At CanJam in NYC, I thought Westone said the B series IEMs were being released today. I haven’t seen any hint of them on their own website. They are listed on several reseller sites as ‘coming soon’.
Were they available for sale or on display for demo? At CanJam in NYC, they had the finished packaging and had them for auditioning (I listened to them). However, they weren’t available for sale yet.
Were they available for sale or on display for demo? At CanJam in NYC, they had the finished packaging and had them for auditioning (I listened to them). However, they weren’t available for sale yet.
Nice. Surprised Westone don't get more talk around here anymore really. Guess going up the chifi revolution they have their work cut out for them. Used to be a bit of a westone fan back in the day with the 2 and the 3.
Nice. Surprised Westone don't get more talk around here anymore really. Guess going up the chifi revolution they have their work cut out for them. Used to be a bit of a westone fan back in the day with the 2 and the 3.
I have a soft spot for westones as they were my first foray into the IEM world 15 years ago from headphones. I owned the westone UM1, westone 3 and westone W30. The drivers are still working fine today (though some had cable failure and requires mmcx mods/new cables).
I am not sure about the higher end westones, but unfortunately the past 2 - 3 years, I have a few CHIFI IEMs that can give me the same sound quality as these midfi westones at a fraction of the price. Indeed, they are facing big competition from the CHIFI companies. Same for the Shures and other budget to midfi western IEM giants.
Nice. Surprised Westone don't get more talk around here anymore really. Guess going up the chifi revolution they have their work cut out for them. Used to be a bit of a westone fan back in the day with the 2 and the 3.
I have a soft spot for westones as they were my first foray into the IEM world 15 years ago from headphones. I owned the westone UM1, westone 3 and westone W30. The drivers are still working fine today (though some had cable failure and requires mmcx mods/new cables).
I am not sure about the higher end westones, but unfortunately the past 2 - 3 years, I have a few CHIFI IEMs that can give me the same sound quality as these midfi westones at a fraction of the price. Indeed, they are facing big competition from the CHIFI companies. Same for the Shures and other budget to midfi western IEM giants.
Thing that puts me off those is always pretty much the tuning reports of treble peaks and the like. Plus I can order a westone and have it delivered pretty much next day if I want to.
Thing that puts me off those is always pretty much the tuning reports of treble peaks and the like. Plus I can order a westone and have it delivered pretty much next day if I want to.
Yeah the treble peaks were definitely present in the early CHIFI releases about 2 years back, I think they did this to create a fake sense of details. But in 2019, there are quite a few quality CHIFI releases that are quite well tuned without resorting to this treble peak. Some of these CHIFI use knowles and sonion drivers too, whereas some TOTL western sets were found out recently to have used cheaper bellsing drivers. Anyway most of the budget to midfi western brands are probably manufactured in China, and for all we know, some of the CHIFI companies are in fact OEMs that make the drivers and shells for their western counterparts.
But definitely the waiting time for delivery from China is gonna be slow, not to mention if u need warranty and returns can be a bit of a bummer. Though QC is not too bad for some of these CHIFI, they lasted longer in the cables than 2 of my midfi Westones. IMHO, these Chinese brands are catching up very fast to the midfi western segment and honestly, some of them are only 1/10 to 1/5 the price of my midfi Westones but give almost the same sound quality.
Very tough competition as such for these western midfi brands. I do hope brands like Westone and Shure innovate and evolve, I'm still a supporter of Westones and hope they do well. I'm definitely interested in the Westone B50, looks nice from reviews, though I'll see if it can be cheaper for Black Friday.
B50 is currently available at Adorama for $349 (and W40 gen2 for $219) -- check Slickdeals for the links because searching directly on the Adorama website still gives the full price ($699)
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