[Blasto_Brandino]

 
 
 
Hello, I've been here a while but usually use large headphones, however in my quest to become more portable, I have bought a Headstage Arrow 3g. It has arrived. I also have a pa2v2 and a Lisa III XP but the Lisa is not bud friendly and I wanted something more pocket friendly than the Pa2V2 due to the portable nature of IEM's. Currently the highest end IEM's I have are the Etymotic Reasearch ER-6 (NOT the ER-6i I have the discontinued ones) Now I bought the Arrow specifically for a pair of ER-4s that WILL be bought, but I would like to buy an additional pair of IEM's and am pretty sure the UM3X's are the ones but I need to know a few things about them first                           First durability, I planned on buying the detachable corded versions so the cord is not an issue, but how about the drivers? what kind of life can I expect from them?  Second reshelling, I was wondering, when I wanted to have a taste of customs without shelling out crazy money can the UM3X's be reshelled into customs, giving me a descent set of starter custom buds? I was also wondering if one of the drivers went out can the offending driver be replaced, extending their service life indefinately. Please let me know, If this goes well I might go all the way for full customs in time, but I need to know more about the UM3X's particularly if they can be reshelled.   Thank you, Brandon

 

[ClieOS]

First Q - I don't think there is any rated lifespan on BA drivers, but generally they do last quite a long time. I can't imagine why they won't last over 5+ years if care is taken.
 
2nd Q - Sure, nowadays they can reshell almost every type of IEM within reasonable price, except perhaps the dynamic one, which requires special care on the housing.
 
3rd Q - Once it is out-of-warranty, it is unlikely Westone will want to repair it for you (they don't repair most of the time anyway, just replace free-of-charge when it is in warranty). Most likely they will offer you an one times low fee replacement for either the same model or similar alternative for an out-of-warranty repair request. If you are referring to a third party fix, then it is hard to say. Driver replacement depends on many thing - whether the driver is on common supply or not (i.e. not out of production or a specialty order) will determine how easy / hard / costly it is to repair it.

 

[d2fmb]

Good choice on the detachable cable.  Make sure you buy it from an authorized reseller since some of the amazon ones arent.  I am currently getting mine reshelled through Fisher Hearing.  I read an interesting review of someone who tried as closely as possible to get them like the es3x.  Just search reshell um3x and it should be the first one you see on this site.