Review: MEElectronics M6 In Ear Monitors (IEM)

MEElectronics M6-BK MEElectronics M6 In Ear Headphones

I've written several articles now on IEM.  It's a subject that I have a keen interest in, and so should you!  IEM not only offers unparalleled quality of live performance monitoring, it also protects your hearing - ironically something that's often neglected by musicians.  The rising popularity of IEM has given us much more choice, and helped drive down the costs across the board.

This review is a case in point.  Five years ago you had to go a long way north of £100 for a half decent pair of monitors.  A little over a year ago I paid more than that for a set of (ACS) monitors which whilst pretty accurate in terms of sound reproduction - certainly were not as good as the (Shure) pair they replaced.

Now you can get a pair delivered to your door for under £20 from a consumer retailer (Amazon, in this case).  Quite frankly that is incredible, and I had to get a pair if only to find out how bad they were!

MEE have quite a range of IEM/Earphones/Headphones.  I opted for the popular M6 model and while they are marketed as Headphones, make no mistake, these are IEM.  They follow a similar design model to Shure's range and also include a 'memory' sheath to the part of the cable that goes around the top of the ear.  This sounds like a fine idea and may well work out to be so.  For now, after two rehearsals I'm still struggling to get the bends in the right places - but that might just be me.  I opted for cool black, but they do have lots of colours including a nifty looking clear set ... maybe next time.

The MEEs came with a selection of silicon tips, essential to get the right fit for your ear canals.  Sorry foam tip fans, there's none for you here!  Personally, I've always been a fan of the silicon ones, and I didn't have too much trouble finding the right ones to fit my ears.  There's only one pair of each, so no spares, but at £20 for the package you're not going to be in too much trouble if one gets lost or split.  Let's face it, at this price you can have two or even three packs in your gig band if you really need to be covered for all eventualities.

The whole lot packs away in the supplied neat little case.  A very good package I think we will all agree.  But what you really want to know is, "what do they sound like?".

I have read several reviews that complained about these being somewhat 'bass heavy'.  I suppose that may be true, they do emphasise the lower frequencies a little more than my last set (ACS), however it's difficult to think of a scenario in which this is anything except a major positive!  I don't know, perhaps if you are a bass player and you need your bass guitar particularly high in the mix, you may be left with the impression that your instrument is a little bassier than it actually is.  This is a very minor niggle though.

The sound quality is excellent and the fit/sound exclusion is so good, that if I didn't know better I could honestly believe that a zero had been left off the price.  Come next payday, I will have no second thoughts about buying a spare set to keep in my gig bag .... just in case ;-)

Amazon