[IpodHappy]

As mentioned above, I've been working on a comparison of the detail possible with the different IEMs in my collection after noticing issues with the UM Pro30.  The specific detail used for comparison was fingernail clicks on the keys in the track performed by Marc-Andre Hamlin, on "The Composer Pianists," Toccata in G-flat Major, by Godowsky from 0:08 to 0:23 seconds.  Why piano?  I've played piano for 50 years, sometimes professionally, in multiple venues and have a pretty clear idea how they should sound.  This particular recording is a bit congested, meaning it really helps distinguish IEMs resolving power.  The recording doesn't sound good with everything.  (The performance is great, however.)
 
I tried to carefully establish uniform loudness levels across the IEMs, but that's pretty difficult for all the different IEMs and listening on different days.  I worked the hardest to match the volumes on the UM Pro30, the W30, the Westone UM3x, the Westone W3 and the Shure SE846s.  The source gear was the Fiio X5ii.
 
The following IEMs can clearly distinguish the clicks and give enough detail to suggest fingernails on the keys:
- UE Triple Fi 10 with Comply tips
- UE 700 with Comply tips
- Monster Turbine Cu with Comply tips
- Klipsch X10 with Shure olive tips
- Shure SE846 with Shure olive tips and white filter: this IEM is flawless at providing the clues to let you know you're listening to fingernails on the keys
- Shure e500 with Shure olive tips
- Weston W3 with Comply tips
- Vsonic GR07v2 with Monster foam tips
- Sennheiser IE8 with Comply tips and minimum bass setting
- Etymotic ER4S with Shure olive tips
 
​The following can barely distinguish the clicks without providing enough detail to let you figure out what they are--they just sound like clicks, not fingernails on the keys:
- Westone UM3x with Shure olive tips
- Westone UM Pro30s with Shure olive tips
 
The following let you hear the clicks without knowing what they are if you turn them up to blastingly loud levels.  At normal listening levels, the clicks aren't apparent:
- Earsonics SM3v1 with Comply tips
- Westone W4 with Comply tips
- Westone W30 with Shure olive
 
I tried the same track with the following over the ear phones.  The clicks were clear in all of them:
- Sennheiser Momentum v1
- Audio Technica M50x
- Bose QC25
 
Of course, the above comparison covers only one characteristic out of a multitude that help you decide if you like an IEM.  So many others exist, like bass response, spaciousness, microphonics, etc., so you wouldn't want to make a decision based on this one aspect alone.  Still, it's telling.
 
In using the UM Pro30 and W30s for the past three weeks, I've found they both sound a bit muffled, closed off, have a narrow sound stage and little "space" around the music--I can't hear hall reverberations.  One night after listening to the W30s for 45 minutes while on a walk, I took them off and just reveled at the crickets sounding around me in all their un-muted HF glory.  
 
A very close comparison of the UM Pro30 to the old UM3x showed the UM Pro30 had maybe 2-3 db less HF than the UM3x.  The sound characteristics were really close with the UM3x just a little more open.  Bass was satisfactory in both.   Still, that 2-3db HF reduction was enough to raise red flags during casual listening, which is how I want to spend most of my time.  I'd rather be listening to the beauty of the music than analyzing the technical detail of the IEM.
 
Initially, the W30s had a bit of a buzz on the piano sounds.  I was using the supplied Westone foam tips.  After a few insertions, the core of the Westone foam tip separated from the foam, leaving the foam in my ear.  I switched over to the Shure olives and the buzzing disappeared.
 
I've not been enthralled by the W30 and UM Pro30 sound.  I sent them back to Amazon today because I feel they won't get much ear time, much like my W4s.  What gets in my ears a lot?  The W3s, the UM3xs, the UE700s, the X10s, the SM3s, and the Shure SE846s for the following reasons:
- W3s: the powerful bass and clear highs are great for planes, trains and automobiles
- UM3xs: they're laid back but detailed enough to be great on my walks
- UE700: can't beat the portability, and the small plastic case is great for my bluetooth earpiece on those occasions that I'm switching between music and talk
- X10s: gives a bit of a change up from the UE700s with about the same portability
- SM3: sometimes, I just want this sound signature
- Shure SE846s: This is my at-home listening choice.  Give it less microphonic cables and it would be nearly perfect, IMO.
 
Another take-away: the ability of the IEM to express the music details trumps the encoding bit rate once you're above about 160 kb/s AAC.

 

[GoodGucciGoo]

How do these compare to 1964 v3?

 

[Niouke]

Bought a pair of Weston um pro 30 last week, and I have a couple of observations, for starters please consider the graphs on goldenears : http://en.goldenears.net/28904

- These are not your usual IEMs, they have notoriously veiled upper mids for earing protection. It will shock you at first earing and you will feel bad if you paid them the full price. Then you will continue listening and your brain will adapt, the details will reveal themselves. Then you will forget the freq curve. My theory is that in reducing the agressive frequencies in the sound frees up listening space for the rest of the frequencies, I'm hearing sounds that I didn't notice with other, more agressive IEMs.
- These IEM's are not joking with details and will expose naked any recording/mastering error. The stage is not deep but quite wide, the sound is relaxing, non fatiguing, the fit/isolation are awesome, you can listen to these all day! You can passive listen while working, and when you want to seriously listen, the detail is there.
- Impedance climbs up to ~130ohms at 1,5Khz. On the typical smartphone the mids/highs are seriously veiled, putting the bass forward.
- The bass is thick, goes very low for a triple BA and is very present, while not being bloated.

I love these IEM's and I wish sometimes that I had more than an hour of commute time, however I wouldn't recommend them as a first IEM buy, or a main pair buy. Get a pair of sparkling wide sounding IEM's first, then get a pair of westone when you notice you get headaches in the morning listening to your music, or had enough "sound analyzing" and just want to relax.

 

[Niouke]

One week later I found the perfect fit. As with my other IEM's I was trying to get them inside the ear canal, while these are to be put in the ear and make the seal on top of the canal, not deeper. My ears are a bit bigger so I used the black foam tips, no need to compress the foam before inserting.

The result is that the trebles are much more open now, giving the music a much more deeper soundstage and a better equilibrium and analysis. I'm addicted.

 

[twister6]

One week later I found the perfect fit. As with my other IEM's I was trying to get them inside the ear canal, while these are to be put in the ear and make the seal on top of the canal, not deeper. My ears are a bit bigger so I used the black foam tips, no need to compress the foam before inserting.

The result is that the trebles are much more open now, giving the music a much more deeper soundstage and a better equilibrium and analysis. I'm addicted.

That's a thing with foamies when you compress and insert them deep into your earcanal for the max isolation/seal, I feel like they absorb the energy of the high frequencies and lift the bass up.

That's cool what you did. Typically if you do that with wire-down iems, they can fall out. But when you have over-ear cable to securely keep your iems in your ears, you can experiment with less insertion depth, and that will certainly affect the sound.

 

[Niouke]

I wasn't expecting that much a difference to be honest, it like I changed model. It also actually improved isolation, I thought that my xba-300 were top notch for an universal but this it even better, the ultimate nomad IEM when you also consider there is no microphonics.

I think a lot of "muffled" reviews of Westones out there come from this misunderstanding.

 

[twister6]

I wasn't expecting that much a difference to be honest, it like I changed model. It also actually improved isolation, I thought that my xba-300 were top notch for an universal but this it even better, the ultimate nomad IEM when you also consider there is no microphonics.

I think a lot of "muffled" reviews of Westones out there come from this misunderstanding.

Indeed, wrong eartips selection is a reason for many such misunderstandings. I reviewed a lot of Westone IEMs, and hear from a number of people, after my reviews, who claim they don't get as deep bass impact or hear a thinner sound only to find out later they are still using a default gray core (or black core if it's a foam one) eartips. That's one of the advantages of Westone iems, they come with a big selection of custom silicone and foam eartips and those can really alter the sound, even beyond some basic fine-tuning.