REVIEW: WESTONE 3, the ULTIMATE UNIVERSAL IEM vs everything else - AKA W3 Appreciation Thread - Page 43

Was machine, tracked via USPS (and also AustraliaPost - which I really liked): USPS - Track & Confirm

That was my deciding factor to buy frm FreqCitySound.

well I did buy from you guys and although there was a little hick up with usps (they had a little issue got them on monday instead of saturday = meaningless) and after listening for a couple days they got better and better now I absolutely love them and cannot wait for custom tips on them.

Congrats! Great to hear you are liking them

Got mine this morning, 6 days to New Zealand, no customs fees, thanks EarPhoneSolutions. Bonus - working from home today, double bonus - gf not home, hopefully she won't even notice these!

So far I'm liking the grey silicon single flange the best

Thank you hockeyb213! I got the UM56 and my wife as well. So far she's loving the W3 with the UM56. I still prefer the ComplyTips. I guess it takes some getting used to the UM56 as they are quite more "intrusive".

Thanks FeedMeTrance for the feedback.

We will definitely look into that.

I don't think anything could be more intrusive then tf10's I am ready to brave the storm lol

well my appointment to get my impressions for UM56 is next friday so will soon be using custom tips on my W3 AND SE530. the sensaphonics tips although they sit more flush and look better, are softer, you can choose colour etc. But because they actually encompass the IEM to some degree (this is why they are more flush fitting) I wouldnt be able to use them with the SE530 as well as W3 this was the clincher as the westone custom tips will allow this.

so you're goin the UM'ers!

nice, i am going to look at selling off some gear, first on the chopping bock Klipsch X10s, then maybe (with regret) ER4, not sure yet!

qusp: can u pm the warranty links etc?

Just got my 3's, earlier than expected, thanks to Flavio T and a little shipping upgrade. All hype aside, these things are just blowing me away. Listening to the brand-new, re-issue of Pavement "Brighten The Corners: The Nicene Creeders Edition"...incredible sounds just coming out of these things. Using trusty old standard length Comply tips.

I did not read the whole thread but does anyone have any impressions of the W3 used for listening to faster, harder type music like Dimmu Borgir, Slayer, Chimaira, etc?? I tend to listen at the extremes of musical genres. Today I went from Patsy Cline to Dimmu Borgir just like that.

Dark Ninja: i will do some listening tonight and post my findings.

I have some Cradle of Filth, Slipknot, Slayer and Kittie I can use to test with

If you have the All Hope Is Gone (Slipknot) try the track 'Til We Die. It is not hard but one of my favorites. Thanks for the response Trance.

!PLEASE REFRAIN FROM QUOTING ME ON ANY OF THIS!

Okay, before anybody kills me for this, I have to say that I am not 100% sure what to blame for this, whether it be how the song was recorded or how the Westone 3 "translates" the frequencies. It is probably the latter, because I have never experienced this before on any other IEM or headphone.

That being said, listening to Tool, Megadeth, Pixies, and any other similar genres, it feels like the Westone 3 simply falls apart during the complicated passages of music. Everything seems to be smeared with bass, and so undefined that it's just...awful. Blanketed and muffled, it's beyond depressing to me. Think Sennheiser, but at least three times worse. I like Sennheiser and it's sound signature in general, but this goes way beyond my threshold of tolerance. The ever-present recessed percussion (somewhere in the mids, talking snare drum and such) definitely does not help its case.

This could be because I'm a Grado and Stax fan, but if you're looking at these IEMs for rock, stay far away from them. Tupac and Diana Krall are beautiful on these, but so far, I would deifnitely stick to my KSC75 for rock. I just switched to them as I typed that last part, and everything simply sounds more seperated. The guitars are obviously in front (I'm talking about the Tool song "Parabola" here), the bass is in the back but still quite noticeable, and the vocals are given a nice amount of space between the two. Worlds better now IMHO.

Ah, now I'm listening to Nightwish's "Dark Chest of Wonders" with my Grado SR225, and everything is simply seperated and given its own space to jam in. With the Westone 3, it's all mud, simply put.

Knowing my luck now, I'll post this and regret the backlash I've caused in a few minutes. But this has been bothering me greatly over the last day or two, and I simply think it's time that I say it for my personal ease of mind.

Sources: [straight from iPod headphone out] and [College setup #1]

Headphones compared to: [Koss KSC75] and [Grado SR225]

!PLEASE REFRAIN FROM QUOTING ME ON ANY OF THIS!