Okay - so after checking and re-checking the delivery status like a obsessed little child - I was very recently just connected with my Westone 4s
I've only been playing around with them for about an hour so far.....but I figured I didn't want to make you guys wait - and I will give some preliminary points of review.
When I first opened the package, the first thing I noticed was the cable itself. I mean, when I say this is an excellent design...I am talking about the build quality of the cable being terrifically superb (pardon me if I don't make sense, I have them in my ears right now and the sound is just....more on this later)! Really though, before this I had the TF10 - I am not going to sit here and do a comparison (because I don't feel it is fair to UE cause the W4 is really out of the TF10s league). While I do like the UE sound signature, this does blow it away. The SQ is dumb (in a good way) - and whoever said W4s are the gateway to customs - I completely understand what you meant now. I would be highly surprised if I have these for another 2 months and don't jump up to customs (got the UE11s in my sights now).
Back to the music though - so far I've tested these out with a variety of hip-hop, pop, top 40, dance, and even more mellow tracks which really focus heavy on vocals, piano instrumentals (the detail here is incredulous). The detail is really very very good. The bass (I won't really get into mid/low bass just yet, but suffice it to say that it can reproduce sub-bass as some pretty decent frequencies without roll-off). Actually the bass overall is very good - I can see how some people might want a little bit more bass (I even feel like I could use a little bit more right now - BUT WAIT - I've heard sets which push the bass out harder and it ends up being perceived as distorted, almost like when you pushing a woofer past the limit of it's voice coil (if you understand where I'm going with this).
I will say this - when I first put these in my ear, I was about to jump through the screen and choke you people who made me buy these - cause the first thing I heard when I put these in my year was TINGYNESS and MUD! This all went away within about 2 tracks....I don't know if that was my ears getting used to them, or the tips or what. The more I am listening to them (as I type), they are beginning to open up. It's almost like (if any of you guys are wine aficionados) when you open a really good bottle of wine and toss it into a decanter, the wine slowly opens up - and these are doing the same thing. It's like slowly and slowly the air is hitting them and blowing life into the aroma (so to speak). The tingyness is definitely gone, and the muddyness is pretty much gone with it, I think the more I listen my ears will better understand the sound signature.
Instrument separation - Is very good. Not much to be said here. I am hearing things that I'd normally only hear in a studio setting (vs. live vs.audition setting), and that is truly amazing to me. I almost feel like I could use these tracks to master a mix (this is after about 1.5 hours of use (roughly).
I have to mention - on the piano instrumental - You can really "FEEL" the bass. I mean, on the hip-hop tracks you know the bass is present - it's expected, it's hip-hop -- BUT, on the piano tracks you can really FEEL the bass, it's punchy, TIGHT, accurate. I really don't know how better to explain it at this point. I read someone saying these were lifeless and flat when it came to their instrumental music....I don't know what you were talking about (or maybe my ears are just not as trained as I had thought), but the bass on those piano tracks is warm, and encapsulating....
Finally (for now at least) - I will go on and mention that these are really LIGHT (weight wise), I mean really not heavy at all, compared to the TF10s, these are feather light.
Ohh, and I ended up using the foam tips (I believe they are complys?). The large ones fit the best for me so far, to get the best seal at least. The large tip is actually huge, but the medium ones while they are longer, the circumference of the tip is not as great - the tip is quite narrow and my ear canal must be larger as they did not give me a good seal. The smaller tips have a better circumference, but they are super short and barely go far enough into my ear canal (crap they barely go far enough into my ear itself, lol). So right now I'm working w/ the large complys. I tried out the triple flange - they also provide a good seal and decent sound - but are a bit uncomfortable. When I had the TF10s, I tried all the tips they came with, and my fav were the medium complys. Some of you have been mentioning the shure foamies are good, can someone provide me with a link if possible?
Also what is the recommend burn in procedure for these per you guys? Should I just connect them to an audio source and let it play non-stop for a couple days or burn them in as I use them occasionally (won't be very occasional this week though, I'll tell you that!)?
That's all for right now - if anyone has any particular comments or questions, let me know! Thanks again everyone for your help in uniting me w/ the W4s!
