Westone ES5 - Page 8

Ohh so yours isn't the translucent smoke? 

It is the translucent smoke . Look at the pictures. I didn't take those with x-rays. ;-) 

I am just saying that the smoke colour is nonetheless quite dark in ordinary light. It looks great IMHO.

Thanks. After much debate between the two I think i'm going to go for the translucent color :) I think I just made up my mind. Finally. 

Now if someone can chime in on those ALO SXC cables grrr....

Could someone ask Westone to make a more bassy ES5 just like the UE11 to UE10 and Jh16 to Jh13?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kunlun 

Could someone ask Westone to make a more bassy ES5 just like the UE11 to UE10 and Jh16 to Jh13?

 

I think that would defeat the point of the ES5?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anaxilus 

I think that would defeat the point of the ES5?

Could you explain further?

You're not saying that the Jh16 defeats the point of the Jh13, right?

I'm not sure how an "ES6" or whatever would defeat the point of the ES5.

 

Maybe just call it the ES5X .. X for xtra bass :)  but they'd probably need an extra bass driver for that. To be honest it just isn't westone's style. They had a similar dilemma when the W3 and UM3X came out and people generally felt that the more neutral UM3X was the real winner. So why repeat the same mistakes? That being said i'm not sure how both did relatively in terms of sales. 

ES5 bass quality is very good.and the quantity is right for the overall sound (balanced, detailed and musical).  All IMHO YMMV as always.

I also don't see the JH-16 being Westone's style but who knows.

Quote:

Originally Posted by cooperpwc 

ES5 bass quality is very good.and the quantity is right for the overall sound (balanced, detailed and musical).  All IMHO YMMV as always.

 

I also don't see the JH-16 being Westone's style but who knows.

How about the W3? They could definitely do a custom that had a full bass like the jh16 and also balanced, controlled, clear like the jh16. At least, I imagine that they could.

Anyone have the ES3X to compare to the ES5?..I'm guessing I have to wait for HPA's review (whenever that is but no rush on my end).

Kunlun, I spent more than an hour with the Westone 3 in HK a few months ago. Based on my memory, it does not have more bass than the ES5 (except for perhaps a bit of bloat resonance. My Triple-fi's with the complys have a bit of extra bloat resonance but that does not equal more bass to my mind.)

The bass on the ES5 is higher quality than the W3. Across the board, the ES5 significantly betters the W3. (But then I prefer both the Triple-fi's and the UM3X to the W3.)

Quote:

Originally Posted by cooperpwc 

Kunlun, I spent more than an hour with the Westone 3 in HK a few months ago. Based on my memory, it does not have more bass than the ES5 (except for perhaps a bit of bloat resonance. My Triple-fi's with the complys have a bit of extra bloat resonance but that does not equal more bass to my mind.)

 

The bass on the ES5 is higher quality than the W3. Across the board, the ES5 significantly betters the W3. (But then I prefer both the Triple-fi's and the UM3X to the W3.)

Thanks, cooper, I appreciate your comments here and look forward to further impressions as you listen to your ES5 more.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kunlun 

Could you explain further?

You're not saying that the Jh16 defeats the point of the Jh13, right?

I'm not sure how an "ES6" or whatever would defeat the point of the ES5.

 

Not at all.  The impression i got from the ES5s intent was to be the best expression of a neutral reference monitor.  Adding bass would make it a different beast for a different audience I believe.
 

The user and possible westone employee sumflow wrote me on this topic. I thought I'd share the pm with everyone and then post my response here as well. Sumflow's words are in blue.

 

Kunlun you have been around for a while.  Suppose you designed an earphone that produced all frequencies of sound exactly like it originally was before it was put on CD.  A perfect Kunlun set of earplugs.
Quote:

 

Originally Posted by Kunlun   Could someone ask Westone to make a more bassy ES5?

 

What would you do if you wanted to distort the original sound by changing the balance between the frequencies? 

 

You could try increasing the bass drivers.  But the Bass is already excellent, you designed it yourself.  So if you want to increase the bass as compared to the other frequencies, you would have to decrease the other two.  That is you would have to make your perfect mids and high speakers malfunction in order to make the bass sound louder than the other two.
Quote:

 

Originally Posted by Anaxilus  I think that would defeat the point of the ES5?

It sure would.  Do you get it.
Quote:

 

Originally Posted by cooperpwc   ES5 bass quality is very good.and the quantity is right for the overall sound (balanced, detailed and musical). 

You are asking to distort the sound.

Quote:

 

Originally Posted by cooperpwc   Kunlun, I spent more than an hour with the Westone 3 ... Based on my memory, it does not have more bass than the ES5..

 

But then I prefer both the Triple-fi's and the UM3X to the W3.

Here's my response in purple:

Hi, thanks for writing. I don't think your logic holds on several counts. First, the ES5 is not an earphone that "produced all frequencies of sound exactly like it originally was before it was put on CD." That would be closer to a flat frequency response which is what a company like etymolic tries for. However, the human ear and brain don't give the same value to all frequencies--we don't hear a flat frequency curve as flat. You can read about this here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fletcher%E2%80%93Munson_curves

Secondly, your statement "the Bass is already excellent, you designed it yourself" is debateable.

This review https://www.editorsguild.com/FromTheGuild.cfm?FromTheGuildid=176 rates the ES5 well below both the UE18 and Jh13 and Jh16 in bass response.

Further, this statement "So if you want to increase the bass as compared to the other frequencies, you would have to decrease the other two.  That is you would have to make your perfect mids and high speakers malfunction in order to make the bass sound louder than the other two." is highly questionable, just see the JH16 as an example--or the Jh13 for that matter, both have bass response superior to the ES5 and absolutely no malfunction in mids or highs.

Again, thanks for writing. I think our conversation will be a good addition to the conversation, so I'm posting to the main thread.