I’d like to extend a special thanks to Piotr and his team at PMG Audio for sending us a review sample of Apx ME with no expectations other than a fair and timely review. We are not affiliated with PMG Audio in any way, but have always enjoyed a positive and productive relationship with Piotr, and appreciate his immense contribution to the portable audio community.
The Apex
This review has been split into two parts, simply because there is just too much to unwrap and explore in what is sure to be one of our biggest IEM reviews, ever. Part Two will be published before Christmas, so do stay tuned.
For many of us who’ve been around the audio gear circuit for a while, Piotr Marek Granicki needs no introduction. Based in Warsaw, Poland, Piotr started as an enthusiast whose interest intensified to the point where he became a reviewer and avid DIY-er, modifying audio gear to his liking.
Then, in 2012, he turned his passion into a business, founding Custom Art – a bespoke manufacturer of in-ear monitors, particularly custom IEMs, at a time when the industry was very much in its infancy. Fast forward 13 successful years, and a new, somewhat risky idea took shape. In his own words:
The idea for launching PMG Audio grew inside me for some time. We had plans for creating a flagship product; however every time we compared development goals to Custom Art’s brand philosophy, we concluded that the product just didn’t fit.
After weighing the risks, we decided that building a new brand, with a dedicated super high-end, cost-no-object approach, was just safer, as it gave us “carte blanche” to do what we needed to do to make that happen.
At the same time, we made sure to back PMG with all the experience and technologies that we gathered over 13 years with Custom Art, so that customers could rely on our history and track record.
The Apx project
PMG’s original Apx (pronounced APEX), also known as Apx AE (Amber Edition), was the culmination of Piotr’s vision for a peerless IEM incorporating all the technologies and tuning skills he’d developed in his long career.
With a strictly limited run of 25 units and an eye-watering price of €6,000 ($7,000), Apx AE was capped with genuine Amber set inside an ink-black resin shell. It featured 11 custom-built drivers per side, including a unique combination of planar, dynamic and BA drivers made to exacting specifications, plus Custom Art’s famous FIBAE (Flat Impedance Balanced Armature Earphone), geometrical sound outlet (GSO), and a new pressure optimising design (PMO).
Following a successful launch, PMG quickly proceeded to Apx SE (Stone Edition). Retaining the same shape, resin shells, driver count (but with tweaked drivers and crossovers), acoustic technologies, and price, Apx SE swapped Amber faceplates for genuine Lapis Lazuli-Brass stone, inlaid in hand-painted blue-gold housing.
It also featured all-new tuning, switching from the brighter, treble-focused sound of the original to a more balanced, W-shaped tonality with bigger emphasis on bass texture and midrange purity while retaining extended – but slightly attenuated – treble response. Only 100 sets were made, all now accounted for.
Apx ME
Which brings us to the third (and, I’m told, potentially final) iteration of the Apx project. With the success of the first two, Piotr set out to create a completely new design, taking into account all feedback from the community, and even involving them at various stages of the design process.
The result: Apx ME (Metal Edition), a notable departure from AE and SE, not only by virtue of its milled titanium shells. Apx ME is also very different in how it sounds, which Piotr says is fully intentional:
Each Apx is supposed to sound vastly different; that’s how we envisioned the Apx line from the very beginning. At its core, [the different] Apx versions [will appeal to] individual preferences in sound signature, because their technicalities are almost a given. Creating just “SE 2.0” would have been too much of a low-effort approach in my personal opinion. Instead, we want to share each Apx iteration with a different audience.
This comes as a surprise to many enthusiasts, especially those who fell in love with Apx SE and wanted ME to be an “SE 2.0”. I felt it important to address this distinction upfront because for those thinking about purchasing the new Apx, it’s very different from what came before, and not by accident. It’s also why I personally consider Apx ME to be the APEX of the family.
Continue to packaging and presentation…
