Unique Melody Debuts MEST In-Ear Monitor

Unique Melody is one of those exotic IEM brands which aims to deliver intriguing and intricate designs in their IEMs for those who are looking to own something a bit more special. Their latest creation is called the MEST, and it features some remarkably different to what you’d normally find on other IEMs due to the fact that it combines not one, but a total of four different driver configuration technologies.For the most part, most headphones and IEMs tend to make do with regular dynamic driver configurations. Sure, there might be a fair amount of material technology and manufacturing advancements to be made even with dynamic driver setups, but it’s still the oldest and most widely used principle of driver configuration nonetheless. One of the drivers used in the MEST is a 10mm dynamic driver which tackles the bass and mids.
Then there are balanced armature (BA) drivers which take up a lot less space than a dynamic driver, generally require considerably less power, and offer some unique characteristics in the ‘flavour’ of their sound. Many IEMs will do a multi-driver configuration consisting of multiple balanced armature drivers, even upwards of a dozen per earpiece. However, balanced armatures tend to lack the ability to really push those ultra-low sub-bass frequencies, and so for this reason many manufacturers will opt for a hybrid design which consists of a dynamic driver to handle the lows, and then one or more balanced armatures to take care of the mids and highs. In the case of the MEST, Unique Melody have opted for a dual-BA package to reproduce the mid-high frequencies, as well as an additional dual-BA setup for the high frequencies. But hang on to your hat, because we’re not done yet.

Next are electrostatic drivers which have been gaining a bit more popularity recently as newer manufacturing techniques are allowing them to be made in such a way that they require far less power than before. Up until now, headphones and IEMs with electro-static drivers would normally be sold in conjunction with an amplifier which was specifically made to drive those headphone/IEMs. But now, due to the lower power requirements, these types of drivers can be implemented in IEMs without the requirement of a dedicated how-power amplifier. For the MEST there is yet again a dual driver package used in order to reproduce the ultra-high frequencies
There are also planar magnetic drivers, which too have become more popular in the last year or 2, but this type of driver technology is not used in the MEST. However, what is used is called bone conduction driver technology.

Admittedly, I’m not personally very clued up about this type of driver simply because it is so incredibly rarely used. But, Unique Melody has provided a bit of info about this tech and the reason for its implementation within the MEST.

Diagram 1: MEST Exploded Views

Diagram 2：The faceplates of the headphones are specially designed according to the structure of the bone conduction drivers. Bone conduction driver delivers signals by vibrating the faceplate. Then the signals are passed to the carbon fiber shell and finally delivered to your inner ear.Diagram 3: The bone conduction drivers are made by metal vibration pieces that are covered by piezoelectric ceramics. The ceramic layers will bend the metal vibration pieces to make micro-vibrations according to the changes of input alternating voltage.Diagram 4: The frequency curve of the bone conduction driver along with the shell on HATS.According to the frequency features of bone conduction driver, it can be used to embellish the vocals and instruments in mid and treble.

As a summary, MEST bone conduction technology has the following features:

• No standalone sound tunnels for bone conduction drivers.
• Sound can be heard by touching any parts of the shell.
• Low-Voltage driving bone conduction driver
• Resistant to treble noises
• Low distortion
• Smart fit and easy to be assembled

Drivers Configuration (per side):
1x Bone conduction driver to embellish the mid and treble.
2x EST drivers serve ultra-high frequency
2x High BA drivers.
2x Mid-high BA drivers.
1x Dynamic driver serves mid and bass.

Pricing & Availability

Unique Melody has indicated that the MEST will be available at CanJam NYC, and there will be a roughly $300 price difference between the universal-fit model ($1399) and the custom-fit model ($1699). However, as of writing this article the universal-fit model can be purchased for $1259 from the MusicTeck store.
Additionally, Unique Melody have stated, “Due to the special structure of MEST, we do not offer interchangeable reshell services between universal-fit and custom-fit. Making a customized MEST requires much more workforces than a universal MEST, thus we have to charge this $300 as a premium to cover additional costs. The custom-fit generally offers a larger touching area to your skin than universal-fit, thus the custom-fit helps the bone conduction driver to optimize its performance.”.