in all honesty, from what ive read, and other reviews reviewed, who is saying that the w40/r series in its own right doesnt sound as good as the se846....price doesnt aways govern ''better'' i mean from what i read some people still like the mids of the se535 vs the se846 so in some respects higher price isnt really governing a better quality......just like westone could create a 1k iem that some may still prefer the w40/r
Can you post other review links to W40? I have been searching low and high, and can't find at least one review. Only "opinions" of those from saw it at the show and quoting Westone spec from the website. Btw, Westone website doesn't have W30 listed, only W10/W20/W40. Amazon has it listed available starting December 14th. I had it "available" since yesterday. Will post pictures later tonight. I received a review sample of W40 since I write Android accessory reviews on other websites.
Since I don't claim to be audiophile and mainly focus on common audio sources such as smartphone and laptop, my first impression review is probably not up to head-fi standards, but anyway. Also for the reference, this is my first pair of Westone IEM and I also own UE900.
Build quality seems to be very solid, not as fragile looking as UE900. Fitment is comfortable with a wire over ear, low profile lightweight - doesn't stick out too much. There is no memory wire piece, but both braided Epic and round MFI cables are soft and flexible enough to go behind the ear and stay put. The sliding tension piece from y-joint of Epic cable helps even further with cables staying tucked in behind ears (just adds a little more tension keeping both cables together). I found quality of Epic braided cable to be much better in comparison to the one offered with UE900, I always felt UE900 braided cable to feel fragile. MFI cable with in-line remote and mic is designed for iDevices but multi-function control button works well with Android devices to play/pause/call, playback control with multi-click and starting Google NOW by long press (tested with Galaxy Note 2). The headphone connector itself is universal with all UE and SE headphones now, so you have a choice of different 2nd sources and various replacements. One thing I noticed with MFI cable is occasional burst of white noise, most likely coming from the mic. Will have to test more, but having an ability to replace the cable is always a huge plus and great that Westone is offering it with all W10/W20/W40 models.
The in-line remote is rather large, and in my opinion button design is not "blind-touch" friendly. The design of buttons has to be comfortable to distinguish -/+ volume and middle button without looking at it. Here, volume buttons have recessed -/+ indentation, while middle multi-function control button recessed with a raise "W" indentation. I'm sure you can get used to it, but just commenting on my first impression. Also, 3.5mm connector is 90degree angled which is good for cable strain relief when use with smartphone and other DAP. To spice things up, W-series now includes replaceable faceplates in 3 cololrs :black, blue, and red. Easily removable with included hex driver it just to personalize the look, not other sound enhancement functionality. Just like with V-Moda or COP you can change the outside appearance, or maybe switch to Red color for right earpiece and black or blue for the left one
Included accessories, beside that hex screwdriver and extra sets of faceplates, are a ton of eartips (Westone own patented foam and star), little cleaning tool, and a rather bulky orange storage "survivor" vault. Every eartip has a color coded core so its easy to match them up. I personally prefer traditional STAR tips and found them to provide a decent seal, comfort, and isolation.
Now, on to a sound test. I know a lot of people argue that armature drivers don't benefit from burn-in, and in this case it stands true because right out of the box and after about 8 hours of playing pink-noise loop the sound felt unchanged. As I mentioned before, I'm not an audiophile and don't pretend to be one because I don't have patience to dissect the sound. So, I typically focus on 320kbps mp3s, streaming, and driving headphones directly from smartphone or laptop, an average-Joe setup. I also have E18 which I throw in the mix to see if it contributes to any improvement. Obviously, with low impedance of 31 ohms there is no problem driving it from portable audio sources. Using E18 connected to Note 2 through usb-otg maybe improved a dynamic range a bit, specially on high gain setting, but it wasn't night'n'day type of change. I also can say these IEM are NOT forgiving when you throw in low bit rate source or low quality audio stream. And I'm not saying because they are so detailed that reveal every imperfection - that's the whole thing that puzzled me, their lack of overall sound details. Here is a thing, if these were my first set of quad-armature driver IEMs, I would probably be very impressed. But comparing them to UE900 (and i also have UE600, HF2, and M-80/M-100/ATH-M50/P7 and used to have MOMENTUM), I'm a little more picky and critical. In my opinion W40 have a dark warm sound signature, with greater emphasis on bass and low-mids rather than upper mids and treble. I enjoyed very much both quality and quantity of bass (a huge step up from UE900 or any typical neutral flat reference monitors), but I missed upfront presence of upper mids and sparkle of treble. Almost felt like high frequency content was rolled off. Again, for anybody who has UE900 you know how upfront vocals sounds, but with W40 it wasn't a case. While comparing to other headphones, I really felt sound details were missing and these are more oriented toward low frequency content. The sound felt colored to make it warmer, which takes away from clarity. I don't know if it was the same with previous models of W-series, so perhaps it's expected from W40. Also, soundstage was just average.
Overall, I think they are great IEM and seems that a number of improvements were done in a positive direction (cable, connection, in-line remote, faceplate choices). The sound is oriented more toward bass lovers rather than audiophiles with a taste for a neutral flat sound or enhanced mids. It would have been great to hear others opinion about these, especially from a true audiophile perspective. I can't do comparison between W10, W20, and W40, but I think it would have been a good test to see which one offers the best value. I'm familiar with sounds of single armature design (like UE600) or quad-armature design (like UE900). Based on a sound signature of UE900 I can justify the price considering detailed upfront sound of those, although I hate lack of bass quantity. Just thinking out loud, perhaps W20 would offer a decent bass sound with one driver and a balanced mid/treble with the other, and it could be a better value for $200 less than W40.
Later today I will post a lot of detailed pictures since I still have to format and to upload them.
I would definitely file it under "fun" sound signature because the more I listen to it the more I realize it's v-shaped. Not as bad as something like M-100, but I can tell you even with my untrained ears mids are recessed. I just wish Tyll would do a review of these and run his measurement graphs 
