It's time to replace my Westone UM3X which I bought for about three years ago. They have not survived the challenge of time, it first started with me being foolish enough to take a running trip in blistering rain which led to water going right into the left monitor going all dead for a few days until it suddenly came alive again but only with around 50-70% of the volume so the left and right monitor went out of sync volume wise.
Then all of a sudden one day when I pulled my UM3X out of my pocket the housing had been torn apart, the black part which you insert into your ear-canal had broken part from the main clear plastic housing. I fix this by simply gluing the part back together which proven to work surprisingly well, but now I'm faced with a problem I simply can't seem to fix. The cable has broken, I managed patch it to work for a extra few weeks but now it's next to impossible to get the cable to work sufficiently without making noise or simply cut the audio completely.
So as you can see my Westone UM3X have gone through quite a lot of pain, and I have to admit I have yet to experience anything like the Westone UM3X audio. I'm by no means a professional, not even an enthusiast when it comes to either audio or audio equipment. But I do love good sounding audio, and I use my portable audio player quite a lot so I don't find it that hard to invest some money into something providing me with another level of audio quality.
My past experience has been with the Sennheiser IE6 and I just tried out the Sennheiser IE8i and even though they also sounds quite good they are no where near the clarity of the Westone UM3X. I don't know what it is, but the UM3X creates a feeling of me being in the middle of the action, the sound and audio seems to surrounding me where as both the IE6 and IE8 had a much more flat and normal feeling to them. Vocals seems to be standing out much more with the UM3X making audio books and vocals in songs provide a much greater experience, if I use anything other than the UM3X if feels like the instruments overdo and flood the vocals. I do normally listen to anything from pop, rock to audio books and more classical tuned music and even though the UM3X doesn't seem to provide much of a punch but monitors like the IE8i seems to muddle the overall audio with it's added punch.
I was going to replace my Westone UM3X with the Sennheiser IE8i because I wanted to get something sold in Norway (Westone is not), and I was reading some rather good reviews on them, the cable was replaceable and it would let me interact with my iPhone4 while training without the need of interaction directly with my phone. But they went back as soon as I got them because of one major flaw, they didn't fit in my ear at all. I have been using Comply Foam Medium sized tips for years now, so I had a pack for the IE8i already but the base of the IE8 is almost as big as the tips itself and upon inserting into my ear I had to put way too much force to get them in compared to both IE6 and UM3X which I have used in the past. And when I finally gotten them in they would fall out very easily and while running I could hear some slight air getting through creating a low whistle like noise driving me crazy. They have to be the most uncomfortable IEM's I have tried, I don't blame the IE8i's as it's obviously me having small ears but they were not for me.
This brings me back to my hunt for a pair of new IEM's to replace my Westone UM3X, and as barely any high-end models besides Sennheiser is sold in Norway I guess I have to import once more. The big question is whether I should simply get myself Westone UM3XRC (would love to have a replaceable cable), or perhaps the newer Westone 4R? Or something completely different. And where should I purchase them?
Then all of a sudden one day when I pulled my UM3X out of my pocket the housing had been torn apart, the black part which you insert into your ear-canal had broken part from the main clear plastic housing. I fix this by simply gluing the part back together which proven to work surprisingly well, but now I'm faced with a problem I simply can't seem to fix. The cable has broken, I managed patch it to work for a extra few weeks but now it's next to impossible to get the cable to work sufficiently without making noise or simply cut the audio completely.
So as you can see my Westone UM3X have gone through quite a lot of pain, and I have to admit I have yet to experience anything like the Westone UM3X audio. I'm by no means a professional, not even an enthusiast when it comes to either audio or audio equipment. But I do love good sounding audio, and I use my portable audio player quite a lot so I don't find it that hard to invest some money into something providing me with another level of audio quality.
My past experience has been with the Sennheiser IE6 and I just tried out the Sennheiser IE8i and even though they also sounds quite good they are no where near the clarity of the Westone UM3X. I don't know what it is, but the UM3X creates a feeling of me being in the middle of the action, the sound and audio seems to surrounding me where as both the IE6 and IE8 had a much more flat and normal feeling to them. Vocals seems to be standing out much more with the UM3X making audio books and vocals in songs provide a much greater experience, if I use anything other than the UM3X if feels like the instruments overdo and flood the vocals. I do normally listen to anything from pop, rock to audio books and more classical tuned music and even though the UM3X doesn't seem to provide much of a punch but monitors like the IE8i seems to muddle the overall audio with it's added punch.
I was going to replace my Westone UM3X with the Sennheiser IE8i because I wanted to get something sold in Norway (Westone is not), and I was reading some rather good reviews on them, the cable was replaceable and it would let me interact with my iPhone4 while training without the need of interaction directly with my phone. But they went back as soon as I got them because of one major flaw, they didn't fit in my ear at all. I have been using Comply Foam Medium sized tips for years now, so I had a pack for the IE8i already but the base of the IE8 is almost as big as the tips itself and upon inserting into my ear I had to put way too much force to get them in compared to both IE6 and UM3X which I have used in the past. And when I finally gotten them in they would fall out very easily and while running I could hear some slight air getting through creating a low whistle like noise driving me crazy. They have to be the most uncomfortable IEM's I have tried, I don't blame the IE8i's as it's obviously me having small ears but they were not for me.
This brings me back to my hunt for a pair of new IEM's to replace my Westone UM3X, and as barely any high-end models besides Sennheiser is sold in Norway I guess I have to import once more. The big question is whether I should simply get myself Westone UM3XRC (would love to have a replaceable cable), or perhaps the newer Westone 4R? Or something completely different. And where should I purchase them?
