Introduction

If you were to ask me just a couple of years ago what the most expensive product I would review here would be, chances are high I would not be saying earphones. After all, the very first set of in-ear monitors I reviewed cost $200 at the time and there has been an ongoing race to the bottom of the price barrel with budget IEMs in the $15-30 range having balanced tuning out of the box. Yet the high-end IEM market has been marching relentlessly at the same time. New driver technologies have come out, different materials have been incorporated, advanced electrical engineering has been applied, and expensive R&D + testing facilities have been purchased to come up with IEMs which aim to rival the sound signature of very expensive speaker systems in a well-treated room. Soundstage aside, flagship IEMs these days have indeed been the preferred personal audio solution for many people around the world who can’t be bothered with heavy and bulky desktop gear which can’t easily travel with you. There are multiple IEMs which cost over $10,000 as of the date I write this, and many, many sets which are more expensive than the subject of this review to where, while you and many others may be shocked to know earphones can cost this much, the flagship IEM market continues to thrive and even increase its market share over time.

Those who have read my IEM reviews would be familiar with Poland-based Custom Art which impressed with the excellent FIBAE 7 Unlimited in its CIEM form. The team behind Custom Art were among the first in the world to come up with certain novel technologies, including the ability to have a flat impedance curve for IEMs allowing them to retain their tonality irrespective of the output impedance of sources used. It has also been experimenting with different driver types and combinations, with the FIBAE 5 and Hybrid 3 Pro going for planar magnetic drivers rather than the usual balanced armature or EST drivers for the higher frequencies. Custom Art has also been true to its name in coming out with very cool custom designs for its IEMs, including resin shells and faceplates alike. It was no surprise to me when the founder of Custom Art—Piotr Marek Granicki—decided it was time to open a boutique brand and used his initials to help name PMG Audio late last year. PMG Audio is effectively a premium product division of Custom Art with the goal of creating “audio products that are unique and exclusive, but at the same time a little bit more eccentric.” Its debut product is called the Apx (short for Apex) and was kindly provided by PMG Audio to TechPowerUp for review. We begin, as always, with a look at the product specifications in the table below.

Specifications

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