Ultimate Ears’ recent UE Premier in-ear monitor (IEM) headphones boast an impressive 21 drivers per earpiece, “to deliver a signature sound with unparalleled fidelity, control and precision”.
It is the trend to add more and more drivers (speakers) to IEM earbuds, but SAR has not seen anything quite so dramatic as 21 per earbud before. On closer inspection it seems that there are not 21 distinct drivers, instead some are dual diaphragm drivers counted as two drivers each plus a passive crossover.
The UE PREMIER shows how these drivers break down, it’s a five-way crossover, which means it has 5 different speaker types delivering different frequency ranges.
Knowles added some more detail in its press release. The design uses “eight patented Knowles dual-diaphragm BA receivers and four Knowles supertweeters”.
At $2999 they are a little out of my price range but you can see why the price point is where it is, this is a premium product.
