It was my bday yesterday, and the Westone UM2s came in a day before my bday so I was
. EarphoneSolutions.com first of all ships their stuff quick and they're out of California so no tax for me plus free shipping.
On to the headphones:
The headphones came in this glossy packaging which you would expect for paying around $200-300 for a pair of IEMs. But inside, the packaging is very simple and inside are the UM2's. At first, these looked like a pair of cheap old man's hearing aids. But once you put them on and listen to em, you'll change your mind completely.
Here's a mini-review:
Sound: The sound is...what can I say? It's like an addicting game that you can't stop playing even when you have a calculus test the next day + sat's on the same week. I listened to em for 3 hours and wow, absolutely amazing. I used my old trustly iRiver Slim-X 350 cd/mp3 player and I was suprised at how it sounded. It had this crisp and deep bass feeling, the "IN YOUR FACE" feeling as if the music is at a live concert. It sounded beutiful to me and I will not deny that. Every moment of it, it sounded amazing. This goes to the following categories:
Note: I used mp3s only. VBR settings with an average bitrate around 200.
I'll have more much later.
I perfer comply tips over the biflanges, simply because they are less harsh and much more comfortable.
Rock music (Alternative, Rock, etc.):
I tried the following artists:
Senses Fail -
Hot damn this was spectacular! I was really feeling the drums, they had the "in your face" feeling for the drums, the guitars were just there and I could notice more details compared to my old shure e2c's. The music is NOT distorted when I bump up the bass or treble. The bass is difference between the shures is like 2 upgrades. There's a lot of bass with the shures but they're not as fun or clear as the UM2s. There's a ton of it when I bump it up. It's the fun type of bass, and not excessive. It's the "oh my keep going" type of the bass, and it was just simply addicting. This type of music does need some EQ'ing to get the music just right, and right now I'm using the Metal/Rock EQ settings on my slimx350 which is just right for any type of rock music. Not too harsh, just perfect for my tastes. Every single track sounds much more alive compared to the shures, the sennheiser 280s, and the sony mdr-v6's.
Story of the Year.
Same experience as Senses Fail except this time the drums are really really at your face. You can feel as if an impact is smacking your ear and it sure as hell doesn't hurt but feels good. I notice that I can hear a tiny bit of artificating that can be heard with the UM2s with some tracks because the source is mp3, but it's not too noticeable in my case and was very pleasant.
Hip Hop
Black Eyed Pea's
The UM2s have a lot of bass to provide a fun soothing feeling, it's not abundant if you can EQ it correctly or adjust your bass settings correctly. But in my case, I just decided to bump the bass up all the way and suprisingly in all the hip hop tracks I tried including all of the Black Eyed Pea's newest songs from their new album sounded very satisfying. The bass can be low and punchy but just the fun type of sounding bass. Again, addiction comes into play.
Again, I'll have more tracks to try sometime later. So far I believe I've put around 6 hours into these headphones and I just got em 2 days ago...and also add the fact I'm very busy with life lately with college applications, sat's, and all that.
Comfort:
With the comply tips, they're very comfortable. I'm not sure why people have been complaining about the comply tips, but the ones that came stock with the headphones are just right. I'm using the short comply tips, and would take the short comply tips over the biflanges anyday due to comfort and less harshness. I can walk, run, and workout with them without worrying about comfort issues.
Wiring:
The wiring looks simple but it's done in such a way so that the wires don't get tangled up. They're very thin and sturdy so far.
Isolation:
Blocks out a ton of sound from the outside, I miss my phone calls because of them. I can't claps no matter how loud I clap with em.
With the Shure e2c's, I usually have to listen to a volume 32-35/40 on the SlimX350's. With the Westone UM2's, it's 25/40 is the best for me and is very loud, anything more than 27/40 would be overkill for me and I wouldn't be able to take it.
I'm listening to em right now, and yes its a thumbs up way up. Def worth the money and works well with portables. They sound amazing out of the box and can't wait to try more tracks with them
I'm thinking about getting either a Phillips HD6330 or an ipod soon, I'll have another update soon.
Westone UM2's are here, talk about wonderful experience! A simple mini review
