[PixelSquish]

i have seen a few on here claim the W3 is the first true 3-way IEM with a dedicated driver for lows - mids - highs with a passive crossover - and this info is vaguely corroborated by westone's own website text:

"The Westone 3 is the first true universal fit three-way earphone designed for personal listening. "

but for the triple.fi, that has been out awhile now - UE claims they have a true 3-way IEM with a dedicated speaker via passive crossover for each range - lows, mids, highs

from the UE triple.fi page:

"Housed within the universal body are three individual speakers and an integrated passive crossover circuit board that directs the low-end frequencies to a dedicated speaker for bass, the mid-range frequencies to a speaker for the vocals and the high frequencies to a speaker dedicated for treble."

Yet others claim that the W3 is the first IEM to do exactly that.

some may point to the diagram on the UE website that points out 1 high-range driver and then a set of low/mid drivers as being a two plus one.

that, to me, means nothing. it may simply mean that they house the low/mid drivers to pump out of one outlet, but yet it is two drivers in there dedicated to each frequency.

but i'd like to know which company's marketing team is lying to me.

 

[shigzeo]

well, it probably comes down to marketing. i think in a few months, we will see who really make the phone that matters. whether it matters to have a true 3-way crossover or not is not something that should be debated now as the hype over the westone is all but babelonian in proportion.

 

[ClieOS]

W3 is the first, AFAIK. TF10 isn't a three-ways, at least not according to the reply I got from UE customer support (Jinx got the same reply too). In any case, more isn't always better. As long as it is designed well, a pair of transducers is more than enough for a pair of eardrum.

 

[chef8489]

The ue-11 are technically a 3way monitor with 4 drivers. 2 lows, one mid, and one high with a 3 way crossover.

 

[uberburger101]

I believe the OP should rephrase to "first universal IEM to have a 3-way crossover". If customs are included I believe the Westone ES3 were the first.

 

[NajoBB]

Quote:

Originally Posted by idiotekniQues /img/forum/go_quote.gif i have seen a few on here claim the W3 is the first true 3-way IEM with a dedicated driver for lows - mids - highs with a passive crossover - and this info is vaguely corroborated by westone's own website text: "The Westone 3 is the first true universal fit three-way earphone designed for personal listening. " but for the triple.fi, that has been out awhile now - UE claims they have a true 3-way IEM with a dedicated speaker via passive crossover for each range - lows, mids, highs from the UE triple.fi page: "Housed within the universal body are three individual speakers and an integrated passive crossover circuit board that directs the low-end frequencies to a dedicated speaker for bass, the mid-range frequencies to a speaker for the vocals and the high frequencies to a speaker dedicated for treble." Yet others claim that the W3 is the first IEM to do exactly that. some may point to the diagram on the UE website that points out 1 high-range driver and then a set of low/mid drivers as being a two plus one. that, to me, means nothing. it may simply mean that they house the low/mid drivers to pump out of one outlet, but yet it is two drivers in there dedicated to each frequency. but i'd like to know which company's marketing team is lying to me.

I'll give you three examples of three driver IEMs: se530, TF10 and W3:


se530 has one driver for the highs and mids, and 2 drivers for the bass. A 2-way IEM.

TF10 has one driver for the highs, and two drivers for mids and bass. This is a little confusing and UE is using that to trick some customers but there's a better explanation: Put one driver for the highs, then one driver for the mids and bass, and then add another same driver for the mids and bass. So just like se530 a 2-way IEM.

W3 has one separate driver for the highs, one separate for the mids, and one separate for the bass. Thus, the first 3-way universal IEM.



Hope it helps.

 

[qusp]

nowhere does UE actually claim that its a 3 way IEM. only you have read that into it. what it says is that it has an integrated crossover (notice it doesnt say 3 way crossover) that directs to a dedicated driver for highs, the mids to a driver for mids and the bass to a dedicated driver for bass. now where does it say its a 3 way IEM. UE leave it up to you to put those words in your own mouth.

 

[Pale Rider]

I actually think Westone makes it pretty clear the distinction they are making, so in this case, I don't think anyone's marketing department is lying. Imagine that. I am with ClieOS. I think what matters i the performance, because time and again we have learned that there are many ways to skin the transducer cat, and that ascribing inherent advantages to numbers of drivers or specific crossover approaches can be quickly defeated by advances in other design elements and technology.

 

[PixelSquish]

Quote:

Originally Posted by qusp /img/forum/go_quote.gif nowhere does UE actually claim that its a 3 way IEM. only you have read that into it. what it says is that it has an integrated crossover (notice it doesnt say 3 way crossover) that directs to a dedicated driver for highs, the mids to a driver for mids and the bass to a dedicated driver for bass. now where does it say its a 3 way IEM. UE leave it up to you to put those words in your own mouth.

no. UE directly implies exactly that.

have a dedicated driver for each frequency is essentially a 3 way IEM.

1 driver dedicated to lows
1 driver dedicated to mids
1 driver dedicated to highs

all done by a passive crossover which clearly implies a 3-way scenario. not 2 drivers that each do mids/highs and then one that does highs- that clearly goes against what they just said, they clearly imply each driver only does ONE of the three frequency ranges.

im really not sure where their wiggle room is.

 

[qusp]

Quote:

Originally Posted by idiotekniQues /img/forum/go_quote.gif no. UE directly implies exactly that. have a dedicated driver for each frequency is essentially a 3 way IEM. 1 driver dedicated to lows 1 driver dedicated to mids 1 driver dedicated to highs all done by a passive crossover which clearly implies a 3-way scenario. not 2 drivers that each do mids/highs and then one that does highs- that clearly goes against what they just said, they clearly imply each driver only does ONE of the three frequency ranges. im really not sure where their wiggle room is.

because they dont say its a 3 way crossover they just say integrated passive crossover where as on the UE11 page they actually say 3 way crossover. now if it was a 3 way crossover wouldnt yo think they would mention it (especially with the W3 being delayed like it was), rather than leaving it up to you to assume it is. plus they do not say it has a dedicated driver for mids. they say it has a dedicated driver for bass and a dedicated driver for highs, but they just say a driver for mids. Their wiggle room is that they dont actually claim it to be a 3 way crossover; they just play tpo the fact that a lot of people that would be reading this stuff know just enough to be making assumptions with the info given. very clever indeed. and isnt it enough for you that both jinx and clieos recieved email from UE confirming that it isnt a 3 way criossover. considering clieos was in your position only about a month ago claiming that there wasnt anything to say it wasnt 3 way. and jinx and myself were claiming there wasn't anything to support it. so both sides emailed and we got a response. why keep fighting it. they are not 3 way. it really doesnt matter anyway. if they sound good to you than who cares.

 

[PixelSquish]

Quote:

Originally Posted by qusp /img/forum/go_quote.gif because they dont say its a 3 way crossover they just say integrated passive crossover where as on the UE11 page they actually say 3 way crossover. now if it was a 3 way crossover wouldnt yo think they would mention it (especially with the W3 being delayed like it was), rather than leaving it up to you to assume it is. plus they do not say it has a dedicated driver for mids. they say it has a dedicated driver for bass and a dedicated driver for highs, but they just say a driver for mids. Their wiggle room is that they dont actually claim it to be a 3 way crossover; they just play tpo the fact that a lot of people that would be reading this stuff know just enough to be making assumptions with the info given. very clever indeed. and isnt it enough for you that both jinx and clieos recieved email from UE confirming that it isnt a 3 way criossover. considering clieos was in your position only about a month ago claiming that there wasnt anything to say it wasnt 3 way. and jinx and myself were claiming there wasn't anything to support it. so both sides emailed and we got a response. why keep fighting it. they are not 3 way. it really doesnt matter anyway. if they sound good to you than who cares.

im purely curious about who is stretching the truth or lying to me, the consumer. it doesnt make them sound worse to me, i just want to know the reality vs the claims, and who, if anybody, is fudging anything


so can you explain to me, in technical terms - how can an IEM get the lows to a dedicated driver, the mids to a dedicated driver and the highs to a dedicated driver - without it being a true 3 way crossover. so i understand the technical side. because to me, as a layman, stating that each driver is dedicated to one frequency range = 3 way crossover. so lay it out for me please.

 

[quanganh101090]

afaik, 3-way mean 3 driver in 3 seperate room, going out from 3 way, and meet at a *crossroad*, and then go out of the tube (pardon my bad english).
moreover, UE does not say the mid driver is a dedicated driver, and I have read somewhere, sometime in this forum, that the mid driver is the same as the bass driver -> it is not tuned specifically for the mid range.
anyway, that's not the point at all

the point is it sound good

 

[qusp]

ok AFAIK a 2 way 3 driver setup will have just one crossover unit the consists of a low pass filter and a high pass filter (2 way) generally. now in this instance there will be two bass/mid drivers and one 'tweeter' or high range driver. the highpass filter will pass frequencies in that range to a driver that is designed for highs and therefor it will respond to the information that it is fed. now likely what is going on with the 2 low range drivers is that they are both fed from the same low pass filter but one is either tuned to respond to/produce only certain mid/low frequencies and the other is also tuned for the other frequencies but they share the same LPF. or they may use a simple capacitor to act as a secondary 'crossover' of sorts. but the second option is more likely in speakers because caps high quality enough for this purpose are likely too large to fit inside the driver unit. a 3 way crossover would consist of a LPF (low pass filter) for bass, a BPF (band pass filter) for mids, and a HPF (high pass filter) for highs a band pass filter is usually made up of another secondary LPF and HPF. so you see there is quite a difference. there may also be another high pass filter on the bass driver so it isnt fed frequencies that are too low and could damage the unit. and the HF driver may also have a LPF to stop it being fed frequencies that are too high. so effectively in this case the network would consist of 3 BPF (band pass filters). now i'm no EE so there may be some things in there that I am not explaining properly but thats the way I understand it.

 

[fhuang]

3 way, 3 drivers, so what? w3 is the last and triple fi isn't the earliest neither. shure e500 was the first 3 way or 3 drivers universal out on the market and that was 2 years ago.

 

[uberburger101]

Quote:

Originally Posted by fhuang /img/forum/go_quote.gif 3 way, 3 drivers, so what? w3 is the last and triple fi isn't the earliest neither. shure e500 was the first 3 way or 3 drivers universal out on the market and that was 2 years ago.

Did you even read the whole thread?