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Most interesting. I'm already thinking to my future upgrade from my much appreciated Vibes - not imminent but inevitable - a guy can't stand still - and I'm thinking full isolation and have been honing in on the UM2s. Now this! We may have another leader. (It certainly makes it easier to believe that Westone will edge out the Shure 500s for my purposes.)
As for the inline volume control, as someone who commutes to work with my iPod pocketed in its leather case, this is a potentially fine feature, especially when listening off a playlist or shufle. The question is the quality of the pots. Shure went with a low-end design explicitely for airplanes only (I ordered one but don't use it.) We will see if the Westone is better. That's at least possible and very intriguing.
__________________ Portable: iPod Touch > UE Triple-Fi 10 Pro (Westone cable) Movies: Pioneer DVR-550H > Denko ETPC interconnect > Millett Hybrid (diamond buffers) > Darth Beyer V3 (Wenge Blackmax) Home: Thinkpad T60 (Maxtor external HDD, Foobar) > USB Monica > Headphile Blackmax interconnect > Earmax Pro (1949 Valvo ECC81 coin base or 1961 Mullard M8162 or 1954 Philips ECC81 + matched 1965 Philips E188CC or matched 1968 Telefunken PCC88) > Beyer DT880 (600 ohm)
(Other favourite gear: MicroDAC, iPod Video 30GB, Turbodock, iRiver iFP-799, Meier Headsix, Sony D77 eggos)
Beyer: an Open and Closed case
One question I have: Does the Westone 3 have hiss with iPods?
I love my super-fi 5, but one thing that bugs me is the hiss from the iPod. It's only audible during quiet/silent parts, but still, I listen to music with a lot of dynamic range and so sometimes during music playback I will hear it.
There can be some "noise" with very low volumes, but it is FAR better than in the past. One thing that will help get rid of this with any earphone is the inline volume control we will include. It will be similiar to what Shure offers with their earphones. The noise is more an issue of the source over anything. With the newer iPods it's MUCH better than say the Gen3 I have as well.
Cool. I'll have to give these a listen today or tomorrow against my ue10. I did this last year at MacWorld against the shure e500, and while I enjoyed it's bass, it wasn't enough to make me buy them. The ue10 had crisper highs that I like. My biggest complaint against all iems except ety ER-4S, is the mids are lacking compared to Grados. I heard Westone are the closest to the Grados sound, so I'm really looking forward to testing these out.
I'll be using an unamped ipod 5th gen with Apple lossless files. Even with iem's, these are not the best condition to test stuff out with the excessive noise and the short amount of time you actually get to listen to them.
Just got back from the expo. I spoke with the original poster for a while and also listened to the headphones for about 10-15 minutes. I also gave the ue triple-fi 10 a listen about 15 minutes earlier.
As far as the triple-fi, I wasn't impressed. It sounded thin compared to the ue10 and not as much soundstage. It was also very hard to insert, uncomfortable, and stuck out too far. It has a very good sound overall but not up the ue10 standard.
Now on to the westone universal 3 driver. Lookwise, they look a little bit like grey shure e500 but not as nice looking. In fact, kind of plain. It had a flat profile that doesn't stick out like ue. They also fit much better than the triple-fi. About the same as the shures and not nearly as comfortable as custom fit.
Soundwise, they were much closer to the ue10 than ue's own triple-fi. The soundstage was about the same, bass was more impactful but maybe just a hint bloated compared to the ue10. I liked westone's mids better and the highs were about the same. I really like the sound. I'd get these if I didn't have the ue10 already. Because of the slightly twangier mids, I might like the westone's better.
The guy said they use the Grado RS-1 as a starting point but still go for a more neutral sound. I'm a huge Grado fan so this is an advantage for me. I'd say that they still made them a tad too neutral for my taste but better than anyone else as far as iem's go. He also mentioned they might come out with a custom version of this one. Their current triple-driver custom is not meant for recorded playback and is bumped in the mids. Oh, he also said they come out in March.
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