Do you spend a lot of your time jumping around on a stage? Even if you’re just standing there playing with your instrument, Sony’s new in-ear monitors could be for you. Sony doesn’t only make great consumer tech; it also dabbles in professional gear. The IER-M500 is Sony’s latest pro gear aimed at “amateur, emerging, and professional musicians, performers, and monitor engineers who require reliable and accurate in-ear monitoring for live performances and practices.”
Check-check, one-two
These in-ear buds apparently “fill a gap in Sony’s professional audio lineup, strengthening its end-to-end creator ecosystem,” so they should pair well if you’re using Sony gear elsewhere in your signal chain. They will probably pair well with any professional gear, but Sony obviously wants you to stay in its ecosystem.
The IER-M500 were developed in collaboration with monitoring engineers. Those are the guys that make sure what is being recorded sounds good before the mixing engineers get their grubby hands on it.
A big focus for these in-ears is their comfort and stability. Shape and weight balance are big factors here, as is how they fit into and sit in your ear. Hence Sony’s inclusion of its original fitting supporters, along with four sizes of noise-isolating eartips.
Sony says these were designed using its decades of engineering expertise. We should hope so. It seems like a waste not to.
“The fully sealed structure, combined with a large acoustic chamber offers outstanding sound isolation, even in noisy live environments. The dynamic driver and a large acoustic chamber, produce deep, controlled bass, while the optimized internal structure refines high-frequency reproduction, to help nail every cue and harmony.”
As professional gear goes, you might expect to pay significantly more than the average Joe would for his in-ear monitors. But Sony is pricing these at $120, or just under R2,000 directly converted. Whether you’ll be able to get them here for close to that price isn’t clear. But we’re sure there’s a pro audio distributor out there that will make them available if you really want them.
