And Phonak has been very responsive. Those customers are getting replacement cables while still having an original 2nd cable that they can use. No down time and no cost to them.
Be a part of the community.
It's free, join today!
Related Forum Threads
- Phonak Audeo + Cowon E2 or Nationite N2? (metal music) Last post on 4/20/11 at 2:59am in Portable Headphones, Earphones and In-Ear Monitors
- Need help selecting IEM around $350-$400 USD Last post on 1/8/12 at 7:56pm in Portable Headphones, Earphones and In-Ear Monitors
- Product Sneak Peaks, CanJam @ Rocky Mountain Audio Fest (RMAF) - Head-Fi TV, Episode 013 Last post on 10/31/11 at 9:34am in Head-Fi Network & Industry News
- Best I.E.Ms for working out? Last post on 8/11/11 at 9:52am in Portable Headphones, Earphones and In-Ear Monitors
- Practical experience with ETY er6i,hf3 , UE 600vi,sf5 , q-jays , PHONAK pfe , Westone 1 Last post on 8/2/11 at 3:39am in Portable Headphones, Earphones and In-Ear Monitors
Related Articles
-
Top Tier Universal Iem Comparison Chart And Information
Edited on 5/7/10 | Contribute to this Article
-
Basic Guide To In Ear Canalphones
Edited on 3/22/12 | Contribute to this Article
Recent Reviews
-
This quick review is done after a few hours of listening. I bought them from B&H for the decent sum of 150$. If you've done your research you'll find out that Ultrasone HPs are known for their...
-
I auditioned the SRH-1840 straight out of the box, and was unsatisfied with the sound, so I decided to give them a period of break-in. Recent scientific studies have shown definite differences...
-
I didn't think of TEAC when I began searching for a dedicated CD player. My initial short list included Denon, Cambridge, Marantz, Onkyo. The Teac intrigued me, so I went for it. It is very...
-
short terms: compact, loud, nice sounding, cheap ultraportables. detailed terms: AKG in the house ( fun, smooth, bassy, bright-warm & clear presentation ) cool for mainstream song...
-
Sennheiser HD-598s are the most comfortable headphones I've had the opportunity to use. I recommend these wholeheartedly for any first-time hi-fi buyer because of their excellent soundstage and...
Head-Fi Sponsors
[NEWS / DISCUSSION / IMPRESSION] Phonak Audéo PFE232 - Page 42
- james444
- Trader Feedback: 0
-
- online
- 3,419 Posts. Joined 8/2004
- Location: Vienna, Austria
- Select All Posts By This User

The AKG K3003 is €1,200 not €1000. There's been only one report of a driver failure as far as I know and AKG is replacing the whole set. I wonder if there's even been anything wrong with a Mecerdes Benz, a BMW, a Rolls Royce, a Jaguar, A Ferrari, a Lexus…a JH13, a JH16, a ES5...
Yes, I guess you could say all the above products are an "utter joke".
Hmmm, they're still €1000 at Colette's, which was the first store in Europe to stock the K3003.
I actually tend to agree with piotrus-g, one shouldn't have to worry about build quality at that price level. A few days ago I let dfkt try my K3003 and while he was obviously very impressed with the sound quality, he also showed me that there's air between the upper cable and its sheath. Now, I know we have a two year warranty and I haven't encountered any problems so far, but his comments about build quality still made me feel a bit uneasy.
- dogears
- Trader Feedback: 0
-
- offline
- 1,527 Posts. Joined 1/2003
- Location: Philippines
- Select All Posts By This User
^+1. If it happens to me with that price --- it won't be a joke anymore. It's madness!
Just my opinion.
.
Edited by music_4321 - 3/5/12 at 10:50am
- piotrus-g
- Trader Feedback: +2
-
- offline
- 937 Posts. Joined 4/2009
- Location: Poland
- Select All Posts By This User
@music Of course there're cases when luxury products broke and I bet that pitfalls also happen to best cars, watches manufacturers.
Though let's face it souldn't happen at this price point... I haven't heard about fails in UM, Weston or similarly priced toK3003 SpiralEar customs. Instead of looking for an excuse for shortcomings let's point companies that can meet requirements of customers
Anyways what I like about Phonak is that they simply work with their customers to improve products. I'm still a happy 111 listener. I'm sure that they will solve cable problem quickly
Edited by piotrus-g - 2/12/12 at 5:43am
- james444
- Trader Feedback: 0
-
- online
- 3,419 Posts. Joined 8/2004
- Location: Vienna, Austria
- Select All Posts By This User
If I understood him correctly, the K3003's upper cable is allowed to move freely inside its sheath and he didn't think that's a proper design. Again, I haven't encountered any actual problems so far, but still felt uneasy after that comment, since he usually knows his stuff.
I agree the IE8/80 have the best (removable) cable. I haven't tried in a long time, but I believe you can wear them downwards.
.
Edited by music_4321 - 3/5/12 at 10:50am
.
Edited by music_4321 - 3/5/12 at 10:51am
- piotrus-g
- Trader Feedback: +2
-
- offline
- 937 Posts. Joined 4/2009
- Location: Poland
- Select All Posts By This User

You've obviously missed some UM QC issues lately and a few from the $950 Westone ES5. Even my $850 custom Westone ES3X had a few build-quality issues on three (yes, three!) of the 4 sets I received, as did two sets of UM3Xs (the first batch of the fixed-cable UM3Xs had quite a few units with a rattling driver as did the first batch of the removable-cable model). I haven't heard of that many Spiral Ears owners yet, so I can't comment on those. There have been QC issues reported on JH13s, JH16s & the big mess with the JH-3A as well as issues with UE customs being reported from time to time.
OBVIOUSLY, we all want companies to deliver quality products and offer first-rate CS when something goes wrong, specially when said products are very expensive (see the many terrible & embarrassing CS issues reported by many JHA customers, for instance).
BUT, you spoke of K3003 driver failures as if that was a rather common issue and, as far as I know, there's only been one case reported. Then, of course, you went on to say that was an "utter joke". To me, what you did was not only giving people wrong information, but downright misleading.
I did not hear about late UM issues. When I've ordered my UM IEMs 2 years ago their quality was top-notch.
Well, my first ever IEMs - Westone UM1 went dead after 2 months in Y-spliter area. I have reviewed and used W3 and W4 and I can't say anything wrong regarding quality. Don't know about cIEMs. What are quality issues for you? Dead driver or bubbles in shell?
I don't care much about JH for many reasons, besides CS issues with which I'm familair.
Was customers complaining about UE when it wasn't Logitech?
You can call my post whatever but I know when pay that money for earphones I want them to work and be very durable. Even if it's one time occurance of such issue.
Also EOT for me
Edited by piotrus-g - 2/12/12 at 9:11am
I'm going to say something quickly that I saw in the W4 thread (restated in my own words), which I see applies here as well... The ratio of people with cable problems doesn't directly relate to the ratio of total people with the 232s. Most people complain about problems on here (and are right to do so), but many don't complain when they don't have problems (since it's expected). So yes, 2 people with 232s on Head-Fi have cable problems. Does this mean every person will have cable problems? Absolutely not. Does it mean that Phonak should look (somewhat) into this? Of course, find out what's wrong, and fix it for the next batch (I think they did this when they released their original PFEs). That is the bigger picture here, not the now, but the future.
- james444
- Trader Feedback: 0
-
- online
- 3,419 Posts. Joined 8/2004
- Location: Vienna, Austria
- Select All Posts By This User

With regards to the K3003 cable, what you and dfkt report/desribe is VERY similar, if not practically identical to the original EX1000 cable (sold only in Europe & Asia and not found on the EX600 cable), which I know you don't have with you at present, ie the EX1000 upper AND lower parts of the cable are "allowed to move freely inside its sheath". I've had no issues with my 10-month-old EX1000 cable and it remains virtually as good as new. I did notice that straight away with my K3003s on the first day and remember how much I liked that aspect of the original Sony cable.
I sincerely hope that you are right and dfkt is wrong, my friend. 
- dfkt
- Trader Feedback: +5
-
- offline
- 4,348 Posts. Joined 7/2005
- Location: Vienna, Austria
- Select All Posts By This User
I doubt that free moving wires inside a cable sleeve are a good idea in any implementation... http://www.anythingbutipod.com/forum/showthread.php?t=24771
James444, I didn't notice that with your EX1000 cables at all, they looked/felt rather nice.
.
Edited by music_4321 - 3/5/12 at 10:49am
- Bokyung
- Trader Feedback: 0
-
- offline
- 432 Posts. Joined 10/2010
- Location: Somewhere in Canada.
- Select All Posts By This User

If I understood him correctly, the K3003's upper cable is allowed to move freely inside its sheath and he didn't think that's a proper design. Again, I haven't encountered any actual problems so far, but still felt uneasy after that comment, since he usually knows his stuff.
I agree the IE8/80 have the best (removable) cable. I haven't tried in a long time, but I believe you can wear them downwards.
Haha, yeah I wear my IE80 downwards since it's wayyyyyy more comfortable that way.
On topic: Wow, didn't even notice this thread was still alive :P
What are y'all posting on here for? Time to go listen to those airy, delicate, & perfectly voiced 232s!
- [NEWS / DISCUSSION / IMPRESSION] Phonak Audéo PFE232
Gear mentioned in this thread:
Recent Discussions
- › PC speakers (2012) for my use? 8 seconds ago
- › Ultimate Ears Personal Reference Monitors: The *Custom* Custom... 14 seconds ago
- › On-ear headphones <$350 2 minutes ago
- › [REVIEW] Vsonic GR06: WOW!!! 2 minutes ago
- › Please end my search for Basshead IEM's... 3 minutes ago
- › [REVIEW] Brainwavz M4 3 minutes ago
- › Earbuds Round-Up 5 minutes ago
- › What Are You Listening To Right Now? -New thread, new rules.... 5 minutes ago
- › Connecting multiple speakers? 5 minutes ago
- › Weird thing happened. Beyerdynamics. 6 minutes ago
Recent Reviews
- › Ultrasone HFI-780 S-Logic Surround Sound Professional Headphones by 12Rounds
- › Shure SRH1840 Professional Open Back Headphones (Black) by kstuart
- › TEAC PD-H600 Reference 600 Series CD Player by gonkulator
- › AKG K403 by eskimoo
- › Sennheiser HD-598 by TK277
- › Ultrasone Signature Pro Headphones by baglunch
- › JVC HA-S600 by pootispow
- › Audez'e LCD-2 Planar Magnetic Headphones by Squuiid
- › Superlux HD-668 B by BlackTea
- › Cowon C2-16BS 16 GB Video Player, Black with Silver by burninmind
New Articles
- › iBasso DX100 FAQ by DoctorHeadz
- › DIY Cable Info and Resources by Pingupenguins
- › Asr Head-Fi Threads Compendium by Asr
- › Headphone Buying Guide by keanex
- › Fostex T50RP modification summary LINKS - wiki by jgray91
- › Comparisons of the LCD-3 and the LCD-2 Rev. 2 by MacedonianHero
- › Posting Guidelines by Currawong
- › Comparisons of LCD-2 Rev. 1 and Rev. 2 by MacedonianHero
- › Membership Levels, Badges and Custom Titles by Currawong
- › Sennheiser Hd4 8 Modding For Newbies by koolkat
About Head-Fi.org | Join the Community | Advertise
© 2012 Head-Fi.org is powered by Huddler Tech | FAQ | Support | Privacy/TOS | Site Map








