[Lunatique]

Quote:

No, I believe. You would probably like the bass but you would find midrange too recesed and highs will be the same issue for you as with W3. IMHO you should look into dynamic drivers or over ear headphones.
 

 
What frequency range are you talking about when you say the midrange? Just checking because I find that the audiophile crowd tend to be hazy about where they consider midrange or treble, but they seem to agree on upper, mid, and lower/sub bass. And when you say recessed, do you mean on a frequency response graph, the midrange would actually be seen as a drop below the 0 dB line?
 
What are some of the dynamic driver IEM's that are respected around here?
 
Over the ear is out of the question since they just aren't nearly as convenient and don't seal the outside noise as well in general. I prefer something I can just stick in my pocket.
 
 

 

[piotrus-g]

Quote:

Are you the first person here to say that the mids on the W4's are too recessed? Does anybody else agree?
Thanks
 

Please read my post carefully. I said that W4 can be considered as a midrange recessed when compared to SE535 directly. You probably won't find it recessed if you are coming from TF10...
 
When I say midrange I mean ~200-800Hz as for upper mids I consider 800-1500Hz and after that highs.
Probably I should have written "vocals" not midrange. Because it's rather vocals that seem recessed than whole midrange.
 
Either way W4's 200-800 range is warm and close to listener however it's more laid back comapred to SE535. So if you like mids of se535 you won't find those in W4. But after all W4 are more similar to 535 than to W3.
 

 

[Lunatique]

Quote:

Please read my post carefully. I said that W4 can be considered as a midrange recessed when compared to SE535 directly. You probably won't find it recessed if you are coming from TF10...
 
When I say midrange I mean ~200-800Hz as for upper mids I consider 800-1500Hz and after that highs.
Probably I should have written "vocals" not midrange. Because it's rather vocals that seem recessed than whole midrange.
 
Either way W4's 200-800 range is warm and close to listener however it's more laid back comapred to SE535. So if you like mids of se535 you won't find those in W4. But after all W4 are more similar to 535 than to W3.
 

 
Interesting. If you look at the EQ settings I posted, I don't alter the lower mids at all on either the SE535 and the W3, but with my EQ settings, the two end up sounding very similar. I guess that means I won't have any issues with the W4 since I never had issues with the lower mids of the SE535 or W3 in the first place (although W3's bass bloat drowned out the lower mids for sure before EQ'ing).
 
Does the W4 have that sibilant brightness in the 7KHz range? Some posts say it doesn't, but a few say it does.
 
 

 

[EraserXIV]

In the mids, the W4 strikes the perfect balance between the SE535 and W3 in my opinion, slightly more on the SE535 side since they are a bit forward and lush and sweet. Highs are much smoother than the W3 and don't have the sibilance issues that I couldn't stand.

 

[jamesta]

No.
 
Quote:

Does the W4 have that sibilant brightness in the 7KHz range? Some posts say it doesn't, but a few say it does
 

 

 

[Lunatique]

Okay, that's all I needed to know. I've just paypaled money to EraserXIV for the W4 he's selling. Should take a couple of weeks to reach me, and I'll post my review after I have put it through its paces against he SE535 and W3, as well as whatever EQ setting I might create for it (hopefully I won't need to EQ it at all--that's the main reason I'm even still on the prowl for the ideal IEM, since I don't like to use EQ if I could help it).

 

[EraserXIV]

So I took out the W4 for one last listen before I sent them off to Lunatique. Darn bills... I think I'm going to really miss these things.
 
I had taken a break from the W4 and hadn't listened to them for about a week since I had been traveling a lot recently and didn't feel comfortable bringing them out. Wow I had forgotten how much these were actually capable of...
 
 
EDIT: Lunatique backed out of the sale for personal reasons, just a heads up for those holding their breaths for his impressions.

 

[rawrster]

I don't get any harshness in that region either. I have them right now with some Meelec biflange tips and it is pretty impressive. i still think I'll get custom tips but I'll see in a month or two.
 
Eraser, why did you sell the W4 just out of curiosity?

 

[EraserXIV]

I'm heading to medical school next year, so financial reasons mostly. I really wish I could keep these, but I think I'm going to dabble in the lower price ranges for the time being. If I had been heading into the work force next year, I would definitely keep these. However, I do actually foresee myself buying these again in the future when circumstances are more appropriate (given that something more interesting doesn't come out by then 

).
 
 
EDIT: Lunatique backed out of the sale for personal reasons, just a heads up for those holding their breaths for his impressions.

 

 

[Rmccullo]

I'm heading to medical school next year, so financial reasons mostly. I really wish I could keep these, but I think I'm going to dabble in the lower price ranges for the time being. If I had been heading into the work force next year, I would definitely keep these. However, I do actually foresee myself buying these again in the future when circumstances are more appropriate (given that something more interesting doesn't come out by then

).


EDIT: Lunatique backed out of the sale for personal reasons, just a heads up for those holding their breaths for his impressions.

it's okay, just buy them when they start selling for $300

 

[Rmccullo]

The other day, I put my 11-month old baby in the family room. After 5 minutes I started to think, shoot, I left my westone 4's in their. I run into the room and see my little girl all tangled up with then while chewing off the olives. They are still good, but couldn't imaging if she were to bite through the wires with her sharp teeth. That would have been devastating. It's funny that out of all the stuff in that room, she chooses my prized possession

 

[Lunatique]

Quote:

Originally Posted by EraserXIV /img/forum/go_quote.gif
 
EDIT: Lunatique backed out of the sale for personal reasons, just a heads up for those holding their breaths for his impressions.
 

Yeah, my wife got on my case about not considering the complications of warranty while we are living in China. She reminded me that when I bought the W3 in China, it had warranty through a local distributor, and if I buy EraserXIV's W4, it'll only have the manufacturer's warranty, which means anything happens, I'll have to ship it all the way back to the States, and will take additional time and money and become a PITA. She urged that I cancel the transaction and buy from a local distributor and pay full price instead. So if anyone is looking to get a mint condition W4, EraserXIV's W4 is still available. He's been a pretty cool guy during our transaction.
 

 

[rawrster]

I thought Westone didn't really care as long as you had a proof of receipt or the warranty card filled out?

 

[mywallethurts]

Quote:

Does the W4 have that sibilant brightness in the 7KHz range? Some posts say it doesn't, but a few say it does.
 
 

not a single bit
 

 

[Lunatique]

Quote:

I thought Westone didn't really care as long as you had a proof of receipt or the warranty card filled out?

It's got nothing to do with Westone. Their warranty is their warranty. The problem is, people who live in countries far away would have to deal with the extra long international shipping time and cost in order to interface with Westone's tech support in the U.S., but if you buy from a local distributor, they are authorized to handle the tech support on their end, so you can get much faster service without all the extra international shipping costs.