Unique Melody UM Maven III

Sound Analysis.

I analyzed Maven III (MIII) sound performance using SP4000, while playing a variety of test tracks, such as Agnes Obel’s “The Curse”, Sandro Cavazza’s “So much Better” (Avicii remix), C-Bool’s “Never Go away”, Ed Sheeran “Shape of you”, Alan Walker “Darkside”, Galantis “Hunter”, Iggy Azalea “Black widow”, Indila “Boite en argent”, Dua Lipa “Love Again”, Counting Crows “Big yellow taxi”, Bob Marley “Jamming”, David Elias “Vision of her”, Michael Jackson “Dirty Diana”, and SaberZ “Without your love”. Out of habit and given its use of DD drivers, I had MIII on burn-in for about 150 hours before I started collecting my impressions. I was using a stock PWA copper cable and stock Azla Xelastec silicone eartips.

It is hard to dive into the sound analysis and description of MIII tuning without referencing MII.

I hear Maven III still has a clear, detailed, natural tonality. But this updated balanced tuning is deeper and smoother, with more body and texture in the mids, along with a slightly less energetic treble and a more natural resolution, giving you less of the typical UM’s treble “zing”. The quadbrid tuning of MIII is highly coherent, with a seamless, linear transition from lows to mids and treble. Similar to MII, I also noticed a sound change here, with a variation in listening volume: the tonality became a bit smoother and more natural, with the volume a few notches down, vs. being more energetic and crisper (in the treble) with the volume a few notches higher. Perhaps that was the effect of the infamous Fletcher-Munson loudness curve, which affected the perception of the sound tuning. As a side note, even with its extra spicy zing in treble, Maven II was never cold, analytical, or fatigued. Still, compared to MII, MIII stepped it up with an extra layer of natural, delicately textured musicality, letting you enjoy its detailed, naturally resolving sound tuning during extended listening sessions.

The sound signature is still well-balanced, with a more linear tuning across the entire frequency range, spanning from a deeper sub-bass rumble, through a bit relaxed, yet still precise mid-bass punch, a bit north of neutral lower mids, clear, detailed, balanced upper mids without too much forward emphasis, and well-defined, naturally resolving and crisp mid-treble with airier extension.

In more detail, the sub-bass has a decent textured rumble; it goes deep with a tastefully elevated boost. The weight of the sub-bass builds a solid, deep foundation beneath a more polite mid-bass, which I still find to be north of neutral, offering a more rounded attack, a tactile, slightly relaxed precision, and a bit longer note decay. The overall weight of the bass is tilted more toward the sub-bass, which comes alive in tracks like “Break up with Your Girlfriend” or “Black Window” with a deep, physical rumble that is unmistakably coming from a DD driver. In acoustic and instrumental tracks with non-synthesized instruments, the bass depth provides a more realistic timbre. In electronic tracks, even the mid-bass comes into play despite its more rounded punch. Just like with MII, the MIII bass tuning is a perfect example of quality over quantity, using 2x DD drivers.

The mids are clear, detailed, and natural. Lower mids are slightly above neutral, with a smoother, textured tonality that adds more natural flavor to the vocals and instruments and blends seamlessly with natural upper mids. Don’t expect a warm, organic tonality, but it was definitely more natural and smoother in comparison to the previous MII tuning. Not saying that MII mids were cold or analytical, but they were noticeably more neutral, while MIII adds more body and texture to its mids. MIII mids don’t have as forward pinna gain, and neither did MII. That is one of the reasons the sound signature varies more, from balanced to mildly U-shaped, depending on the source pair-up synergy and the listening volume. Also, the reason I would refer to MIII as being more neutrally balanced rather than W-shaped balanced.

The treble has a decent, airy extension, noticeable when focusing on crash tails, which are extended rather than attenuated, with the sound being non-fatiguing, clear, and detailed, with more emphasis on mid-treble. Also, with less of the lower-treble boost, MIII treble has less of the traditional UM zing and sounds more natural. It is still quite resolving and crisp, but less intense than MII, and still contributes noticeably to improved layering and separation of the sounds. The transition from upper mids to treble in MIII is more linear than in MII, contributing to a more natural, resolving tonality of upper frequencies without compromising clarity or detail retrieval.

From a technical perspective, Maven III offers a huge, natural soundstage expansion, evenly spaced in all 3 directions, without any artificial exaggeration. It sounded even wider than in MII. I was pleasantly surprised to hear that because more body and texture in mids usually affects the soundstage, especially imaging, being a bit closer to the center. At the same time, here it remained on a holographic level, just bringing you a bit closer to the performer while keeping everything else far apart, with precision that pinpoints every sound accurately in space. Also, despite more natural-textured mids, the balance with an airier treble maintained distinct layering and separation of the sounds without any congestion or muddiness.

Eartips Selection.

The selection of eartips is always crucial for any universal in-ear monitor and will significantly affect the sound, particularly the bass impact and treble energy, depending on the seal. The insertion depth, often controlled by the eartips’ design, will also affect the soundstage expansion and imaging. Due to a large opening in my ear canals, I usually opt for the largest eartips to achieve a better seal. Also, please keep in mind that eartips impressions are subjective and will be based on the anatomy of your ears. My suggestion is to build up your eartips collection and try each one with every new IEM you get to find the pair that yields a perfect sound for your ears.

Stock Azla Xelastec – balanced sound tuning with a clear, detailed, natural, textured tonality; big soundstage expansion. This is my baseline sound.

Stock silicone blue-core – usually, these softer silicone cap eartips create a slightly more relaxed seal, and you can hear in this pair-up that the bass impact scales down just a bit, bringing the mids slightly more forward. With this, the mids sound a bit smoother, and the treble is even more relaxed. The sound is a bit more laid-back and has more intimacy in the soundstage’s expansion. Despite this change, I actually enjoyed it quite a lot.

Azla Crystal – the imaging is a bit more holographic. Also, there is just slightly more clarity in the mids.

SpinFit W1 – takes away some texture from the mids and makes the treble a little plasticky.

Eletech Baroque – wider soundstage expansion, more balance between sub- and mid-bass, and a little crisper treble.

Symbio W – balanced sound signature with mids being slightly more forward, having a better balance between texture, musical resolution, and retrieval of details, and treble being crisp, airy, and still very natural. In my opinion, these had the best pair-up synergy with MIII.

Final Type-E – wanted to try these as well, but they didn’t stay secure on the MIII nozzle (due to the lack of a lip).

Cable pair up.

I’m aware that some people are skeptical about cable’s contribution to the audio chain. It’s not my intent to start an argument here. Instead, I would like to share what I hear during my testing. What makes sense to me is that a metal wire is a material with physical properties of resistivity, conductivity, and purity, all of which act as a filter between your source and earphones. Variations in these physical properties can affect the conductivity of an analog signal, resulting in a change in sound ranging from subtle to noticeable. If discussing cables bothers you, feel free to skip this section.

PWA FT – to my surprise, the soundstage shrank a bit, pulling mids more back, and making them warmer, which also created a bit of a contrast with treble, making it crisper.

PWA Orpheus Slim – similar to FT, the mids were a bit pulled back, warmer, smoother. The soundstage was expanded, similar to that of a stock cable, and the treble was a little smoother and more reserved. Mids’ presentation improves as you raise the volume. At a higher volume, it was closer to stock cable.

EA Ares 10 – closer to stock cable, just with slightly more forward mids.

EA Dionysus – the soundstage became a bit narrower, while the rest was similar.

LL Venom – the soundstage expansion is big, actually huge, stretching to the max in every direction, with a more holographic imaging. The sub-bass leveled off, becoming more balanced with the mid-bass, and the mids have greater clarity and higher resolution, with a slightly more forward presentation. As a result of these changes, the treble is also more linear and more natural – a very good pair-up synergy.

HanSound Kunpeng – the soundstage expansion remains similar to the stock cable, maybe with a little more depth/height than width. Bass has a stronger mid-bass punch; mids are natural and textured, slightly pulled back; and treble is crisp and natural.

HanSound Quentin – expanded, rounded soundstage, deep, textured sub-bass rumble, softer mid-bass punch, natural, textured mids, and naturally-crisp treble. It is closer to the stock cable, with a bit more texture in the mids and a little more upper-mid presence.