WESTONE 3 IMPRESSIONS AND APPRECIATION THREAD - Page 71

Why do you hate Complys? Wearing out early, hence expense? Getting set in the ear just right? The standard size gives very balanced sound with the W3s...

Just how they are so unsanitary and absorb so much oil and dirt. But the fit is perfect every time.

nice one..how this compare to se530?

Olives w/SE530 same thing. All I am saying is they are more laborsome than a silicone tip. A silicone tip you can just pop in and out without the whole exercise of compressing the comply just right, right arm over left ear, insert, wait until it expands to release the IEM, etc. But the foams and olives still sound best so I deal with it. That's all I'm saying.

Do you mean the included comply foam tips?
Yeah, they are good in terms of comfort and isolation.. but they don't suite Westone 3's well if you ask me... (no tip that i have tried does suite them yet )
but so far they are the best for balanced sound.. (if you take out the Sibilance.. they are great!)
That said, Westone 3's sound good with both silicones and foamies..
But.. they don't help reduce the Sibilance.. (foam tips sound better than Silicones - less Sibilance + more controlled bass)
Also, Large Foamies = more bass and less sibilance than medium Foamies. (edit: but bass is very boomy and uncontrolled when using large foamies!!!)
In my case, the reason for Large foam tips to be bassier than the mediums might be that they fit more tightly in my ears than the medium foamies...

Westone 3's don't go deep in the ear with any of the tips included tips, including the foam tips (+ W3's have a small Nozzle).. the large foam tips just havea thicker foam padding.. when instead, it should have a bigger duct/canal length... (maybe one model with thick padding for people who need that.. and one that are just as thick as mediums but with a bigger canal length?)
bragging about the ear tip length because i think deeper the tip goes in the ear, lesser the sibilance.. (My "Current" theory, just so you know)
Current Fav: Medium Comply Foam tips
hope this helps!

That's what I hate about Tri-flange too! they itch like crazy after a while!

Do you Always use an amp with W3's?

FYI: Apple Store (in Palo Alto) has Shure Medium Olive tips, hanging in their earphone section - $19.95.

(not cheap, but you can put your hands on them!)

No, I often listen straight out of my iPhone 3G or 3G Nano. But with my 2G nano or 5.5G iPod video I always use an amp.

it just shouldn't be this hard to get a proper sound from any IEM (specially with $399 price tag)

ummm.. maybe if i listen to them for a few months and lose my hearing, they will start sounding better?
Oh my God, at the moment they are sounding better with my PC (not SQ wise.... the sibilance is not irritating my ears that much)

update on my "Current" theory: when the sibilance is reduced using long tips, they reduce the sound stage and increase the bass (but very boomy bass!) and reduce a lot of detail..
So if long tips aren't the solution.. what is?

maybe a different source? but they should work with all (or most) sources! (for some people they do.. but why not for me?
well, let's see what happens next..

Hmm, interesting that so many seem to be noticing sibilance with the W3s. My experience with the sibilance is pretty good: when I was using the small gray silicone tips at first, I noticed a bit of sibilance in select songs, and it disappeared when I tried the Comply tips. When I went back to the other tips again, I didn't notice the sibilance. *shrug*

I have never experienced sibilance with Westone IEM's. I have owned the
UM2's, and now I own the 3's. I have always used an Ipod stocked with Apple Lossless files. I have experimented with lower bit rate stuff before, and a good IEM really brings out how crappy lossy files are. Maybe that is the sibilance people are talking about. I am using the standard comply's. They are amazingly comfortable, and I can keep them in my ears for hours on end. While the sound tube for the 3's is short, the long standard comply tips go very deep into my ear canal to pipe that sweet sound of perfection straight to my brain. The way I see it is this, shorter sound tube means using a tip that is going to extend that tube a little farther. The comply's do that perfectly for me. As far as listening with and without an amp, I like using an amp. My reasons are this; when I plug my 3's into my 120 GB Ipod Classic and the volume is all the way down the phones are so sensitive that I am already hearing volume. With an amp I can really adjust the volume at a finer level, which is perfect for the sensitive 3's. When the volume is down on my SR-71A I am not hearing anything but a shadow of sound, so I just slowly swell the volume knob until I get that full sound inside my head. I really think that the sensitivity of the 3's allows me to get some well deserved intimacy with my high caliber RSA amp also. I feel somehow I'm truly experiencing an unadulterated aural version of the RSA 'house sound.' It's great, the recipe is simple too. Make sure all EQ settings are off, plug Ipod into amp, plug phones into amp, and enjoy. Another great thing directly related to the sensitivity of the 3's that warrants noodling is LOD rolling. I have found that using my 3's and the RSA amp is perfect for this. I can truly hear a difference when I swap say a copper conductor with a silver conductor. Different quality copper is also equally as satisfying to experiment with. Anyway these phones are just amazing, and I am truly enjoying them. I have found that they are incredible when paired with jazz, and classical. When combined with the SR-71A the results are just mindbending.

Have you compared Shure Olives to the Comply's?

fwiw: I found the Olives to provide significantly tighter bass, and much more air in the high frequencies, with the W3's. (of course, ymmv)

I don't hear any sibilance with mine, Im starting to think it might be the artists you listen to which has ssss's as a ssstandard in their vocalssss.
And the fit is perfect for me, they almost slide in by themselves.
Using the grey silicon medium tips..

Well, I can't speak for anyone else, but I don't even have low bitrates on my Sony or my Touch. All my music is in wma vbr and aac at the highest setting, which ranges somewhere between 300/350kbps. And the sibilance I'm hearing hasn't been present with earphones I've used before.

So I don't know why some people are being plagued by it, and others aren't. If it's a 'fit' issue because of the length of the tube (and it's beginning to sound like it could be), then it's just a bad design for those of us whose ears don't 'conform' to the right shape.

I thought about that too.. but problem isn't just with Sss's in the voice.. in some songs the music sounds very shrill and i have to turn down the volume... (i don't listen to my music at high volume)

Tried Lossless music.. maybe the shrillness is because of the Lossy music? (tried Hotel California but both Lossless (Flac) and Lossy (256kbps) files don't have any noticeable sibilance)

Did a few more comparisons and to me the music sounds shrill when listening to the Lossy MP3's (high quality, 256kbps or more) of the same track..
Sibilance doesn't change if it is there.. it will be there when listening to Lossless or Lossy file.. whereas the music sounds much smoother when listening to Lossless file!