This is something I wrote in early 2014, but I am re-sharing because of my recent interaction with Westone Customer service, where they refused to give any solution for my 700 USD IEM, although they admitted that it went faulty because of bad assembly where gaps where left for humidity to crawl in and erode something inside, I remembered that this same item was the item I wrote about early 2014. and since then I have bought many Audiophile product and contacted my customer services and have been happy to deal with them. I should have taken what I wrote below seriously:
In just 4 months (from October till February) I have purchased portable audiophile stuff for over 5000 USD:
Astell and Kern AK120 10/10/2013
Westone W4R 10/10/2013
Westone Epic Mic Cable 21/10/2013
Hifiman RE400 21/11/2013
Fiio E12 5/12/2013
Fiio E18 11/12/2013
Sennhieser Momentum Over Ears 23/12/2013
Yamaha EPH-100 3/1/2014
Sennheiser Momentum on Ears 3/1/2014
Sennheiser IE80 3/1/2014
Sennheiser IE800 15/1/2014
Aurisonics ASG-1 15/1/2014
Fiio X5 2/8/2014
Westone UM Pro 50 2/8/2014
However as you can see the last purchase was indeed the Westone Universal Flag ship (at that time). W60 was not released yet.
So what makes it the best purchase for me? If my average spending was 1250 USD per month, my purchase of UM Pro 50 has saved me 2500 USD till now and counting, because it was due to this purchase that I stopped my self indulgence.
Why? because it was a wake up call. Ever Since I heard/read about the AK240 being issued at the above 2000 USD price, I started to feel that I am not being treated with the same respect that I give to audiophile products producing companies. I felt that Astell&Kern used our love for music and fantasies about perfect sounds and our priority to spend money on those products rather than other stuff, and has used us as a stepping stone to become the "Lafite" of DAPs, highly priced because rich people heard about it. (its funny that Lafite is a famous very expensive Rd wine bought by rich people at business lounges during travel just due to the name, while red wine is also associated with AK - RWAK)
Anyway, in comes CES 2104 followed by NAMM and Westone representatives openly spoke about their new "Elite Series" going universal. meaning that ES5 gone ES50 is now universal UM PRO 50. verbally and in emails that was confirmed. I have always loved universal IEMs since customs cannot be shared by friends for the sake of giving them a taste of the moment. My friends are all music lovers but not gonna pay more than 100$ for a earphone, so I usually supply eargasms when they come to my house/music_library (I am a huge LPs, CDs, concert DVDs collector)
So having heard and read interviews, emails and pulicities, I went for the first UM PRO 50 ever sold maybe (it hit the Hong Kong Shores too early). I always believed in the non-made_in_china items, like the Aurisonics, the Sennheisers and other Headphones(Mr. Speakers, Japanese stuff, HD800, HD650, LCD1...). So UM Pro being made in the USA and being the flagship in IEM and being the first universal Elite Series (highest grade of components done by Westone, as they say), I went for it with pride.
IT WAS A WAK UP CALL. No MORE getting fooled by the AKs and the Westones, and the Shures,.... you either respect our love for this game, and give us value for money, or you position your products with prices according to efforts.
First I was shocked from the manufacturing quality. The plastic now has become sooooooo plastic that I even feel that the coca cola bottle had a better grade of plastic than the UM PRO 50. and I am paying 700 USD here.
Second The assemble is so low grade, low engineering thoughts that it did not use any screws, any female-male compatibility in the 2 halves of the shell of each ear piece, they simply glued them togther with some sort of a super glue. I am sure it is a 2$ supermarket purchased tube, cause for them to apply the glue on the edges of the 2 halves that contain the BAs inside, they cannot avoid the random staining of the outer edges and surface.
Third The cable connector is so unthought-of that the cable's connector is surrounded by a plastic bulge from the earpiece side causing any good to normal quality other MMCX cable to be unusable. So Westone migrated from the 2 pins connection to the MMCX so us the loyal head fiers can use our own high quality cables, but did not give any though that non of our cables will work. and they call it um "PRO"
Fourth, I have read and heard many official Westone employees saying that the UM Pro 50 is the ES50 gone universal, however the ES50 has half the impedance of that UM PRO 50!! who is the pro here.
Fifth, comes the sound. Either the Westone engineers calibrated the sound signature of the UM PRO 50 on a pure gold cable and then through in a very bad cable, or they have gone deaf. the stock cable has a bloated sound signature that causes the mid bass to mess with the whole experience of listening. Some loyal westone fans called the sound warm, well this is not warm, this is malfunctioning!!! Put another good cable and hear the difference. However, dont keep that other MMCX cable for long, since the brilliant engineers at westone has made their stock cable with an extended plastic cover that covers the otherwise exposed pin of the earpiece side, and thus any other cable you use, if it went through the first trap of being thin enough to fit in through the plastic bulge, it will click in but leave the pin of the earpiece side of the connection exposed to all sorts of sweat, dust and humidity, and thus later causing a degradation in sound.
sixth, I compared the vault case of the old W4R with the new case in the UM-PRO 50 and found that the plastic went on diet and the vault now is simply a plastic wrap in comparison.
All this and we paid 700 USD. At the time I had ordered this, I also ordered a Fiio X5 player for 340 USD (In February it was already released in Hong Kong but not officially in the world) . And if you go through head-fi alone, you will see that customer voice listening process that Fiio is going through. Every detailed comment or complain was taken into consideration, an a frameware update after another i being released addressing all issues. And all that for a 340 USD DAP that probbly costs them 100 USD all in all, while the Westone UM PRO 50 is a 700 USD that costs westone less than 30 USD. Also the AK 240 is a 2400 USD that costs probably a 200 USD ( while still is not supporting Flac splitting Cue files, that X5 fiio is already supporting).
As a long fan of AK100, AK10, AK120,... and Westones ( around 5 of them) I suddenly got my wake up call " There are people that we love and they dont care about us, while people that we dont notice while they really care... same thing is happening in the audiophile domain". I suddenly felt as if my girlfriend for 5 years did not visit me in the hospital after an almost deadly car crash simply be cause she knows I love her anyway!!! No sorry, I am waking up
I will go back to spending my money of LPs and Music records in general and be the host of music feasts at my home... Here is a photo
I assume you got UM3x RC with a removable cable, right?