[davidcotton]

Hifiheadphones.co.uk have the westone w80 on sale for £909 for anyone in the uk interested.

 

[435279]

Hifiheadphones.co.uk have the westone w80 on sale for £909 for anyone in the uk interested.

Thanks, that's a good saving compared to the normal price. Looks like they are clearing out their V1 stock.

 

[pathworks]

Another really good option for you would be Cayin N5iiS DAP (Musicteck lists it for $499, but maybe you can get an even better deal). It has dual uSD for extra storage and also has access to Google Play for streaming.

I checked it out. Strange - I stumbled on an Easter sale where it was showing discounts and the N5iiS was $100 discounted to $399. Added to my cart and the $499 price was displayed. I could definitely fill 2 400GB slots with fat music files - that is a big plus for me. Saw a Hiby R6 vs N5iiS comparison on YouTube where the guy ripped the Cayin's UI (The Cayin was MK II not S so maybe not the same DAPs). I'm leaning Hiby now as a result - wait for a discount then strike. Looks like the N5ii was once on Massdrop. Maybe Cayin will drop this DAP too.

https://www.musicteck.com/2019-easter-sale

Sent an email to Misicteck.

Got an email back and they fixed the page. Picked up the N5iiS for $399 and added the Mojo cable to the order. Thanks for the rec. I'll come back and post once I get to play with it. Thanks for the rec.

 

[musicday]

I will very much appreciate if anyone can compare the W80 with the Rai Penta. My music player is LPGT and I would prefer to use it 4.4 balanced.
Thank you.

 

[pathworks]

@twister6

I've had a week or so to use my new Cayin N5iiS and I'm very happy with the sound when paired with the Westone W80 IEMs. As you mentioned, there is no hiss. I had no issues playing Hi-Res FLAC PCM or DSD files up to DSD256. The N5iiS drove my Fostex TH900s easily in the MdB setting. I was surprised to be able to drive my Beyerdynamic T-1 (600 Ohms) -- had to raise the volume to 90 to get to reasonable listening levels though. Line-out worked great too. I haven't used it as a USB DAC nor have I paired it with my Chord Mojo as of this post.

I have 2 x 512GB Lexar cards each with about 50GB free on each card. The device has roughly 15,000 tracks. So I can fit almost all my music on this player. Also, the music scan was very fast, however, I haven't figured out how to scan or add just one new album folder - I scanned just one album folder and was only able to see that one album - no way to add one or two new albums to the library.

At home, I'm in a location where the Wi-Fi isn't the strongest. The unit cannot maintain a connection where my Pixel 3XL can. -- perhaps it is the stainless steel casing. No problems connecting to and maintaining the connection where the Wi-Fi is strong. Also, Bluetooth works but the range is severely restricted -- about 10 feet. I was able to get Tidal, Spotify, Rocketplayer installed from the PlayStore. I was unsuccessful in getting Google Play Music running.

After struggling initially with the setup, I managed to get it working -- I kept toggling between language selection and the finished setup screen. I finally realized the tag line, "Never be the same again", was actually a link or button to launch into the player. I wonder how many other people couldn't figure this out initially -- bad first impression. Power on; pick language; press home button; pick language again; get angry ... I initially stumbled into the player and couldn't figure out what I did to get there. I went through the same routine after installing the firmware update. Embarrassing to admit my stupidity, but maybe Cayin will read this and take note.

I did have a scare when the unit booted into the recovery screen and, again, I'm not sure if it was me. I was playing a track and held the power button and selected 'Power Off'. Now, I stop what I'm playing and return to home and then power off. No problem since. The problem could have been caused when powering on: I may have held the power button too long. Startup for me now is as follows: press button and count to 2, in about 6 seconds I see the Cayin logo and its good to go.

 

[twister6]

@twister6

I've had a week or so to use my new Cayin N5iiS and I'm very happy with the sound when paired with the Westone W80 IEMs. As you mentioned, there is no hiss. I had no issues playing Hi-Res FLAC PCM or DSD files up to DSD256. The N5iiS drove my Fostex TH900s easily in the MdB setting. I was surprised to be able to drive my Beyerdynamic T-1 (600 Ohms) -- had to raise the volume to 90 to get to reasonable listening levels though. Line-out worked great too. I haven't used it as a USB DAC nor have I paired it with my Chord Mojo as of this post.

I have 2 x 512GB Lexar cards each with about 50GB free on each card. The device has roughly 15,000 tracks. So I can fit almost all my music on this player. Also, the music scan was very fast, however, I haven't figured out how to scan or add just one new album folder - I scanned just one album folder and was only able to see that one album - no way to add one or two new albums to the library.

At home, I'm in a location where the Wi-Fi isn't the strongest. The unit cannot maintain a connection where my Pixel 3XL can. -- perhaps it is the stainless steel casing. No problems connecting to and maintaining the connection where the Wi-Fi is strong. Also, Bluetooth works but the range is severely restricted -- about 10 feet. I was able to get Tidal, Spotify, Rocketplayer installed from the PlayStore. I was unsuccessful in getting Google Play Music running.

After struggling initially with the setup, I managed to get it working -- I kept toggling between language selection and the finished setup screen. I finally realized the tag line, "Never be the same again", was actually a link or button to launch into the player. I wonder how many other people couldn't figure this out initially -- bad first impression. Power on; pick language; press home button; pick language again; get angry ... I initially stumbled into the player and couldn't figure out what I did to get there. I went through the same routine after installing the firmware update. Embarrassing to admit my stupidity, but maybe Cayin will read this and take note.

I did have a scare when the unit booted into the recovery screen and, again, I'm not sure if it was me. I was playing a track and held the power button and selected 'Power Off'. Now, I stop what I'm playing and return to home and then power off. No problem since. The problem could have been caused when powering on: I may have held the power button too long. Startup for me now is as follows: press button and count to 2, in about 6 seconds I see the Cayin logo and its good to go.

Glad it worked out for you and you're enjoying N5iiS pair up with W80!!! If you have more questions or want to share more experience about the DAP itself, there is a separate N5ii thread (N5iiS is almost the same as N5ii). It's active with more N5ii/S users and you can get a much faster reply in there

 

[frozst]

Hi all, I've decided to follow up on the messages below as I think this is really unacceptable. Westone sent me like 3 ALO cables and they all stopped working (well, they fail) as described below. At least their support has been great. When I stopped using the last ALO cable I took a picture of the jack and this is what I realised:



As you can see the jack of the faulty cable is quite worn, that's 6 months of use though. I thought about changing the earphones to another brand but I really like Westone unfortunately. I can't really buy a new cable every 6 months of course! I am assuming if I replace the jack they will start working again, but that's only my assumption.

I cannot believe no one ever had these issues before, since I bought my W80 I had to change the cable 3 times I believe!

Hi everyone, I boughy my W80 in Feb 2017 and I had to return them 3 times already. They always develop a fault where one of the earpices stop sounding when I move my head, etc. It is extremely annoying and none of my other Westone earphones had this problem before.

Do you know if someone else had similar problems? I know it's a problem with the cable as if I change the cable it works well.

Thanks,

When I bought the W80 in Feb 17 I started to use the remote cable, started to fail after a few months and switched to the ALO cable, it worked fine for a few months and failed again, so I sent for RMA both cables with the IEMs so they replaced both. I got both cables new + the IEMs. In Jan 18 the ALO cable started to fail again (I don't use the remote cable anymore) so I contacted Westone and I sent the IEM with the ALO cable, which the replaced completely.

Now I am experiencing the issues for the 3rd time. The ALO cable is starting to fail, today it failed a couple of times but I know this is something progressive, it might take a few days/weeks until they start to fail more often. I know for sure that if I change the cable to the remote one (or for a new ALO cable for that matter) would work fine but eventually it will fail again.

I don't think moisture or dirt is the problem to be honest, I just cleaned the MMCX for the first time since I got these replacement and didn't see any obvious dirt there. Plus I never had this problem before with any of the Westone IEM I had in the past, all with the same connectors. Actually, I spent thousand of hours with the Westone W40 (or Westone 4? Can't remember now) riding the world with my motorbike and they never developed a fault - and I am sure moisture and dirt was much more obvious there!

I use the IEMs every day though, at least a few hours so they have a lot of hours of use. I am saying this because I know most of you guys have other IEMs and might swap more etc, but in my case these are the only earphones I use, so they can easily have 1000 hours of use since Jan 18.



Thanks Blake for posting here! It would be interesting to receive another ALO cable and test it for a few weeks to see if it develops a fault. I am pretty sure it's the cable and not the actual IEM. I will send you a PM shortly. Thanks for your help!



Did you experience the same problem? For me is like one of the IEM stop sounding or the volume on that earpice was so quiet I can't hear it anymore. It is really annoying because something it affects my actual balance walking or riding for a few milliseconds (until my brain realizes about the issue!).

 

[twister6]

Hi all, I've decided to follow up on the messages below as I think this is really unacceptable. Westone sent me like 3 ALO cables and they all stopped working (well, they fail) as described below. At least their support has been great. When I stopped using the last ALO cable I took a picture of the jack and this is what I realised:



As you can see the jack of the faulty cable is quite worn, that's 6 months of use though. I thought about changing the earphones to another brand but I really like Westone unfortunately. I can't really buy a new cable every 6 months of course! I am assuming if I replace the jack they will start working again, but that's only my assumption.

I cannot believe no one ever had these issues before, since I bought my W80 I had to change the cable 3 times I believe!

So, the issue is with the connector plug of Ref8 cable and gold plating wearing off? And the failure symptom is left or right sides failing with no sound?

Indeed, tbh I don't recall ever reading about this problem before. But maybe you are right, people don't have thousands of hours on their cables/iems. Just curious, with all 3 cables, have you been using the same source for playback? If so, do you unplug the cable or leave it plugged in always? Also, if you leave it plugged in, do you wrap your cable around the player? Just trying to figure out if there is something unique in your daily use/application because 3 failed cables in a row with the same failure makes it a pattern now.

 

[BKG22]

So, the issue is with the connector plug of Ref8 cable and gold plating wearing off? And the failure symptom is left or right sides failing with no sound?

Indeed, tbh I don't recall ever reading about this problem before. But maybe you are right, people don't have thousands of hours on their cables/iems. Just curious, with all 3 cables, have you been using the same source for playback? If so, do you unplug the cable or leave it plugged in always? Also, if you leave it plugged in, do you wrap your cable around the player? Just trying to figure out if there is something unique in your daily use/application because 3 failed cables in a row with the same failure makes it a pattern now.

@frozst I am interested in learning the answers to twister's questions. What you are describing is a complete conundrum and completely out of character for the W80 which is our least returned unit in our entire line up. Additionally the ALO cable, when talking to ALO specifically, has had an incredibly low return rate. So for this to happen this many times to you is indeed concerning. What player do you use and how often? Do you have any other earphones and if so have they had issues?

If you could PM me your name I would like to look into your previous RMA's and the results of the inspection to see if that can shed any light.

We are here to help...

 

[frozst]

@BKG22 @twister6 this is indeed worrying and I definitely want to keep the W80:

1. The W80 are the only earphones I currently have and I use them with my phone are computer. I use them every day: basically I plug them to my phone to go to work and when I get there I unplug them and connect them to the PC. I might use them like 2 hours per day perhaps, sometimes more, sometimes less.
2. I do not wrap the cable to the player, I've never done this before really with any of my earphones. And I unplug them the usual times you would with a normal use. Definitely I had earphones with more usage than the W80.
3. When the cables start to fail they do fail with all sources and plugs, so it's definitely the cable (but I cannot be 100% sure it's the jack unless I literally replace that part of the cable).
4. I noticed the gold platting wearing off yes but I am not sure if that is the actual sign. I will take a picture of the old cable and the one I am using now.
5. Anyway, this is not only related with the ALO cable itself because it happened with the cable with the remote as well.
6. When they start to fail this happens: right or left start to have no sound or fail, like lower sound or crispy sound. If I move the jack or remove and insert again might help.
7. The problem is that I had Westone for more than 10 years and this never happened and my patterns haven't changed really. Any of the other Westone didn't have problems with the cables. Indeed my previous W40 I used them way more than these, I used the stock cable for 3 years (it was totally destroyed in the end, but sound was perfect!) and never had any issues. As I said in a previous post, the W40 were used for thousands of hours on my motorbike in all horrible weather conditions you can imagine and they never ever had any issues.

My only guess is that the W80 are extremely sensitive to the jack being worn out? That's the only explanation I can find. There must be other people who use their W80 as their daily driver.

@BKG22 I will PMed you now.

Thanks all for your help!

 

[Bluetyler]

Infrequent poster but I was hoping to get some input on how the W80 V2 compares to the UM Pro 50 V2. I've had the latter in both v1 and v2 versions and really liked the sound paired with Cowon Plenue P1 which is still the main source I use for portable listening.

Unfortunately I lost my UM Pro 50's on a recent long haul flight (arrrgh!) and I'm looking to replace. So do I stick with the UM Pro 50 V2 or is the W80 V2 a significant step up in quality that would justify the upgrade?

Thanks in advance for any feedback.

 

[twister6]

Infrequent poster but I was hoping to get some input on how the W80 V2 compares to the UM Pro 50 V2. I've had the latter in both v1 and v2 versions and really liked the sound paired with Cowon Plenue P1 which is still the main source I use for portable listening.

Unfortunately I lost my UM Pro 50's on a recent long haul flight (arrrgh!) and I'm looking to replace. So do I stick with the UM Pro 50 V2 or is the W80 V2 a significant step up in quality that would justify the upgrade?

Thanks in advance for any feedback.

I hate going by memory, so I will reply with this comparison once I get back home from work. And also, you might wonna consider W60 v2 in addition to UMPro50v2 and W80. I will compare all 3 and post it here tonight.

 

[davidcotton]

@BKG22 @twister6 this is indeed worrying and I definitely want to keep the W80:

1. The W80 are the only earphones I currently have and I use them with my phone are computer. I use them every day: basically I plug them to my phone to go to work and when I get there I unplug them and connect them to the PC. I might use them like 2 hours per day perhaps, sometimes more, sometimes less.
2. I do not wrap the cable to the player, I've never done this before really with any of my earphones. And I unplug them the usual times you would with a normal use. Definitely I had earphones with more usage than the W80.
3. When the cables start to fail they do fail with all sources and plugs, so it's definitely the cable (but I cannot be 100% sure it's the jack unless I literally replace that part of the cable).
4. I noticed the gold platting wearing off yes but I am not sure if that is the actual sign. I will take a picture of the old cable and the one I am using now.
5. Anyway, this is not only related with the ALO cable itself because it happened with the cable with the remote as well.
6. When they start to fail this happens: right or left start to have no sound or fail, like lower sound or crispy sound. If I move the jack or remove and insert again might help.
7. The problem is that I had Westone for more than 10 years and this never happened and my patterns haven't changed really. Any of the other Westone didn't have problems with the cables. Indeed my previous W40 I used them way more than these, I used the stock cable for 3 years (it was totally destroyed in the end, but sound was perfect!) and never had any issues. As I said in a previous post, the W40 were used for thousands of hours on my motorbike in all horrible weather conditions you can imagine and they never ever had any issues.

My only guess is that the W80 are extremely sensitive to the jack being worn out? That's the only explanation I can find. There must be other people who use their W80 as their daily driver.

@BKG22 I will PMed you now.

Thanks all for your help!

Any update on this?

 

[Bluetyler]

I hate going by memory, so I will reply with this comparison once I get back home from work. And also, you might wonna consider W60 v2 in addition to UMPro50v2 and W80. I will compare all 3 and post it here tonight.

That would be great when you get time. Thanks!

 

[twister6]

That would be great when you get time. Thanks!

Here you go, compared W80/v2 vs UMPro50v2 and W60v2

W80 vs UMPro50v2 – W soundstage is wider in comparison to UM here. Bass has a lot of similarities from sub-bass extension to mid-bass impact. Mids are a little leaner and more transparent in UM while have a little more body and thicker in W, and overall UM mids are a little more revealing, brighter, while W mids are smoother and more organic. Both have a well-defined treble, but UM has more sparkle and a little crisper at the top.

W60v2 vs UMPro50v2 – both have a very similar soundstage expansion, in width and depth. Bass has a lot of similarities as well, from deeper sub-bass rumble to mid-bass impact, but UM mid-bass hits even harder and a bit faster (shorter attack/decay), while W is a bit relaxed in comparison. Mids are very similar, with nearly the same neutral (more toward leaner) lower mids, and more resolving, transparent upper mids. But with treble, W is a little smoother while UM has more sparkle and sounds crisper.

W60v2 feels like a mix between W80 and UMPro50v2.