[iBug]

The music piece I noticed a buzzing on the left side of Westone 4 was "Alias Season 2 Soundtrack", track 21: "Hitting The Fan". Around 3:24 there's a french horn and the left side of Westone 4 buzzez like crazy during that. I've tried my other IEM's including Westone 3, making sure it's not the recording that's faulty. And absolutely no buzzing with the other IEM's and with my speakers. Only Westone 4 was buzzing.
 
And only the left side. When I reverse the channels, the right side does not buzz, it's still the left side that's buzzing.
 
I've sent the unit back for a replacement, and the replacement has the exact same issue.
 
Does anyone have a similar issue with this IEM? You can maybe download that said track and see if yours behaves the same way. The buzzing is not audible in most of the music I've listened to, I realized it a week after I bought it and it only happens during certain frequencies, like the frequencies of a french horn. 

 

[iBug]

I have extracted the part which buzzez the Westone 4, and I'm putting it for download on rapidshare. 
 
https://rapidshare.com/files/459344333/21_Hitting_The_Fan.wav.zip

It's the 10 second part where it buzzes, not the entire piece, to save space. It's uncompressed .wav file so there are no compression artifacts to complicate things further. 

 

[phntmsmshr]

I could hear a small distortion in the right ear during that wav in both the W4 and the X10, nothing in the left ear though. Sounds like the original recording of the file is the culprit to me. 

 

[iBug]

I'm not hearing a distortion. My left piece literally buzzes, like when a driver of a speaker gets damaged and buzzes. I can send you another recording where I hear the buzzing if you want to test further. 

 

[phntmsmshr]

I wasn't hearing that kind of buzzing at all, but if you want to upload something else I'm happy to listen to it for you.

 

[MaSTaC7]

Just listened and I'm not getting any kind of buzzing through my pair either. Perhaps just a stroke of bad luck?

 

 

[iBug]

Have you tested with relatively loud volumes? They only buzz if the volume is high, but I suppose that's always the case with buzzing issues.
 
I'm thinking whether it was bad luck or just that they have sent me the ones I have sent them instead of replacing them for real. Because what are the odds of the same issue happening in a replacement unit, and at the left side again.

 

[henrylee]

No buzzing testing with my remolded Tf10s

 

[iBug]

Here is another track which creates a buzzing
 
https://rapidshare.com/files/459413316/Breakout.wav.zip
 
It's taken from The Next Three Days Soundtrack, track title "Breakout". 
 
This one only buzzes the left if the volume is really high, so crank it up and see if it does anything with your Westone 4. 

 

[iBug]

To give a better volume reference for the track I posted above, that track buzzes my iPod Nano + Westone 4 when the volume is around 95% to 100%. Don't worry, it's a quiet track so setting to 100% volume won't cause too loud a sound in any case. 

 

[jinx20001]

what you could be hearing is not a buzz but a ring that often accompanies heavy bass, try some test tones and see if you hear the same thing with some deep bass 60hz and below. ive heard it with a lot of in ear phones and put it down to resonance, when you read manufacturers stating they employ titanium housings for the earphones etc etc they usually follow this up with this helps prevent housing resonance or something similar, i think this is what you are hearing and most earphones have it, it just takes certain frequencies to trigger it and send you into a panic. some earphones will have less and some will have more it might genuinly depend on what the earphones are made of and what vibration removal technology is employed. chances are dynamic driver earphones will suffer more due to bigger heavier bass and larger physical movement of the drivers but any sort of heavy bass dynamic or armature will create resonance noise from time to time.
 
this could well not be the reason but it would explain why westone if they indeed did sent you your earphones back.

 

[iBug]

Quote:

what you could be hearing is not a buzz but a ring that often accompanies heavy bass, try some test tones and see if you hear the same thing with some deep bass 60hz and below. ive heard it with a lot of in ear phones and put it down to resonance, when you read manufacturers stating they employ titanium housings for the earphones etc etc they usually follow this up with this helps prevent housing resonance or something similar, i think this is what you are hearing and most earphones have it, it just takes certain frequencies to trigger it and send you into a panic. some earphones will have less and some will have more it might genuinly depend on what the earphones are made of and what vibration removal technology is employed. chances are dynamic driver earphones will suffer more due to bigger heavier bass and larger physical movement of the drivers but any sort of heavy bass dynamic or armature will create resonance noise from time to time.
 
this could well not be the reason but it would explain why westone if they indeed did sent you your earphones back. 

Yeah but if you have read my original message, only the left earphone buzzes. So it cannot be about the "limitations". Not to mention, a buzzing of that kind with volumes as I use is unacceptable with a 30$ earphone, let alone a 450$ one. So it's definitely a defect, in my case. 
 

 

[jinx20001]

Quote:

Yeah but if you have read my original message, only the left earphone buzzes. So it cannot be about the "limitations". 
 

oh no no dont get me wrong headphone resonance is not a limitation of the driver and believe me the drivers are very very capable your hearing is much more likely to blow before those tiny speakers do, every single driver in those earphones is different, they respond differently and no two are identical. believe me stereo matching of the drivers is a tough task you would be very suprised to see just how different left and right respond.
 
its difficult to find an example of a chart which will show the frequency responses of both earpieces if somebody can put up an example to show what i mean it would be great.
 
ah here we go this website shows some nice graphs, check out the frequency responses of the earphones, green is the left channel and red is the right, look how different they both are and when listening you cant detect them. never assume both earpieces are identical. http://www.headphoneinfo.com/content/Sennheiser-IE-8i-In-ear-Headphones-Review/Monster-Turbine-Pearls-Comparison.htm#freq1
 
my advice to you would be to try and listen to the earphones and enjoy the music rather than try and find faults and good points you will always find something you dont like and it can spoil your enjoyment, if however it gets worse or very obvious with more than a song or two then have a speak with westone again.
 

 

[iBug]

Quote:

oh no no dont get me wrong headphone resonance is not a limitation of the driver and believe me the drivers are very very capable your hearing is much more likely to blow before those tiny speakers do, every single driver in those earphones is different, they respond differently and no two are identical. believe me stereo matching of the drivers is a tough task you would be very suprised to see just how different left and right respond.
 
its difficult to find an example of a chart which will show the frequency responses of both earpieces if somebody can put up an example to show what i mean it would be great.
 
ah here we go this website shows some nice graphs, check out the frequency responses of the earphones, green is the left channel and red is the right, look how different they both are and when listening you cant detect them. never assume both earpieces are identical. http://www.headphoneinfo.com/content/Sennheiser-IE-8i-In-ear-Headphones-Review/Monster-Turbine-Pearls-Comparison.htm#freq1
 
my advice to you would be to try and listen to the earphones and enjoy the music rather than try and find faults and good points you will always find something you dont like and it can spoil your enjoyment, if however it gets worse or very obvious with more than a song or two then have a speak with westone again.
 

I have already contacted Westone and I'm shipping the earphones to them tomorrow, they are paying for the shipment. They'll test them and see what I mean and replace them with a working product. 
 
It's 100% a defect. It's not me trying to find something wrong with the earpieces. I have been using Westone 3 since they released and I have used maybe 10 different IEM's, and I have never ever heard a buzzing of this kind, except on speakers which got their bass driver blown. 
 
It's not a hard thing to notice. Anyone who listens to the music pieces I've posted here, with the earphones I own, would immediately notice it and get very annoyed by it. It's almost like a fly got into the earphone and trying to get out, mixed with your music. 

 

[iBug]

And by limitation I meant a limitation of manufacturing. It's not a probable theory that a company like Westone cannot manufacture an earphone, which does not buzz at around 90-95 dB SPL, which is around the SPL as I have heard my left earpiece buzz.