Westone 3 impressions?

[ultros]

Has anyone heard/bought the final version? Was it worth the wait? How does it fare against the competition?

[xand1x]

I heard it came out a few days ago. Haven't read any impressions but hopefully it sounds good. I was a huge fan of the UM2

[GPH]

I ordered a pair last week and should receive them probably on Monday or Tuesday. I'll post some impressions once I'll have given them a good listen, but there should be many fanboys posting minute-by-minute impressions on H-F so you might want to check that.

[Dreadhead]

I ordered a pair through E-Bay from earphone solutions and with coupon and cash-back got them for 40% off. My wife is giving me then for Christmas though so no tunes until the 25th (well maybe a 30 minute trial).

[GPH]

Just posted this on H-F:

After an hour and a half or so of listening, I have to say the W3 are very interesting IEMs and they have a lot of potential.

Physically, the W3 are very small and light and they are incredibly comfortable. I've been playing a bit with the tips and so far the medium Comply tips are those that fit me best. I was accoustumed to the Shure Olive tips with the Etymotic ER4S, but they don't fit the W3 very well because they are not long enough and don't provide a good fit like on the Etys. I tried the triflanges, but for some reason they sucked out some of the mids so I went back to the Complys and I'm very happy with the comfort that I get. I'm a little bit worried about the long term durability of these tips, they seem pretty fragile and I don't feel like buying new tips every month, but we'll see how it goes. The W3 pick up some hiss from the iPod when no music is playing, but it's not a big deal for me. I don't have a portable amp at the moment (well, if you don't consider a bag full of pieces for a Mini3 that I'm too lazy to build ) so perhaps this can cure the problem.

My first impressions after plugging them straight into my Ipod Touch 2G was that they don't have the "wow factor" that many headphones have. That's not a bad thing, because my favorite headphones ended up being those that didn't impress me at first: Stax Omega 2 and Sennheiser HD600. Like these two fine headphones, the W3 has a balanced sound across the spectrum and no frequency really stands out which is the key for good non-fatiguing listening. To be fair, the highs are slightly rolled off compared to most full-size cans and speakers, but that's been the case with every balanced armature IEM I've tried (Shure E4 and E500, AL iM716, UE Super.fi 5 Pro) except for the Etymotic ER4P/S which on the other hand is slightly too bright and a little bit harsh on top.

I have not listened enough yet to review the sound in detail, but I have to say that I'm very impressed so far with how they handle classical music. I've been disappointed with many headphones and IEMs in the past for listening to symphonies and the W3 seems to do the job very well, giving a "round" sound and not sounding too harsh while providing good dynamics. I'll post more impressions later...

[apnk]

Cool, thanks for for the quick impression!

[GPH]

After a day of having them and with the new toy factor wearing out, I have to say I'm not very impressed with these IEMs. I've tried all the tips provided, plus the Shure olives, and I notice differences between all of them, but the characteristics of the W3 that I don't like stay there. Here's what I dislike:

- Way too much bass. Also, the bass is not so tight and it overpowers the lower mids.

- There's a very noticeable veil on the vocals that gives an artifical tone to the voices. Overall, I'd say the mids are more on the recessed side of things, inserting unnatural smoothness in the sound signature.

- The highs are rolled off and remind me of why I didn't like the Shure E500. It's better with some tips than others (Shure black olives and clear silicon tips), but the Etys simply slaughters the W3 in this region.

- While the W3 provides a smooth and musical presentation, it's pretty bad for resolving low-level details. On fast musical passages, it blurries the notes and I don't get as much definition as I want.

The good things with the W3 is that they sound very musical and the bass is good for listening to classical music and jazz or any record that sounds thin. The sound is a lot less fatiguing than most of the IEMs I've tried. It's also very comfortable and low profile compared to the Etys.

With a price tag 5x higher than what I paid for my Etys, I'm going to sell them before the FOTM stops. I'm very disappointed, I was expecting a sound signature in the vein of the ER4S, but with a good bottom, and what we got is very far from that. The W3 smooths out things too much in order to provide a big and non-fatiguing sound and offer a sound that is far from what I consider "natural".

I'm going to post this message on H-F once the W3 will be sold.

[GPH]

BTW, is it just me or HeadphoneAddict is the biggest FOTM starter I've ever seen on Head-fi? He makes dedicated threads for his reviews, most of time with big capital letters in the title and he always seem super positive about everything. A lot of burn-in talk also in his reviews and it seems like a lot of people take his word for granted, though that's not his fault.

He seems like a friendly guy, but I hate the fact that a lot of people follow blindly his advice because I've been hearing very different things about some of the headphones that he reviewed (Markl Denon D5000 and Westone 3 come to my mind).

[grawk]

I'd only base buying decisions off very specific people's opinion over there.

[PFKMan23]

I don't know about biggest, as there are others like *ahem*, and jamato, but he's definitely one of the bigger ones.

[padam]

Thanks for the useful impressions.

[grawk]

You're asking for impressions about headphones that have only just been released, and have barely been circulated. At this point, you either need to show a little patience, or bite the bullet, and buy them. I'd recommend buying them from someone with a good return policy, in case you don't like them.

The focus of this particular forum is entertaining discussion. We're not a buying research service or an encyclopedia. There's a lot of good information here, but you need to remember that you'renot paying any of us to be your personal researcher.

[ZephyrSapphire]

Gotta agree with GPH on his points for the Westone 3's but I suppose its weaknesses are what makes it so musical. I bought them out of curiousity and I rather enjoy them for on the go purposes when you'd want to try and at least hear some bass and nothing harsh(er) while commuting. Cheers.

[Dreadhead]

Gotta agree with GPH on his points for the Westone 3's but I suppose its weaknesses are what makes it so musical. I bought them out of curiousity and I rather enjoy them for on the go purposes when you'd want to try and at least hear some bass and nothing harsh(er) while commuting. Cheers.

hmmm, mine arrived in the mail today. I was planning on waiting until christmas to open them but now I'm worried that if I need to return them I can't wait until then. I had the e500s and bought the W3's on the promise of balanced sound to match my Etys ER4s. If that's the case well maybe it's time to plan for a return (of course I haven't heard them yet).

[elnero]

What gave people the impression that the 3's were like a more balanced ER4?

[Dreadhead]

What gave people the impression that the 3's were like a more balanced ER4?

From Westone's website:

"The 3

[JBLoudG20]

From Westone's website:

"The 3

[grawk]

hard to listen with your ears to something that's prerelease. /me gives jbl some pamprin.

[Voltron]

From Westone's website:

"The 3

[JBLoudG20]

hard to listen with your ears to something that's prerelease. /me gives jbl some pamprin.

I don't see how a statement from the company claiming accuracy leads to claiming its an ER4. And I wasn't even bitching this time. Hence the smiley. Half hearted joke.

[ZephyrSapphire]

I've got both the ER4S and the Westone 3's. ER4S are like studio monitors where you listen to every detail, every mistake, every problem with a recording. The Westone 3's are like the opposite of these where you wanna enjoy the music regardless of how bad they're recorded. That about sums up the Westone 3's. Accurate reproduction? Hell no. But good enough reproduction to enjoy the music? Yes.

[JBLoudG20]

But good enough reproduction to enjoy the music? Yes.

I get that out of my MBP's internal speakers.

[ZephyrSapphire]

I get that out of my MBP's internal speakers.

Well better than that of course. Lol.

ER4S. Detailed.

Westone 3's. Musical.

Don't expect the Westone 3's to have the detail of the ER4S.

If the ER4S has a detail of 10 from a scale of 10.

The Westone 3's would have 7.5 by my book.

Triple.fi's have 5.

[elnero]

I've got both the ER4S and the Westone 3's. ER4S are like studio monitors where you listen to every detail, every mistake, every problem with a recording. The Westone 3's are like the opposite of these where you wanna enjoy the music regardless of how bad they're recorded. That about sums up the Westone 3's. Accurate reproduction? Hell no. But good enough reproduction to enjoy the music? Yes.

I wouldn't consider the ER4's accurate.

[catscratch]

ER-4P/S always had stupidly overblown highs to my ears and very short transients. A very metallic tone, too. The rest was actually quite good, and the bass was all there and was very crisp and textured.

I wouldn't expect the W3 to have a similar sound signature, and frankly I wouldn't want it to.

My set should be here on Monday, and I'll report with initial impressions. As long as it's similar to a UM2 but has more controlled bass, more extended highs, and significantly more detail, I'll be set. I don't need it to be an O2 killer in terms of SQ, it just has to not make me want to wince every time I listen... as the UM2 does (and the ER-4P, the E500, and just about any canalphone short of the ES2).