highs, 4EST ultra-highs, and 2BCD drivers, with the latter one not being present in Maven II. The 2xDD lows config was first introduced in the UM line-up in 2014 with their Martian and Mavis releases, which featured two 6.8mm DD drivers. Then, it was implemented in the original Maven back in 2018. Maven III, similar to Maven II, features a configuration of 9.8mm and 6.9mm vertical dual dynamic driver arrays, with proprietary drivers in both. Here, a larger 9.8mm driver handles core bass, while its 6.9mm driver handles ultra-low sub-bass.

The overall shape of the Maven III shell is very similar to that of Maven II. However, MIII is a bit smaller and taller, and both feature a flush-mounted 2pin socket and a metal-mesh nozzle cover. Aside from differences in the faceplate design and the finish, with MII being gun-metal matte and MIII having mirror-polish, MIII also has a clearly visible pin-hole DD vent, while MII’s vent was hidden. Also, MIII doesn’t have a defined nozzle lip, while MII does, which could affect the fit of some narrow-bore eartips (Final Type-E being one of them), though not an issue with the included eartips or many others I tried.