After more than a week of research, I purchased these monitors solely based on the reviews I read on this website. Although am NOT a music professional, I do enjoy quality products such as these. Having to wait as long as I did for them to ship to me, out in Afghanistan, was like waiting to open Christmas presents in the morning. I was pretty excited, to say the least.
Upon first inspection, I first unboxed them and saw the cheap plastic that supposedly houses the "magic" parts inside the ear. I was moderately concerned that I might break them or drop them and be out of $350 USD, but I looked beyond it and tried them out.
Next, I go to plug them into my ipod to realize they did not fit as snuggly as I had hoped. They didn't fall out of the ipod or anything, but they didn't feel like they were securely connected, either. I inspected the connection to find more of this cheap plastic being used in the connection assembly. Again, I was moderately concerned that I have spent $350 USD on this "PLASTIC" set of monitors from France, but I looked beyond it and tried them out.
WOW! That was what came out of my mouth when I turned them on. Amazing clarity and satisfaction warmed my soul, and I melted into my music for hours.
Skip forward a week and more than 100 hours of use.
I lift my wrist, slightly moving the braided cable, and BAMM! Sound cuts out of the right ear monitor. Anxiety and slight panic rolls over my body. Have I broken them? Have they become disconnected from the ipod somehow? Were they connected as they should be? No, NO, Yes. Everything was connected as they were when I first plugged them in, but there appears to be a short in the braided cable. I ensure the connections again and give it another go, this time only moving the cable around. Same short!
Now what do I do? I have discarded the original box, hoping I wouldn't need another set for another few years. Based on these reviews, I felt obigated to share my story with you all and sorrowfully suggest NOT purchasing these monitors.
Upon first inspection, I first unboxed them and saw the cheap plastic that supposedly houses the "magic" parts inside the ear. I was moderately concerned that I might break them or drop them and be out of $350 USD, but I looked beyond it and tried them out.
Next, I go to plug them into my ipod to realize they did not fit as snuggly as I had hoped. They didn't fall out of the ipod or anything, but they didn't feel like they were securely connected, either. I inspected the connection to find more of this cheap plastic being used in the connection assembly. Again, I was moderately concerned that I have spent $350 USD on this "PLASTIC" set of monitors from France, but I looked beyond it and tried them out.
WOW! That was what came out of my mouth when I turned them on. Amazing clarity and satisfaction warmed my soul, and I melted into my music for hours.
Skip forward a week and more than 100 hours of use.
I lift my wrist, slightly moving the braided cable, and BAMM! Sound cuts out of the right ear monitor. Anxiety and slight panic rolls over my body. Have I broken them? Have they become disconnected from the ipod somehow? Were they connected as they should be? No, NO, Yes. Everything was connected as they were when I first plugged them in, but there appears to be a short in the braided cable. I ensure the connections again and give it another go, this time only moving the cable around. Same short!
Now what do I do? I have discarded the original box, hoping I wouldn't need another set for another few years. Based on these reviews, I felt obigated to share my story with you all and sorrowfully suggest NOT purchasing these monitors.
While the SM3v1 was pretty meh on the plastic, the v2 is very much Westone like on the casing and cable. You might just got unlucky.