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Westone UM PRO Series Thread
Mar 11, 2014 at 9:32 PM Post #346 of 3,037
smaragd said:
Just wanted to add my 2 cents regarding the UM Pro 50 which I got last week. I've auditioned it against the UM Pro 30, W40, Shure SE 846, etc.
I'm upgrading from Shure SE310 with custom earmolds made from impressions...

At first I was likewise a bit "underwhelmed" after hearing the UM Pro 50 right after the UM Pro 30. Turned out that the UM Pro 30 had been in the shop for several months already. On the other hand the UM Pro 50 had just arrived and only been in the shop for a couple of days been demo'ed probably a dozen times for several minutes at most... not nearly enough "burnt-in" or run in. 

I went back a week later and tried again and I already could hear an improvement over previous audition. So I took the plunge, convinced that the UM Pro 50 would be less fatiguing in the long run. The UM Pro 30 isn't a bad sound at all but I preferred the less "in your head" sound of the UM Pro 50, a wider sound stage, better controlled bass and less fatiguing highs, especially apparent with string instruments and muted trumpets for example. Would have gladly walked out the shop with the Um Pro 30 but I knew that I would then wanted to upgrade to the UM Pro 50 anyway... 

I've now been playing music almost continuously day and night by either listening from my smartphone on the go, in my studio at work and at home overnight by connecting to my AV receiver playing internet radio. Just for the sake of running them in as fast as possible. 

I can say that there is a much more open sound already and that the treble previously being a bit congested is becoming more apparent, more pronounced but without being harsch at all. Very well controlled highs and lows, amazing lows actually, without being booming at all... You should also try using different tips, the new star tips fit amazingly well but some may prefer other tips like the foam ones...

In other words and your milage may vary but from my experience (I build high end speakers), electronics and even cables always need a bit of time to run in and open up.
Give the UM Pro 50 some time to settle and run in and go back for an audition... :)
Click to expand...

Hoping to have a trial run with it again. Really wanted to get a Westone as my next upgrade. The W4R that I had was simply amazing.
 
Mar 13, 2014 at 12:09 AM Post #351 of 3,037
I'm  indecesive between um pro50 and W40...
if my focus is on vocal? which one is the best? W40 seems to focus on vocal rather than um pro50.
However, as pro50's price is quite more expensive than W40. Any possibility that its vocal sound is better or equal to W40? Thanks!
 
Mar 15, 2014 at 9:28 AM Post #352 of 3,037
nananan said:
I'm  indecesive between um pro50 and W40...
if my focus is on vocal? which one is the best? W40 seems to focus on vocal rather than um pro50.
However, as pro50's price is quite more expensive than W40. Any possibility that its vocal sound is better or equal to W40? Thanks!
Click to expand...

I would go for the w40s because their tuned to pre-mixed music, so soundstage is typically much larger, allowing the vocals to shine
The um50s in conparison are designed for live use, so soundstage isnt that big, you might not get as much out of your vocal checks
But the best is probably just to audition them yourselves if you can :)
 
Mar 15, 2014 at 9:58 AM Post #353 of 3,037
fluffyberry said:
I would go for the w40s because their tuned to pre-mixed music, so soundstage is typically much larger, allowing the vocals to shine
The um50s in conparison are designed for live use, so soundstage isnt that big, you might not get as much out of your vocal checks
But the best is probably just to audition them yourselves if you can
smily_headphones1.gif
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I find the vocals on the UM50 to be exceptionally good. In fact, it is one of the key strength on the UM50 over other IEMs and has retained the goodness of the ES5.
 
I personally will take the UM50 over W40 if vocal is important to you.
 
Mar 15, 2014 at 10:07 AM Post #354 of 3,037
Same here, I am an audio professional in the broadcasting industry but I chose the UM pro 50 for listening to music, not for stage monitoring. I enjoy listening to vocals in particular jazz recordings and also classical music. Again as said before I never had that "wow" effect with the W40, and that's why I purchased the UM50 instead. Don't regret it a moment,... In fact the more in gets run in, the better the sound is getting... :)
Forgot to mention the soundstage of the UM50 is much wider than the UM30... And actually I prefer it over the W40's sound stage....
 
Mar 18, 2014 at 10:11 AM Post #355 of 3,037
smaragd said:
Same here, I am an audio professional in the broadcasting industry but I chose the UM pro 50 for listening to music, not for stage monitoring. I enjoy listening to vocals in particular jazz recordings and also classical music. Again as said before I never had that "wow" effect with the W40, and that's why I purchased the UM50 instead. Don't regret it a moment,... In fact the more in gets run in, the better the sound is getting...
smily_headphones1.gif

Forgot to mention the soundstage of the UM50 is much wider than the UM30... And actually I prefer it over the W40's sound stage....
Click to expand...

 
Ahhh... Glad to hear that the soundstage is much wider than that of the UM30. Was worried that I'm gonna miss the wide soundstage of the W4s that I've been using for the past 2-3 years.
 
Can't wait for the UM Pro 50 to arrive!
 
Anyone has comments on how it matches up against the Shure's 846, especially the bass?
 
Mar 18, 2014 at 9:04 PM Post #356 of 3,037
smaragd said:
Same here, I am an audio professional in the broadcasting industry but I chose the UM pro 50 for listening to music, not for stage monitoring. I enjoy listening to vocals in particular jazz recordings and also classical music. Again as said before I never had that "wow" effect with the W40, and that's why I purchased the UM50 instead. Don't regret it a moment,... In fact the more in gets run in, the better the sound is getting...
smily_headphones1.gif

Forgot to mention the soundstage of the UM50 is much wider than the UM30... And actually I prefer it over the W40's sound stage....
Click to expand...

I agree as well, after almost 2 months of using the UMPro 50, I can safely say that the Vocals are amazingly reporduced. The soundstge of the w4 helped in enjoying vocals, when compared to those of um 3x (pro 30), but the pro 50s soundstange is just perfect to feel the vocal's inimacy without it getting shouty or strangely interpreted by your brain. I say UMpro 50 are great emotional phones, with great integration of all the frequency ranges, with a lean towards the warmth and lows.
 
Mar 18, 2014 at 9:09 PM Post #357 of 3,037
shunz said:
   
Ahhh... Glad to hear that the soundstage is much wider than that of the UM30. Was worried that I'm gonna miss the wide soundstage of the W4s that I've been using for the past 2-3 years.
 
Can't wait for the UM Pro 50 to arrive!
 
Anyone has comments on how it matches up against the Shure's 846, especially the bass?
Click to expand...

 
I have both, and I have compared the bass effect closely. The SE846 has stronger sub bass, no doubt. however it is the amazing continuity of bass to mids that the umpro 50 tuning managed to acheive that keeps me in love with their end of the bass. They make drums feel so real. the real drums (as opposed to computarized), as distiguished by their extention from bass towards the mids, while the techno beats have more sub-bass and the mids rolled off. So UM Pro 50s for me are the rocker's phones, while the SE846s are the bass head phones
 
Mar 21, 2014 at 11:18 PM Post #360 of 3,037
gilly87 said:
Any comparison of the UM Pro 50 to the UERM?
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The UERM is a monitoring IEM that is a true-to-the-source IEM that renders everything extremely accurately and never miss out anything. 
 
The UM Pro 50 is warm and musical. It doesn't show you everything in the track but colors the sound in a way that makes listening more comfortable. It has a very soulful sound signature and whenever I pop in the UM Pro 50 it is hard for me to take it out. Coming from the UERM the first impression is that the UM Pro lacks details. However, that is because of the way how the UERM portrays everything to you in your face. The UM Pro 50 presents the details to you rather than throwing them at you, and I find this to be the reason why the UM Pro 50 makes a better listening IEM than a monitoring IEM.
 
For the lack of better analogy:
 
  1. The UERM is like using a white fluorescent light in a room which reveals to you everything in their true state and color.
  2. The UM Pro 50 is like hanging around the fireplace in a cold winter which gives you that warm and cozy feeling.
 
 

 
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