[Gilly87]

Also remember that the W4R was MSRP $599.99 when it launched. The street price will drop, I'd guess, about $100 on the top three models by summer or fall next year, maybe sooner. If Westone is smart, they'll drop the W10 down to $100 to compete with the Shure SE215 and give entry-level buyers a taste of BA sound to win some classical/jazz/acoustic lovers over from the typical consumer earphones.

I'm actually hoping to give the W30 a go, my biggest beef with the W3 was the fit, which could very well be fixed with the new design. Might be wishful thinking, but we'll see...

Charging more for the same sound is indeed suss but on the other hand, the Westone rep is very upfront when asked directly if the changes are only cosmetic they get some points for that.

 

[twister6]

If you look at their website, http://www.westoneaudio.com/ - W30 is NOT listed in there, only W10, W20, and W40.  I'm still waiting for confirmation, because I'm not sure if they dropped W30 out of line-up?!?

 

[Sylaw]

  If you look at their website, http://www.westoneaudio.com/ - W30 is NOT listed in there, only W10, W20, and W40.  I'm still waiting for confirmation, because I'm not sure if they dropped W30 out of line-up?!?

why would they ever take W30 out? i mean come on westone has a huge fan base just for the westone 3's 

 

[Spyro]

Twister6 may be on to something here.
 
I find it VERY ODD that Westone's is blowing out the W3's at prices we were paying for 2 year old used ones just a few months ago.  Why?  What's the hurry?
 
Is it possible they have a COMPLETELY new sounding triple driver they are about to release???

 

[Sylaw]

  Twister6 may be on to something here.
 
I find it VERY ODD that Westone's is blowing out the W3's at prices we were paying for 2 year old used ones just a few months ago.  Why?  What's the hurry?
 
Is it possible they have a COMPLETELY new sounding triple driver they are about to release???

haha.. ur having bad dream's lately aren't you Spyro :3

 

[JimNoyd]

The W30 will be on the website soon when it starts shipping.

 

[Gilly87]

Oh man I hope so, if they've brought the mids forward I will be in hog heaven...
 
The biggest problem with the W3 was the fit and awkward nozzle angle, which caused inconsistent sound, so if they fixed that with a new housing and even slightly retuned the mid driver, it could be a whole new story...
 
Quote:

  Twister6 may be on to something here.
 
I find it VERY ODD that Westone's is blowing out the W3's at prices we were paying for 2 year old used ones just a few months ago.  Why?  What's the hurry?
 
Is it possible they have a COMPLETELY new sounding triple driver they are about to release???

 

[291079]

shame, loved the braided cables, but i guess i should reserve judgment until i get my hands on these

 

[JimNoyd]

The new W Series with both an EPIC braided cable and MFI G2 cable!

 

[twister6]

@ JimNoyd: Thank you for confirmation about W30!!!
 
As Jim mentioned, and you can also see from my detailed pictures (post#48: http://www.head-fi.org/t/683099/new-westone-w-series/45#post_10075983) Epic braided cables are included and these by far have the best quality I have seen and heard.  I'm a fan of in-line controls, and for sure its convenient to have it with IEM on the go, but in this case I'm keeping braided cable setup.  Because of universal connector, there are so many options out there with either OFC cables or Silver Plated Copper cables (like Fiio RC-SE1) in different price brackets.
 
@ Gilly87: That how I felt before I started to listen to W40.  Mids are a little bit scooped, but this is not your typical V-shaped "fun" sound.  Westone was able to achieve a nicely balanced sound across the entire frequency spectrum, doesn't matter what source you are listening from - it sounds as good from my Note 2 as it is from my laptop, with or without E18.  With more burn-in listening, it gets better by the hour, and more upper mids are coming to live.  I have a lot of premium over-ear/on-ear/in-ear in my collection, as I mentioned before, and often it's not fair to compare IEM with something like Senns MOMENTUM, but W40 blow away all of them in terms of sound, for my taste of course since YMMV.  I honestly tossed away my UE900 because their "surgical" upfront sound now hurting my ears lol!!!  I will try to get SE535 for comparison, but I have serious doubt I will be impressed with them next to W40.
 
Oh, did I mention I finally able to enjoy bass with IEMs?

 

[Gilly87]

Hmmm Momentums were too warm for me, I hate warm or thick mids that lack upper mid presence, which I see in the W4 graph, and combined with the "soft" bass as I've read in Joker's review of the W4 (he says it has less than the SM3/SM2, which are at the lower ene odd what I like for bass), I feel pretty certain they won't be for me.

I have been impossible to please thus far, my favorite IEMs have been SE215 and SM3 but both are a bit warmer and darker than I really want, and also TF10 and W3 which were near perfect but mids were just a bit too recessed despite having the right tonality. I really like my DT770 LE with fun bass and treble and mids that are neutral without being too recessed, the bass could be tighter but it doesn't bother me. Like I said I am mostly hoping the W30 will have just a touch more midrange emphasis than the W3 without messing with fit as I had to do before. With the right tips and fit, the W3 and TF10 were great, just annoying to tinker with all the time. If TF10 was redone with a Westone/Shure style fit, I would buy one and be done with IEMs.

UE900 just sounded unnatural, good balance in general but they just lacked something about the natural realism of the TF10. They just sounded artificial. Great soundstage though.

@ JimNoyd: Thank you for confirmation about W30!!!

As Jim mentioned, and you can also see from my detailed pictures (post#48: http://www.head-fi.org/t/683099/new-westone-w-series/45#post_10075983) Epic braided cables are included and these by far have the best quality I have seen and heard.  I'm a fan of in-line controls, and for sure its convenient to have it with IEM on the go, but in this case I'm keeping braided cable setup.  Because of universal connector, there are so many options out there with either OFC cables or Silver Plated Copper cables (like Fiio RC-SE1) in different price brackets.

@ Gilly87: That how I felt before I started to listen to W40.  Mids are a little bit scooped, but this is not your typical V-shaped "fun" sound.  Westone was able to achieve a nicely balanced sound across the entire frequency spectrum, doesn't matter what source you are listening from - it sounds as good from my Note 2 as it is from my laptop, with or without E18.  With more burn-in listening, it gets better by the hour, and more upper mids are coming to live.  I have a lot of premium over-ear/on-ear/in-ear in my collection, as I mentioned before, and often it's not fair to compare IEM with something like Senns MOMENTUM, but W40 blow away all of them in terms of sound, for my taste of course since YMMV.  I honestly tossed away my UE900 because their "surgical" upfront sound now hurting my ears lol!!!  I will try to get SE535 for comparison, but I have serious doubt I will be impressed with them next to W40.

Oh, did I mention I finally able to enjoy bass with IEMs?

 

[twister6]

Hmmm Momentums were too warm for me, I hate warm or thick mids that lack upper mid presence, which I see in the W4 graph, and combined with the "soft" bass as I've read in Joker's review of the W4 (he says it has less than the SM3/SM2, which are at the lower ene odd what I like for bass), I feel pretty certain they won't be for me.

I have been impossible to please thus far, my favorite IEMs have been SE215 and SM3 but both are a bit warmer and darker than I really want, and also TF10 and W3 which were near perfect but mids were just a bit too recessed despite having the right tonality. I really like my DT770 LE with fun bass and treble and mids that are neutral without being too recessed, the bass could be tighter but it doesn't bother me. Like I said I am mostly hoping the W30 will have just a touch more midrange emphasis than the W3 without messing with fit as I had to do before. With the right tips and fit, the W3 and TF10 were great, just annoying to tinker with all the time. If TF10 was redone with a Westone/Shure style fit, I would buy one and be done with IEMs.

UE900 just sounded unnatural, good balance in general but they just lacked something about the natural realism of the TF10. They just sounded artificial. Great soundstage though.

 
Uh, you are speaking from a perspective of a basshead   For sure, W40 will not deliver a sound signature of M-100 bass or P7 bass kick in your head.  I can never relax with either of mine M-100 or P7 streaming movies or listening for long period of time because you loose upper mid details with M-100 and P7 bass kick ruins otherwise perfect balance of the rest of the spectrum.  For example, Beyerdynamic COP I tested in the last switch position delivered some heavy duty bass!  In a back of my mind I always think when listening to M-80 and M-100, if Val can combine sound signature of M-80 with over-ear design of M-100 - that will be a perfect headphone for me lol!!!
 
With IEMs I tested, seems that focus is either on low end or high end, and I'm as picky as you are looking for that "one perfect" headphone to rule them all!  Perhaps you might want to look into hybrid IEMs with dynamic drivers for bass and balanced armature for mids/treble?  Although I never listened to any Shure IEMs, based on everything I read about SE215 - W40 will give you more of upper mids and more detailed bass content, if not in quantity definitely in quality.  If you are basshead, W40 won't be for you.  I think of these as a missing link when I was listening to UE900 and scratching my head trying to come up with a better eartip hoping to enhance the bass.  With W40, for now I'm using their original STAR tips, and haven't even tried FOAM tips since I had some not so great experience with COMPLY in the past.  Oh, and btw the soundstage opened up more on Westone's with more listening hours.  You guys are absolutely right, these need a time to burn in.

 

[Gilly87]

Hmm, I wouldn't call myself a bass head really, I like bass but plenty of phones have too much bass for me; the SE215 and DT770 are on the high end of what I like, and neither is really a bass head can. Actually my favorite bass I've ever heard was from the UERM, which is by no means a bass head phone. Also a well-driven HD650 from a good source has plenty of bass for me.

Would you say perceived bass quantity from the W40 is comparable to the M80s? I don't really care for VMODAs, too warm for me, not enough of a "clear" sound for my taste, but the bass was an acceptable amount though it felt rolled off to me.

Uh, you are speaking from a perspective of a basshead   For sure, W40 will not deliver a sound signature of M-100 bass or P7 bass kick in your head.  I can never relax with either of mine M-100 or P7 streaming movies or listening for long period of time because you loose upper mid details with M-100 and P7 bass kick ruins otherwise perfect balance of the rest of the spectrum.  For example, Beyerdynamic COP I tested in the last switch position delivered some heavy duty bass!  In a back of my mind I always think when listening to M-80 and M-100, if Val can combine sound signature of M-80 with over-ear design of M-100 - that will be a perfect headphone for me lol!!!

With IEMs I tested, seems that focus is either on low end or high end, and I'm as picky as you are looking for that "one perfect" headphone to rule them all!  Perhaps you might want to look into hybrid IEMs with dynamic drivers for bass and balanced armature for mids/treble?  Although I never listened to any Shure IEMs, based on everything I read about SE215 - W40 will give you more of upper mids and more detailed bass content, if not in quantity definitely in quality.  If you are basshead, W40 won't be for you.  I think of these as a missing link when I was listening to UE900 and scratching my head trying to come up with a better eartip hoping to enhance the bass.  With W40, for now I'm using their original STAR tips, and haven't even tried FOAM tips since I had some not so great experience with COMPLY in the past.  Oh, and btw the soundstage opened up more on Westone's with more listening hours.  You guys are absolutely right, these need a time to burn in.

 

[twister6]

Hmm, I wouldn't call myself a bass head really, I like bass but plenty of phones have too much bass for me; the SE215 and DT770 are on the high end of what I like, and neither is really a bass head can. Actually my favorite bass I've ever heard was from the UERM, which is by no means a bass head phone. Also a well-driven HD650 from a good source has plenty of bass for me.

Would you say perceived bass quantity from the W40 is comparable to the M80s? I don't really care for VMODAs, too warm for me, not enough of a "clear" sound for my taste, but the bass was an acceptable amount though it felt rolled off to me.
 

 
I was just going back'n'forth between M-80, M-100, W40, and UE900.  By far the M-100 has the deeper bass/sub-bass and the most scooped mids.  At the other extreme side you have UE900 with surgically clean quality bass which lacks a quantity (and no sub-bass what so ever).  M-80 and W40 occupy a happy medium.  In terms of details in lows/mids/treble, hands down W40 wins.  As much as I enjoy listening to M-80 by itself, when you do a/b between these two, V-Moda details get washed out a bit where their dynamic driver can't possible reproduce details of fine tuned quad-armature with a precise cross-over separation.  Their treble delivery probably on-par, with some subtle difference in favor of W40.  When it comes to bass, M-80 has more sub-bass texture and in general bass has more impact and even some dirt in it.  W40 bass is more polite with a faster attack, and not as much sub-bass quantity.  Mids in W40 are better defined and a little more upfront.  I listen to a lot of edm stuff, and with W40 you can hear mids having more impact when it comes to vocals mixed in with progressive beats and electro synth.

 

[Gilly87]

Wow, thanks for the detailed comparison, much appreciated I do think I'll be waiting for the W30, I've gotten used to the zing from the treble on my DT770+microstreamer combo and if the W40 is just a hair above the M80, odds are it won't feel right to me. I'm also discovering that, contrary to my initial self-assessment, I'm not into forward mids, and the M80s feel a bit pushy to me sometimes. Also if they have comparable warmth I would probably be turned off. I really appreciate the comparison, thanks for taking the time to do that

I was just going back'n'forth between M-80, M-100, W40, and UE900.  By far the M-100 has the deeper bass/sub-bass and the most scooped mids.  At the other extreme side you have UE900 with surgically clean quality bass which lacks a quantity (and no sub-bass what so ever).  M-80 and W40 occupy a happy medium.  In terms of details in lows/mids/treble, hands down W40 wins.  As much as I enjoy listening to M-80 by itself, when you do a/b between these two, V-Moda details get washed out a bit where their dynamic driver can't possible reproduce details of fine tuned quad-armature with a precise cross-over separation.  Their treble delivery probably on-par, with some subtle difference in favor of W40.  When it comes to bass, M-80 has more sub-bass texture and in general bass has more impact and even some dirt in it.  W40 bass is more polite with a faster attack, and not as much sub-bass quantity.  Mids in W40 are better defined and a little more upfront.  I listen to a lot of edm stuff, and with W40 you can hear mids having more impact when it comes to vocals mixed in with progressive beats and electro synth.