[jermng]

You made me spend money!!

 

[Joe-Siow]

ARGH~~~~~
 
Disaster struck!!!
 
The right side of my ES5 stopped working!!!!!
Will drop by my ES5 with Thinking Group tml to RMA.
 
I feel so terrible now!!!!!

 

[jermng]

Did something happen? Or it just stopped working out of the blue?

 

[Joe-Siow]

Nothing happened. I kept them safely in my pelican case without dropping them. Nor did I wore them out on rainy days.
 
The right side just went dead on me. Yesterday wear got sound. Today put on no more sound.
 
I'm depressed... The thought of it away for RMA for a month is depressing. How am I ever gonna cope???
 
Wail~~~

 

[Wildcard30]

I know how you feel I couldn't listen to mine for over a month because they irritated my left ear so I had to wait for a few weeks before I could get new impressions then send them in for a refit.  It was very difficult for me not to be able to use them.

 

[Joe-Siow]

Must get them to Thinking Group first thing after work tml.
 
And since I'm at it, might as well request for custom art now.
 
Silver lining on a very dark cloud.

 

[cooperpwc]

Complete loss of sound is probably an internal contact/wire issue. It should be easy to fix. Very frustrating to have to wait for them to come back though!

 

[Tronz]

I think Westone is having some QC issues with the ES5's. This isn't the first time someone mentioned speaker failure from the ES5's.

 

[rmappita]

Quote:

I think Westone is having some QC issues with the ES5's. This isn't the first time someone mentioned speaker failure from the ES5's.

I have good things to say about Westone support, BUT I don`t have good things to say about westone QC, because I bought a Westone 3 with one side making weard noises, and my friend bought a Westone UM3X that in one side had the filters and the other side did not, he sent it back to westone and they sent him a UM3X without the glue, and the iem just opened in two parts, so Westone sent him a Westone UM2 with a UM3X inside (YES THIS IS CRAZY BUT IT IS TRUE), so they sent him again another UM3X (Now with a UM3X BOX). The good thing is that he said that he could keep the UM3X. So I believe that Westone needs to improve their QC A LOT!!!!!

 

[3X0]

Quote:

so Westone sent him a Westone UM2 with a UM3X inside (YES THIS IS CRAZY BUT IT IS TRUE)

lol

 

[HeadphoneAddict]

Quote:

Quote:

I think Westone is having some QC issues with the ES5's. This isn't the first time someone mentioned speaker failure from the ES5's.

I have good things to say about Westone support, BUT I don`t have good things to say about westone QC, because I bought a Westone 3 with one side making weard noises, and my friend bought a Westone UM3X that in one side had the filters and the other side did not, he sent it back to westone and they sent him a UM3X without the glue, and the iem just opened in two parts, so Westone sent him a Westone UM2 with a UM3X inside (YES THIS IS CRAZY BUT IT IS TRUE), so they sent him again another UM3X (Now with a UM3X BOX). The good thing is that he said that he could keep the UM3X. So I believe that Westone needs to improve their QC A LOT!!!!!

 
That's bad luck man, because between my son and I we have two W1, one W2, two W3, one UM3X, an ES3X and ES5 and never any failures or problems.  One of the W3 has been going around on loan to other head-fi members lately, and will be visiting Afghanistan soon...
 

 

[goodvibes]

What's important is that they made it right and that you didn't start a thread about how Westone was doing this purposely. I understand the frustration and these things can happen in smaller companies where folks go on holiday etc. but getting it sorted is the key and the extra UM3x for the trouble sounds quite fair. Never fun to jump through hoops for a simple purchase. It sounds like they were in too much of hurry to make it right which isn't all bad.

 

[kieranmoqn8]

/img/forum/go_quote.gif

I wish that I could have attended CanCham. Too far away.  I was very interested before in the Westone ES3X and these sound like a material improvement. Please keep the impressions coming.

Let me be honest.  Before the ES5 I felt that Westone products were a little overrated because of a lack of treble extension.  They just sounded dull at the top and lacked transparency.  I would have never recommended Westone products to anybody.  Westone has finally made a product that sounds more like a full sized can than your typical IEM with a rolled off treble.
 
When I put the ES5 on I was just shocked by the sound.  Is this really a Westone?  Plenty of energy and extension at top with great transparency and clarity throughout the FR.  If somebody was interested in a custom IEM with a more neutral and analytic sound, the ES5 is great.

 

I'm going to get flamed for this, but here it goes..
 
I much preferred the ES5 over the JH16 that I tried. I know the JH16 is geared towards a stage environment, but I was surprised that the ES5 sounded so much better to my ears.

 
I agree with you 100%  I thought the JH16 had WAY too much bass and strongly preferred the cleaner sound of the ES5.  Out of all the IEMs I heard, I left the show wanting to spend more time with the ES5.
 
In general the JH Audio products at the show had a lot of energy at the bottom end but this may not be to everyone's liking.  The JH-3A has adjustable bass (the adjustment worked VERY well) so that can help (not completely) address any bass concerns people have.
 
I'm really glad Westone decided to go a different route than copying the JH Audio sound sig.  I would have loved to have walked out with the ES5.
 
If I have to point out one issue - the price.  If I remember correctly (don't quote me) the price is $950.  I think this is really going to hurt Westone because a lot of people are going to say cost of ES5+DAC/Amp = cost of JH-3A.

Many thanks to your description! It's quite useful.

 

[letloverule]

I've had my ES5s for a few months now (4) and today one of the monitors went dead. The sound was crackling and popping. NOthing particularly special happened that could explain that but needless to say that i'm freaking out. No idea what went wrong. I used them this morning and now one is dead. 

 

[Wildcard30]

Sorry to hear about your ES5 going dead email Westone their customer service for me has been excellent.