[rawrster]

These are definitely tempting. I've always wanted to hear a UM iem albeit a custom but it should be interesting seeing how a universal for them pans out. 
 
Also does anyone know the general sound signature of the 3X?

 

[davidcotton]

  These are definitely tempting. I've always wanted to hear a UM iem albeit a custom but it should be interesting seeing how a universal for them pans out. 
 
Also does anyone know the general sound signature of the 3X?

Doesn't seem much chat about these.   Whether it's due to no one getting their's yet or limited availablity (seems to be uk and one other atm) I don't know.  I remember in one of the fiio threads I think that someone commented on the 3x not being as bassy as you might expect.

 

[rawrster]

I wouldn't expect something from UM to be overly bassy since that doesn't seem to be their type of signature but something tuned to be a universal from UM is something i would like to try at some point. 
 
I did email Stephen Guo @ custom-iem.com and he said they aren't available to him yet.

 

[doublea71]

To be honest, I like my GR07s quite a bit more than these, but I didn't have enough time to bond with them. They are very different from both the VSonics and the Miracle demo they had on hand. I will say that they sounded quite spacious soundstage-wise.

 

[khoirc]

  To be honest, I like my GR07s quite a bit more than these, but I didn't have enough time to bond with them. They are very different from both the VSonics and the Miracle demo they had on hand. I will say that they sounded quite spacious soundstage-wise.

really? 
I really love the 3x after I tried it. Compared to 3DD, these iems have more bass, impact but still shallow, 3DD has deeper bass though less in quality. Oh, the detail in 3x is also good. I'm torn between these and the 3DD.

 

[doublea71]

Caveat: I prefer a neutral-ish sound signature.

 

[D3Seeker]

Now this looks interesting.

 

[Gofre]

Hope everybody had a great Christmas

I know I said I'd post impressions, but after a week of listening to the 3Xs I've decided I'm going to return them, and I try only to write about products I feel positive towards. I'm returning them for a couple of reasons;
 
A) The whole reason I wanted to purchase a pair of IEMs was to use at work during unsociable hours. Now I've found out my shifts line up with the store's opening hours and since I'll be interacting with customers there's no scope to use them. I don't wear headphones to exercise either, and I prefer using full sized headphones in the majority of other circumstances, making their usefulness hard to justify £199.
 
B) I just don't enjoy using them. I have to preface this by clarifying that I am not saying they sound bad, or at least not necessarily- my experience with IEMs prior to the 3Xs only goes up to the £75 Shure SE215s so I have little in the way of comparisons to similarly priced headphones. However for the past two months I have exclusively been using my Sennheiser HD600s and B&W P7s, and moving to the 3Xs there is a chasm fidelity-wise that I wasn't expecting. I experienced the same thing after using my Amperiors for two months solid then using my SE215s and it took a few days of solid listening for my ears to readjust to the sound characteristics of IEMs. I may well adjust to this pair too, or it might be a case that I'm always going to notice the shortcomings inherent to IEMs compared to more expensive full sized pairs. Either way between my current levels of enjoyment (or lack thereof) and their limited usefulness to me right now, I don't want to risk sinking £200 into a pair of headphones that I may never fully enjoy.
 
I don't want what I've said here to put anybody off trying or buying them if they think the 3Xs may be a good product for them, the reasons behind my dislike of them are very much personal and subjective, and I have relatively little prior experience with IEMs to benchmark them against, nevermind high end IEMs. I'd wait for reviews/impressions from more seasoned Head-Fi'ers to come out before making any judgements sound wise, if you don't get a chance to listen to them yourselves.
 
I'll most likely be returning them on Monday morning after getting in touch with UM's customer service. In the meantime, if anybody is after a pair of 3X and doesn't want to wait for new stock to arrive, I'd be happy to sell mine at the promotional price of £199 including delivery. I'll have to pay to ship them back to UM anyway, so I figured it would be nice to cut out the middle man and ship them direct to one of you guys. Feel free to drop me a PM if you're interested.

 

[Gofre]

  Congrat's on the new job.
 
I'm interested in the isolation as I wear iems at work to block out noise (machinery, chatter etc). 
 
Also quoting your image, what's the deal with
 

 
Is it a vent of some description and does it affect comfort?
 
Cheers

 
I think it's the vent for the dynamic driver, no impacts on comfort
 

  @ Gofre
 
Congratulations on your new job!
 
i see that you are using the um 3x with the dx50 - exactly what i plan to do too!

 
A word of warning, I got a fair amount of hiss when using them with my DX50, with high gain producing the least hiss for some bizarre reason. Just thought I'd give you a heads up in case not having a black background would bother you [=

 

[karloil]

totally understandable. in this hobby, preferrence plays a huge role in determining gears that one would enjoy. im still waiting for mine and i'm already excited and at the same time dreadful of what i'm going to hear!

 

[Gofre]

totally understandable. in this hobby, preferrence plays a huge role in determining gears that one would enjoy. im still waiting for mine and i'm already excited and at the same time dreadful of what i'm going to hear!

Pretty much, I think I may just not be an IEM sorta guy. I'm going to try demoing a couple of the real high end universal IEMs that can be found around Birmingham, I know of places where I can at least try the K3003 and IE800, to gauge whether IEMs just aren't for me or if I'm just not spending enough, ironically I'm not sure which would be the worse outcome!
 
I hope you enjoy your pair

 

[ads1107]

@Gofre
IEM comparisons aside, are you able to elaborate on how these sound at all?

Trying to decide whether I pull the trigger on these while the promotional discount is still live.

Cheers

 

[Gofre]

Well I had a chance to sit down with the Sennheiser IE800 for half an hour, I also tried the AKG K3003 and Ultrasone IQ (obviously not necessarily the best options for the sake of benchmarking, but a decent array of high end IEMs considering how difficult it can be to source demo pairs in the UK) but only for a short time each. However I've come to the conclusion that IEMs just aren't for me. All were obviously a step up in terms of resolution being dramatically more expensive, however all still felt cramped in terms of soundstage and imaging which I really disliked when compared to a full sized headphone. They were at a point where I think I could live with them, but then I thought again about the price tag and what I could buy instead for the same amount of money. I can't imagine I'll be purchasing a new pair any time soon!
 
So yeah, just reiterate, my criticisms of the 3Xs could quite easily have been more a case of me disliking IEMs in general rather than a problem with their fidelity.
 
Quote:

@Gofre
IEM comparisons aside, are you able to elaborate on how these sound at all?

Trying to decide whether I pull the trigger on these while the promotional discount is still live.

Cheers

 
I'm reluctant to comment on the fidelity of them for the reasons I've given in this post and previously, but I would say to my ears they seem relatively balanced, verging on warm. I did like the mids on them, vocals were nice and forward and were probably the only area of the spectrum I felt were satisfying compared to my over-ears. The low end seemed slightly north of neutral, extended well and had plenty of impact, but with the smaller soundstage they sounded a bit too "thick" for my liking. Again, this probably stems from my dislike of the sound of IEMs but I can't help but feel this part of the presentation would have been mitigated if the bass was a bit more reigned in. Treble presence seems in line with the midrange in terms of presence but lacked sparkle, and I definitely prefer brighter headphones. It also sounded artificial when it came to things like symbals and hi hats but not with synthesised elements in electronic music, although this is something I noticed in the more expensive pairs I listened to today so, again, it's likely down to my preferences. Sorry I keep coming back to that point, I just feel slightly bad about criticising a product I'm not experienced enough with that could very well sound great within its product class!
 
Hopefully that rather vague overview helps, good luck with your decision

 

[djvkool]

Just received an email from UM UK that mine will ship on the 2nd, although unfortunately for some reason this batch, all were missing the UM logo on the faceplate, doesn't worry me at all though, hopefully the package will be waiting for me on my work desk when I return to work in the 13th

Gofre's short impression above made me wanting them even more...

 

[davidcotton]

Just received an email from UM UK that mine will ship on the 2nd, although unfortunately for some reason this batch, all were missing the UM logo on the faceplate, doesn't worry me at all though, hopefully the package will be waiting for me on my work desk when I return to work in the 13th

Gofre's short impression above made me wanting them even more...

Which one did you go for btw?  Seems a shame that there hasn't been more impressions whilst the offer is live.