Have you ever watched a live show and wondered how the artist can hear themselves over a screaming crowd? In-ear monitors are the answer.
Sony just unveiled the new IER-M500 in-ear monitors built specifically for artists and The Knockturnal got an exclusive firsthand look. We got to spend the day at the Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City to see them in action. Our day started with a fun tour of the lot that included old Hollywood history and iconic soundstages. We also learned about Sony as a company, their beginnings in consumer electronics, and their impact within the music space.
Sony continuously is on the forefront of engineering and creating products of excellent use and quality. Learning about the new in-ears was very exciting and we even had a live demonstration with singer Anthony Gargiulia. Performers who need reliable and accurate audio while moving around on stage will be stoked. These are great for musicians who aren’t ready to drop major money but still wanting professional monitoring gear. 
The engineering of the IER-M500 is top tier and the fit itself is too. Sony designed these with proprietary fitting supporters and flexible ear pieces meant to keep the earphones locked in place. They come with four sizes of noise-isolating ear tips. When I first tried on a pair I needed to adjust the ear tips but easily found a perfect match for me. Performers don’t have to ever worry about them falling off mid performance. The earpieces also use a thin polyurethane wall designed to boost noise isolation. This is something that matters more than people realize believe it or not. The less a performer has to crank their volume to hear themselves over stage noise, the less strain on their ears over a long tour or residency. At the end of the day ear damage is irreparable so it’s important to keep that in mind.
Sony really leaned on its audio engineering pedigree here, pairing a dynamic driver with an optimized internal acoustic structure to deliver deep bass without sacrificing clarity on the high end. In addition, the IEMs are fully high-resolution audio compatible. This means it reproduces a wide frequency range which is good news for musicians who need to catch every cue, harmony, and count-off with precision. During the demonstration we got to listen to Gargiulia perform an acoustic set while we all had our own monitors on. This allowed us to hear the same thing he was listening to during his performance. It was a fantastic experience to really understand the scope of the monitors and their capabilities.
Durability of course was top of mind as well. The earphones feature a detachable, roughly 1.6-meter cable engineered to handle the wear and tear of constant plugging and unplugging between soundchecks, rehearsals, and shows. They come in three transparent finishes: clear, black, and a red-and-blue combo all marked with left and right earpieces for quick changeovers backstage. After the set we heard first hand from Gargiula how having monitors such a these make all the difference to any performer.
The IER-M500 is available for pre-sale now in all three colorways, with a price of $119.99 USD. Professional in-ear monitors can easily run several times that. Sony has created an accessible entry point for artists on the rise without cutting corners on the engineering.
More information and pre-sale details are available at Sony’s official site.
