HeadphoneAddict

Maybe we CO peeps could team up and all go pay a visit to Mikhail and take inventory of what amps he is working on and help him prioritize his goals and timeline? Then followup to see if he is sticking to it. It would be like an intervention. Someone would have to distract his wife though. I nominate Sherwood.

That's too bad, I always liked the Avatar.

I've always wondered what benefit comes from complaining to the BBB. Can they make Mikhail act to fulfill the customer's wishes, or is it just a repository of complaints that most people never see? What are the chances the business would simply get irritated enough to invoke retribution by further delaying delivery of the customer's order or service? That would always be my fear. I definitely agree that no work should be done to a customer's amp without prior approval and firm estimate of the work.

I am about to start spending more time with plaidplatypus's Gilmore Reference that I am borrowing, and will be hooking it up to my mini-DAC tomorrow to give it a try. It got here right before we left for Maui for Xmas, and I've only tested it to make sure it was working, hooked up to a Samsung DVD in the other room. I'll let you know what I think about it - hoping I don't like it enough to make an offer to buy it (although it's not for sale).

I've been saying this for a while now that I think the fit, ear canal shape and tip choice makes all the difference between good and bad sound - explaining how one could hear something completely different than another person. Several other people have reversed their opinions of the W3 on "the forum that must not be named" once they found the right tips and positioning. I am glad you two have found a way to get the improved sound, but am sad about the continued comfort problems to achieve the sound I have heard from the start. I guess I am lucky to have the right ear size/shape to make several tips and ear positions work for me, including my custom UM-56.

Nice. How did you get Tommy Chong to pose for you?

Yes, that did put me on the defensive. I thought it was rather offensive and mean coming from someone who doesn't really know me.

I didn't mean to insult with that remark, I am sorry.

I would love to meet up sometime and compare O2 Mk1 vs my O2 Mk2, and maybe SR-X vs my SR-5NB - I'm just afraid to hear how much better the KGBHSE will sound above my Woo GES maxed. Sherwood's SRM-T1 that you are using was really nice when he brought it over a couple of months ago, and sounded almost identical to the GES prototype but it bested the GES in the bass with at least 2 db more low bass. Later I could hear the improved bass and transparency in my maxed GES vs the prototype, but the total power is still about the same. So, I'm sure it wont come close to the Blue Hawaii for the O2. Plaidplatypus liked the maxed GES with the SR-Lambda more than any other stat amp he's had, including his old KGSS, but didn't like the O2Mk2/GES as much as his old KGSS and O2 Mk1. So, I'm trying to decide between a O2 Mk1 or HE Audio Jade now.

You just can't let it go can you? Nit pick, pick pick pick... Can't answer the question, just looking for more ammo...

Okay. I would like to move forward and get this thread back on topic. I am concerned that two people have already gotten their UM-56 custom tips and posted that their Westone 3 sounded worse with them. Are there any people here who have tried the UM-56 custom tips with other IEM, like SE530, UM2, UM1, ER4, IM716, Klipsch Image or others and did not like the UM-56 as much as universal tips? I do know that when I would use a deep ear canal insertion with q-JAYS and Image X10 or Sleek SA6 that the sound would become dull and rolled off and boomy, with bass bleeding into the mids and hurting vocals and pianos. I posted a long time ago that by not inserting them as far that it really improved the sound a lot. Spyro found out the same thing with the W3 recently and is now loving them. So, I could see where the deeper insertion due to UM-56 could make it worse, but somehow the UM-56 improve both the Image X10 and W3 for my ears.

I have no doubts there are better amps than the Nuforce, and when I reviewed the Nuforce SRD-7 vs SRM-1 Mk2 Pro, the SRM-1 beat it, as did the GES prototype. I was considering an Almaro A205A Mk2 that JonL thought I should get, and decided to the the Woo GES maxed with pro and normal bias and loop out instead. The Nuforce/SRD-7 is just my backup, but it still sounds good to me, and better than even my HEV70.

Smart enough to predict the replies - "anything the person under attack says, you guys will find something to use as more ammo." Now I am having fun.

Also, I'm sorry if I like to review things that I consider the "best bang for the buck", or review things that I feel don't have enough reviews out there or are very new to the market. If you guys don't care about those things because they are mid-fi then you don't have to read them. In the future I will try to be careful to not make something sound like it is better than it sounds (no pun intended)

The whole thing was a joke. FeedMeTrance ask, "I hope you are kidding because I'm gonna look pretty funny on the bus doing this" and I told him it was all a joke. Except for the crossfeed part.

That's not what I said or meant. Changing the subject, this place really is impossible because anything the person under attack says, you guys will find something to use as more ammo. I was amazed that during my 3 day silence (just to see what would happen if I stayed away) didn't result in any hint of the attacks dying out - which actually impresses me with everyone's tenacity. So, I'm at a total loss as to what the proper course of action is now. You win.

Thanks, you and Sherwood and a couple of others are the only head-case'ers that I've seen handle this issue with some degree of maturity, probably exceeding my own. I just don't see this place as being fun, so that's good news for everyone else. I mean, seriously, the ASSumptions some people make over here about someone else are beyond belief.

Did you miss the part where it was a joke? What the hell is wrong with you people?

You have 3 criteria listed 1. excited noobs or people who only have experience with IEMs 2. good experience with all types of headphones 3. usually write rational and thoughtful reviews You have implied previously that I don't meet criterium #3 which I don't agree with, since if you simply ignore the title of my big review (which I proved how it was meant as a joke) I feel have a very rational and thoughtful review on the Westone 3 and other IEM. I made my journey with IEM very clear. Even though I meet criterium #2 with a good amount of experience with full size dynamics and electrostatics - by your tying #2 and #3 together you insinuate that I should be put in #1 which is all that remains. So, you have pissed me off to no end. I have all these F words floating around at the tip of my tongue, and even though head-case members seem to encourage that kind of behavior it doesn't fly with me. So, I'm logging off before I say something that I will regret later.

Well it's either a high 10% failure rate of the phones or tip selection, or I and many others have super bat-hearing and can hear what you are missing.

I think his Westone 3 might be broken because the description sounds so unlike mine. I hate recessed or muffled mids, causing me to sell two pair of standard Darths (muffled/recessed) and Proline 2500 (recessed). Maybe it is the fit or shape of his ear canals. And source does make a difference With my 2g nano they are not so impressive, but 3G nano and iPhone 3G and iMod or Macbook with Pico are each progressively better, till they simply sound stunning.

Actually, that was the conclusion of an inside joke with ZephyrSapphire from the "Westone 3 to be released 11/28" thread that I pushed to get renamed as the "Appreciation Thread". I thought it was funny, and didn't think the title would backfire on me - it went like this: Don't forget, I am trying to add links to all the impressions I find that are more than a few lines long, that have some substance to them, good or bad (at the bottom of my review's first post). I'm not trying to hide anything bad about them. Link to the actual review is removed to prevent breaking any rules about linking to another forum from here, and I can't link any impressions from this forum to my review or the review will be deleted.

CMasten posted a mini-review on head-fi, in a thread that I did not create, and not as a response to any of my posts. What he said below mirrors my findings, so I don't feel so bad now. Hah!

He should buy GPH's Westone 3 that are for sale - loads of bass.

Hi. I've been sitting on my hands for a couple of days, cooling off and thinking about how to reply to this post and the other post about FOTM starters. I can only reply honestly. We hear things differently. But what I hear I write about - I can't write about what you hear. Some of it may be due to my using UM-56 custom tips 90% of the time, some could be from different sources and program material, but much of it could be our physiology and how our ears are shaped differently and our brains interpret differently. It seems 80% of the people posting about the W3 (or other things I post about) hear things like I do. The other 20% must have some validity to their impressions too, but unless we sit down and listen to the same thing together and agree on some baseline as sounding the same while using terminology that is objective and not subjective, we have no experimental control or basis for comparison. As for your specific points above: - to my ears there is not too much bass and it doesn't encroach on the mids like the Image X10 did for me, unless I use the Complys foam tips. - I detect no veil or unnatural smoothness to the mids, the timbre and tone seems accurate, and to my ears the vocals are transparent and true, unless I use unmodified triple flange tips and then things sound plasticky. I don't hear recessed mids, and while they are not as forward as my AD2000 or O2 Mk2 the mids were more forward than SE530. - side by side with SE530 the W3 highs show no sign of roll off to me, although my hearing gives up the ghost at 16Khz (and I stated that in my review). Vs my de-podded IM716 the highs are slightly less prominent with the W3, but not lacking to my ears. - I find no lack of focus or congestion or lack of low level detail like I get with my Denon C700 or got with the Super.fi 5 Pro that I sold a while back, and find these W3 to be almost as detailed as my SR-001 (stock or audiocats modded). This is an issue I can easily and quickly hear when comparing an ATH-A900 (congested) to a re-cabled Denon D2000 (detailed). I don't have ER4 to compare to, with the closest being my de-podded IM716 which I will admit are quite good if properly amplified. p0wderh0und23 listened to my IM716 out of my iMod and Vcaps with Pico and was quite impressed with them - said he didn't expect them to sound as good as they do. Still, when amped or unamped I think these W3 are better than the other IEM that I have tried, and still a little better than my Livewires or de-podded IM716 with Shure black olive foam tips (wannabe ER4 but not quite but I still have after a year because they are still good). I like the way the W3 hit like an Edition 9 or big speaker, yet portray all the detail I could demand (I have great stat rigs, I know what detail sounds like). To me the de-podded IM716 only seem to compete with the big dogs when played with a proper amp, and I have read many times that the ER4 also need an amp. For portable my goal was to have something I could run right from an iPhone 3G or 3G Nano without an amp. I have been thinning the herd of portable amps to just have my USB amps for macbook, and my iMod/Vcap/Amp for travel. Based on what I hear with these comparisons, I can see where an ER4S or ER4P with an amp might be a seriously good IEM. I had been planning to get an APureSound ER4 until I got the Westone 3 and decided they were the best un-amped IEM I have owned. Maybe someday I will be able to do that comparison, and maybe a UE11Pro will come along my way too. I do not try to blow up the sound to astronomical proportions, or start a new FOTM, but I tell it like I hear it; and if I am enthusiastic about something I am more likely to review it and share my enthusiasm. What bugs me most about this place is that enthusiasm seems to be squashed like a bug before it can get out of hand. We should try to find a middle ground.