Hi guys, here goes my first few words regarding the first few hours of listening to my new W4!!
My earphone journey has been pretty long, albeit not as high-end as many of you on here. I have heard the W3, UM3X, TF3, SE535, IE8, Monster Turbine range. My main toptier IEM was the W3, which was a huge leap up from these Audio Technica's that I had a while back (CK9s). Had been happily cruising along with the W3, thought they were fantastic. The bass response was the main improvement for me, and as I realised later, the relatively mid-scooped nature of the W3 was what made them suit my main music taste at that moment - metal, with some beginning dabbles in electronic music.
Anyway, I was at Kingsound audio (best audio shop in Hong Kong FYI, they let you try out almost all top tier earphones/headphones without any pressure, the only thing they don't have at the moment is the Earsonics stuff I think...) when I spied the W4. Curiosity got the better of me and I tried it. Many here have said that W4 could be placed next to the W3 as a 'sidegrade', so I wasn't expecting any WOW factor response. But I got a WOW factor response, in the sense that each frequency band had been finetuned just that tiny bit more IMO. I suppose this is the definition of diminishing returns, because the W3 are a great IEM, but W4 just seemed to be that little bit better all the way across the frequencies. So I scraped some cash together, and with a subsidy from my mom (the inheritor of my old W3), I laid down ~US$398 for the W4.
The important thing to note before I present my initial impressions/W3-W4 comparisons is that my music taste has changed quite significantly since I bought the W3. From listening almost exclusively to metal my taste branched out to include classical, jazz, electronic, rock, hip hop and other instrumental artists. Though I still think that well recorded and produced metal is the best discriminator of sound quality, the demands placed on the W3 certainly became more varied and 'challenging'. Even before the W4 were announced, I had toyed with the EQ to try and bring things such as female vocals to a more forward position, and to tame the midbass in some way as well, as these particular weaknesses with the W3 had become apparent with my broadened listening.
So far, the W4 have subtly obliterated the W3. The low end is just much tighter whilst still present. Granted, there is a drop in sheer bass impact, but the W3 had bass that would shake your larynx whether the recording really intended it or not. Don't get me wrong, they deliver bass in great quantities, but the resolution of the bass and control of the bass is just that much tighter. Fast tom fills are far more precise, instead of warbling together slightly due to the looser bass presentation with the W3. The mids are probably the greatest improvement in the W4. Vocals come through like a hot knife though butter. In all the top tier IEMs I've heard, these are my favourite mids. I concede that the SE535 probably have the best mids in isolation, but they are so forward and occasionally scratchy depending on the recording and the genre of music that I can't really say their mids are superior to the W4. These are the only mids I've heard that are forward, smooth, forgiving with different genres and recordings, detailed and enjoyable. I'm not sure how else to put it, because mids are difficult to describe for me. It's not about whether they're there or not, or even how controlled they are. They can somehow be 'ugly' or 'pretty' mids, and the W4 are 'pretty' mids. Oh, and the mids are in no way 'mushy' as I perceived in the UM3X and perhaps the IE8. The trebles are not as forward as the W3, but are more refined IMO. They perhaps don't have that same extension as the W3 - that potentially sibilant TSSS is not present in the W4 (for the record, I never found that aspect of the W3s sibilant). However, the trebles have much more air around them, cymbals seem to ring out a little bit in some open space between them and the other frequencies. The analogy I could give for this is the difference between flicking glass and flicking crystal. Each cymbal hit is more akin to crystal than glass on the W4, if that makes sense. Finally, the soundstage and instrument separation in the W4 is a step up from the W3. W3 was great in this regard, but the controlled bass, forward mids and slightly less crowded trebles has helped perceptually increase the soundstage and improve instrument separation. Note, this is nothing like the IE8 which has a soundstage so wide that you feel you're a few kilometres away from the performance, the W4 put you maybe three rows back from the stage. I like this presentation, others may prefer the IE8 soundstage. Even with individual instruments, such as the drums, the ability to discern the high hat end from the low tom end spatially is improved.
PS. I have tried the olives, triple flanges, cut triple flanges, ?Ety biflanges, Ety Gliders, and stock small grey tips. Currently settled with the ?Ety biflanges, I think they are similar to the Earsonics that people are talking about above. Wide bore hole means slightly brighter trebles, more bass impact with a marginally smaller soundstage as a tradeoff. Olives make the bass lack their oomph, most flanges make the sound signature quite compressed to my ears. The gliders are slightly warmer sounding, and provide a bigger soundstage, though I feel that some detail is lost. The stock grey tips are fantastic, coming close to my current biflanges, though the biflanges offer greater isolation.
PPS. Another fairly important reason I went for Westone once again is that their customer service is fantastic. I had a cable failure on the right side of my W3, sent it back and they sent back a full package no questions asked - out of warranty. As a starving student, this is the kind of generosity that buys customer loyalty. If you wanted to peg me as a fanboy, I guess you could, but not without legitimate justification. Their sound quality is excellent, and their customer service is up to the same standard. When I plonk down so much cash, it's just reassuring to know that I'm not going to be left hanging with a broken IEM that I simply can't afford to replace.
Okay, that's all for now. As I wrote, I have heard all those top tier IEMs so feel free to ask for specific comparisons.
And thanks to all of you passionate people on this board, who make it much easier and enjoyable for pauper students like me to prepare to put down wads of cash for this expensive hobby haha.
