[ib1dance]

Hi,

Last year I sent my westone 3 In ear monitors to this company so they could fit the custom ear moulds I had ordered from them..

Proguard Customised Personal Earplugs - Home

They said they needed the actual westone 3 IEM so as to be able to correctly fit the custom ear moulds.

On receiving them back by post I noticed That proguard had fitted (glued) a small plastic ring onto the sleeve tips which did achieve a good fix for the moulds.

BUT now my westone 3 cable has gone faulty ( as cable on IEM's that get a lot of use (movement) do eventually)so I sent westone 3 a e-mail explaining the cable fault and about the 'plastc addition' for the custom moulds.

Below is westones response.

"Thank you for your inquiry. I am sorry to hear about the trouble you've run into with your set of Westone 3's. Please note that we do not replace just the cable of the Westone 3 and as such we simply replace the entire unit and provide our customers with full unit replacements. If the custom piece that you have had made to fit your Westone 3 is "attached" and not removable from the Westone 3 we will not be able to provide a replacement as this voids the warranty on the product. If, however, the custom piece is removable please let me know by replying to this e-mail. I apologize for any inconvenience that this may create. Please let me know if you have any questions."

WARRANTY VOID!!!

I would appreciate some info from anyone who has had custom moulds made for their westone 3's.

How did they make the moulds fit onto the sleeves? Did they also glue some extra peace of plastic onto the IEM in a way to anchor the moulds in place??.


I've written a letter of complaint to proguard and I am awaiting their response.

Thanks for any help

 

[mrarroyo]

Sorry to hear about your woes. Any chance of removing the glued-on ring? Maybe it is something that Proguard could do, or you could very carefully try un-gluing them using something like acetone (carefully and do check w/ Proguard what would work).

 

[weibby]

looks like you have to do a full custom now.

 

[tstarn06]

Have them reshelled by Fisher Hearing and just get a new cable (removable), either an ES from Westone or one from Fisher or UE. It's $110 complete from Fisher with cable (the ES cable is $40 separately). Sounds like a lot, but I don't think you have much choice. Surprised your remold didn't have a removable cable in the first place.

 

[ib1dance]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tstarn06 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Surprised your remold didn't have a removable cable in the first place.

Tell me about it! Why don't IEM that cost over £300 pounds,incorporate a removable cable designed.

anyway thanks for the suggestions I received a e-mail from proguard about the matter.

"Sorry that you were not informed of our procedure – but most custom sleeves for in ear monitoring do require the retention ring to hold the moulds in place. These have indeed been glued on, we can remove the rings with no damage to the product however they may be slight cosmetic damage to the spout of the product, but we will try our best to keep this to a minimum, please return the goods and we can remove the rings."

I'm waiting on a reply now from westone to see if 'slight cosmetic damage' will void the warranty .Hopefully not especially in mind that it's the cable that has a fault not the any part of the IEM housing nor internal electronics.

Either way I will never buy a expensive IEM again that does not have a replaceable cable.

The westone 3 is a fine sounding IEM.And I don't see why they couldn't of used exactly the same cable but with a small pin like a headphone pin and a socket arrangement to easily replace the cable.

 

[ib1dance]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tstarn06 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Have them reshelled by Fisher Hearing and just get a new cable (removable), either an ES from Westone or one from Fisher or UE. It's $110 complete from Fisher with cable (the ES cable is $40 separately). Sounds like a lot, but I don't think you have much choice. .

This sounds like a great idea ,then @ least I wouldn't have to be so concerned about the next time the internal wires of the cable begin to pull apart.I do use these IEM for hours everyday so the cables naturally become worn, simply through movement.
So lets say I or proguard can get the rings off the westone 3's with only cosmetic damage.Your saying I could send them to Fisher hearing and they could put me a removable cable on them?.

 

[sebhuber]

I don't think you have to get the tips removed. Just send them in and let them remold...

 

[nhancakes]

That's a big reason why I went with TF10s. had to deal with too many faulty cables in the past

 

[ib1dance]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sebhuber /img/forum/go_quote.gif I don't think you have to get the tips removed. Just send them in and let them remold...

is this done using replacement cables?

 

[Arjisme]

I don't understand why Westone voids the warranty if the ring is still attached. They replace the phones with new ones anyhow. What are they doing with the defective phones they replace?

 

[sebhuber]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tstarn06 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Have them reshelled by Fisher Hearing and just get a new cable (removable), either an ES from Westone or one from Fisher or UE. It's $110 complete from Fisher with cable (the ES cable is $40 separately). Sounds like a lot, but I don't think you have much choice. Surprised your remold didn't have a removable cable in the first place.

That

 

[karthik_ashok]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ib1dance /img/forum/go_quote.gif This sounds like a great idea ,then @ least I wouldn't have to be so concerned about the next time the internal wires of the cable begin to pull apart.I do use these IEM for hours everyday so the cables naturally become worn, simply through movement. So lets say I or proguard can get the rings off the westone 3's with only cosmetic damage.Your saying I could send them to Fisher hearing and they could put me a removable cable on them?.

buddy just wait for the response from westone. if they deny the warranty i would suggest u ship the westones to fisher hearing or unique melody who will do a custom re-mould for u . these remould's will isolate way better and look cool to

. they come with replaceable cables so the cable issue is not an problem. the only issue is the resale value of your westone will be shockingly low !

p.s if u have no plans of upgrading ur IEM and u like the westone 3 sound signature, go ahead with the reshell. its worth it !

 

[ib1dance]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arjisme /img/forum/go_quote.gif I don't understand why Westone voids the warranty if the ring is still attached. They replace the phones with new ones anyhow. What are they doing with the defective phones they replace?

They will put them in the bin!!!

The actual price to manufacturer the universal IEM's will be very little in comparison to the cost of the development and the setting up of the manufacturing process . This is most probably wear a majority of the cost goes. Add to this retailers mark up and the actual cost of a set of westone 3 IEM's will be peanuts. Look what their made out of ! that's why it's cheaper to make non fixable IEM's and just replace the whole product if any fault develops.

Rather than have a product that can be opened and fixed they make them cheap and easy to replace.

But this method is very costly for our natural resources as more broken non fixable electronics end up in land fills.

so basically £300 + pounds IEM's just over a year old with just one dodgy cable ends up in the RUBBISH OR TRASH if westone will kindly replace them for a new non fixable IEM .

 

[tstarn06]

I would say that the warranty no doubt clearly says up front that if you substantially change the W3s (by having them remolded/reshelled, for example) than that automatically voids the warranty. That's why it's a good idea to read the fine print on the warranty before you buy something with the intertions of modding it. If ProGuard removes the old shell and replaces it, it's pretty understandable that once you crack open a case on something like an IEM, no company is going to honor a warranty.

I am having my TF10s reshelled, and I understand that if something goes wrong (drivers) other than the cable, which I can replace, it's on me. I won't be contacting UE/Logitech.

 

[ib1dance]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tstarn06 /img/forum/go_quote.gif I would say that the warranty no doubt clearly says up front that if you substantially change the W3s (by having them remolded/reshelled, for example) than that automatically voids the warranty. That's why it's a good idea to read the fine print on the warranty before you buy something with the intertions of modding it. If ProGuard removes the old shell and replaces it, it's pretty understandable that once you crack open a case on something like an IEM, no company is going to honor a warranty. I am having my TF10s reshelled, and I understand that if something goes wrong (drivers) other than the cable, which I can replace, it's on me. I won't be contacting UE/Logitech.

Ok to reiterate what I said in my original post

"On receiving them back by post I noticed That proguard had fitted (glued) a small plastic ring onto the sleeve tips"

It wasn't my intention to alter/mod the westone 3 in any way.All I was intending was wanting was some custom moulds that would be fitted onto the universal westone 3's.This I Got but proguard say "most custom sleeves for in ear monitoring do require the retention ring to hold the moulds in place"

so people beware that if your considering your IEM's for moulds to replace the supplied buds ( and their still under manufactures warranty ) check to see if they are going to alter the actual IEM's .

As this will void your warranty should ANY fault occur .