Recording - March 2014 - 34

Reviews by Mike Metlay

highly affordable and great-sounding MA350, reviewed
December 2013; at the time, I was stunned by the value for
money the MA350 represented, and said I was eager to try something higher up on the company's line. RHA obliged me by sending the MA750i, and I wasn't disappointed.
The MA750i is a single-driver in-ear monitor that's marketed as a
high-end earphone for portable listening on smartphones and digital audio players as well as professional use; it has a few extra features and "luxury" amenities not seen on conventional in-ears sold
for music professionals. Like all RHA in-ears, the MA750i relies as
heavily on the shape of the housing as it does on the driver and
electronics; the in-ears have a patented stainless steel "Aerophonic"

Stick It In Your Ear
These three in-ear monitors offer excellent audio quality in an eminently portable format
The in-ear monitor is often viewed suspiciously by recording musicians who rely on monitor speakers, or at worst
headphones, to check their work during tracking and mixing. Sonic performance varies widely between in-ears, and
it can take a lot of research and listening to find a set that
can provide a reliable listening experience, even if they're
only being used as check monitors.
But that research can pay off. A good set of in-ears can provide a detailed and trustworthy monitoring solution for situations
like live recording, where good isolation from outside noise is
critical to mix decisions if the recording engineer is forced to
work at Front Of House rather than in a quieter location. And
once you learn them, they're portable enough to accompany
you pretty much anywhere, and can double as on-stage monitors if you play live.
The secret, of course, is to find a good set of in-ear monitors in the first place. Here's a quick rundown of my experiences with three of the latest and greatest.
Note that with in-ears, the phrase "your mileage may vary"
takes on even more resonance than it does with headphones.
They're by far the most intimately personal of listening devices,
and one user's experience will vary widely from another's. For
that reason, I'm keeping these reviews short and sweet; after
you've read about the basics from me, you'll want to fill in the
missing details on your own.-MM

RHA MA750i
$129.95; www.rha-audio.com/us/ma750i.html

Reid Heath Acoustics (or as the firm prefers to be known,
RHA) is a British firm first introduced to our readers with the

enclosure shaped like the bell of a trumpet in reverse. This design
acts as a sort of waveguide, directing sound into the ear canal with
a minimum of interference and unpleasant added harmonics.
The MA750i's frequency response is given as 16 Hz to 22 kHz,
but the published curve is far from linear, with what looks on paper
like a massively scooped response above 7 kHz. This doesn't translate to a muddy sound, however, and lends credence to the adage
that published response curves for in-ears (and, some would argue,
all headphones!) are a lot less immediately useful than those of
monitor speakers. With a 16 ohm impedance, the in-ears get nicely loud even when used with small portable audio devices that may
have less output power. The MA750i has a 100 dB sensitivity (per
mV, presumably).
The in-ears have slightly stiffened over-the ear fittings that lead to
a 1.35-meter oxygen-free copper cable. The right ear sports an inline 3-button remote as commonly used on Apple products (volume
up/down and play/pause/track skip forward/back). The gold-plated TRRS miniplug does not come with a 1/4" adapter.
The MA750i comes with a leather zipper case that holds a clothing clip and a perforated steel card with a selection of nine different eartips in addition to the ones that come already fitted. There
are single-flange silicone tips in three sizes, two pairs each; dualflange eartips in two sizes; and two pairs of compressible closedcell foam tips in one size. It's an elegant presentation, but once
you've found the right size and shape for your ears, there's not a lot
of reason to haul around all the tips that don't fit.
I lived with the MA750i in-ears for about six weeks, and really
enjoyed what they did for me. They offer a detailed soundstage
with lots of stereo definition, and don't show any particular preference for one type of music over another, giving good results for
hard rock, dance music, acoustic jazz, classical, country/
Americana, and more. Sound isolation is quite good, especially
with the foam eartips.
Bass response is strong but not overpowering, with more emphasis on clarity and detail than monstrous punch. This is especially
evident on solo acoustic bass and grand piano, where details
shine without being obnoxious. The mids are clear and balanced,
with vocals presented with just a hint of forwardness. The extreme
highs are not screechy, thanks to the rolloff, but there's no real
sense of muddiness or missing material, and the resulting smooth
clarity makes them comfortable for long listening sessions.
If you're in the market for a very affordable in-ear that can go
from casual listening to the studio to the live venue, that delivers a
clear and balanced sound while playing nicely with Apple products, the MA750i is an appealing choice.

Sony MDR-7550
$349.99; http://pro.sony.com/bbsc/ssr/product-MDR7550/

Sony's MDR headphones have been a studio staple worldwide for
decades; elsewhere in this issue we look at the latest releases in the
34

RECORDING March 2014

http://www.rha-audio.com/us/ma750i.html http://pro.sony.com/bbsc/ssr/product-MDR7550/

Recording - March 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - March 2014