zentenk
Head-Fier
- Joined
- Sep 27, 2009
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When I first bought the UM3X, I opened the box and I thought to myself, my is the build quality bad. The shell of the IEM has traces of glue trickling out, the plastic itself is rough, and the first pair I bought actually had small hole on the shell near where the cable is. All that and I thought, hey, this is an IEM made for professionals, it's not supposed to look aesthetically pleasing like the Westone 3. I happen to know a few things about molding, and I can tell that the mold for the shell of UM3X is not only easy to produce, but also cheap (only 3 plastic parts) to manufacture, so it's beyond me how bad the quality is. Had this been made with China's manufacturing prowess like the Westone 3, this probably would be the case, but oh well.
That is until I found out that this is not a matter of aesthetics, but durability. I'm not rough with my IEM's, I treat them with care, however, accidents happen. I was walking around a grocery listening with my UM3X, worn so the cable is at front. The wire got hooked by a store shelf and I felt a 'moderate' tug (this is subjective, but lets just say I don't care much about my RE0 and it has received much more punishment and is still perfectly fine). I looked back, and my UM3X was in pieces.
The IEM did not 'shatter' or anything, it was merely because there was not enough glue to stick the IEM together and the different pieces of the shell held together by glue came apart. I picked up the UM3X in shock, and found that one of the wires connecting the drivers came off (don't know where to solder it back to). I tried putting it back together (without glue, it holds a little since nothing actually broke) and found that the bass has weakened and the highs less defined compared to the other side.
EDIT: Sorry for the back picture quality. As you can see that red wire sticking out the the wire I'm talking about.
I know partly it was my bad, but I have never had an experience where a $250+ electronic device breaks so easily, hell I bought a $1 earphone for my younger brother half a year ago and its still working perfectly fine while he throws it in his school bag everyday.
I know westone won't be handling my warranty, so I sent an email to westone wanting to know how the little wires connecting the drivers are and maybe I can solder it back.
I don't have anything against westone, I love their sound, but just expressing how I feel, so dont flame me if you dont like it. For those who plan to buy one, think whether you can treat it like a pair of glass cup first.
That is until I found out that this is not a matter of aesthetics, but durability. I'm not rough with my IEM's, I treat them with care, however, accidents happen. I was walking around a grocery listening with my UM3X, worn so the cable is at front. The wire got hooked by a store shelf and I felt a 'moderate' tug (this is subjective, but lets just say I don't care much about my RE0 and it has received much more punishment and is still perfectly fine). I looked back, and my UM3X was in pieces.
The IEM did not 'shatter' or anything, it was merely because there was not enough glue to stick the IEM together and the different pieces of the shell held together by glue came apart. I picked up the UM3X in shock, and found that one of the wires connecting the drivers came off (don't know where to solder it back to). I tried putting it back together (without glue, it holds a little since nothing actually broke) and found that the bass has weakened and the highs less defined compared to the other side.
EDIT: Sorry for the back picture quality. As you can see that red wire sticking out the the wire I'm talking about.
I know partly it was my bad, but I have never had an experience where a $250+ electronic device breaks so easily, hell I bought a $1 earphone for my younger brother half a year ago and its still working perfectly fine while he throws it in his school bag everyday.
I know westone won't be handling my warranty, so I sent an email to westone wanting to know how the little wires connecting the drivers are and maybe I can solder it back.
I don't have anything against westone, I love their sound, but just expressing how I feel, so dont flame me if you dont like it. For those who plan to buy one, think whether you can treat it like a pair of glass cup first.
