Ultimate Ears Triple.Fi Reference Monitors: Modified by Rin Choi

A $990 vs $99 Challenge

About a month ago, a parcel originated from Changstar was dropped off at my doorstep. I was afraid it was a fart bomb(My apologies to the folks at Changstar, LOL) or something, but thankfully, it was a scratch pair of Ultimate Ears Triple.Fi 10 Pro, sent to me for modification from James. Previously, I stated:

"Is it just me, or the frequency response of the UERM really resembles that of good old Triple.Fi 10 Pro?"

So I set out to find out whether TF10 can be modified to closely match the frequency response of UERM or not to fulfill my friend's request. And if possible, the modified TFRM will be sent off for user auditioning, along with the IEM it was modeled after, UERM itself.


Rin Choi's Triple.Fi Reference Monitors

I can talk about how TF10 can be modified all day long as how I've done here, so I'll just cut the crap, and simply get to the result right away.

The IEM has been extensively modified from its crossover network scheme to its acoustic damping characteristics, so that the consequential tonality closely resembles the sound of UERM. As the rear part of the housing has been cracked open and completely ripped apart, I wouldn't dare to praise TFRM's aesthetic value. There's no durability issue though, since the IEM has been literally covered with a heady-duty epoxy resin inside and out.

Regardless, Above plots acquired at the reference plane of the occluded ear simulator indicate how finely TFRM is tuned against UERM, custom or not.

Unlike the target, TFRM finds its glory from the tweeter transducer, UEHI's high acoustic output impedance. In other words, sleeve acoustics play very important role with this modified IEM. Its versatility is unparalleled- Once a pair of long-thick calibered sleeves is attached, TFRM starts to sounds like TDK BA200, no kidding.

I've done what I can possibly do on my end, so I'll leave the subjective judgment to the panels of the loan tour, which will be organized soon at Head-Fi.org. Hopefully this technique turns out to substantially increase the fidelity of TF10 subjectively, almost up to that of UERM. A relevant modification guide will be presented after the tour.


Impedance adapter

I made this adapter for James, so that he can hook up his UERM to any source devices without losing too much treble, caused by high output impedance. If nothing goes wrong, this will be included in the loan tour along with UERM and TFRM.

The adapter can't correct all the error, but will definitely help the tour panels who are struggling with their devices' high source impedance, as the attenuation is only a few dB with the adapter attached. Of course, this won't work if the source impedance is lower than 1 Ω.