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"Custom eartips, lossless improved overall sound." on by stevenamkoong
Pros: Clear midrange, tight lows, decent highs. Guitars, snares, vocals, horns are primary beneficiaries. Rock, Pop, Jazz, ElectroTech sound best; Classical sounds good, if also lossless encoded.
Cons: Braided wiring comes unbraided. Solved the problem by spraying liquid rubber electrical insulation over the whole thing (available at any hardware store). Gotta have bigger than average ears to fit these babies in.
Summary: Lossless encoding (in my case, Apple Lossless) is a must if you're going to shell out big time dough for these IEM's. I went with the optional custom eartips (add $120), and they really helped improve the overall sound. Custom and lossless is a little like listening to someone through a blanket, then removing the blanket. Although it's a struggle to extract the custom eartips, even with the aid of the little "pull tab" molded into each tip, I figure that's a small price to pay for audiophile sound. My Shure E4's are a half-step down in quality, but a better buy for the money, even without the custom stuff added.
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"The best IEMs money can buy" on by ambchang
Pros: Fantastic sound - Detailed and deep. I was able to discover sounds and details that I have missed in the recordings in the past.
Comfortable - I can wear them for hours without feeling discomfort.Cons: Sound isolation not the best. I actually get better sound isolation from my old e4cs
Summary: I tried SE530, UE Triple-Fi 10, SE420, UM2, and basically every other pair of high-end massively produced IEMs, and there is without a question that the W3s are the best money can buy.
I am not a particularly huge fan of UM2s, as I find the sound to be unclear and messed together. SE530 lacks detail and clarity in the high end, SE420 lack detail and clarity in both highs and lows. The triple-fi is the closest in terms of sound stage and detail, and yet I find the bass lacking.
The W3 was absolutely perfect in the sense that every sound was clearly distinct in the delivery. I can hear the cymbals clearly separated in each note. I can hear every breath in the vocals. I can hear minor background noise in live recordings.
It's as close to listening to the music live without it being live. -
"Thrilling sound experience" on by blafer81
Pros: light, comfortable, very ergonomic, CAN sound amazing, Very warm, like an old hifi sound, Rich full punchy bass; (excellent for an in ear monitor!), overall very clear and very enveloping. amazing for movies
Cons: Very sensitive to the audio source, can pick up alot of sibhilance, U shaped sound, mids sometimes low but still clear, can lose clarity and detail in fast complex sounds build quality is debatable, fitting suitable earplugs is very particular
Summary: The universal rule to highend audio kit is all down to personal taste: true audiophiles will hate these or love these.... so dont take my or anybodys opinion too much to heart, just listem to them first if you get the opportunity
i switched to these from a pair of the midrange shure iems and am really impressed, At first I found listening to them very intense, but enjoyed the level of detail and adjusted to them
The sound experience depends on the audio source, and your supposed to listen to these with no graphic equalizer or enhancements, but from experience playing with the equalizer just a bit can really enhance your experience with these
In my opinion dont use them on an ipod with low quality recordings/low bit rates, you really need to stick to CDs or lossless audio codecs
sound stage very similar to the larger over ear monitors
last word: they have turned me into an audiophile, picking up and listening to genres i would normally ignore, and made me really picky about the quality of the recordings i listen to -
"Audiophile sound and comfortable" on by parth010791
Pros: Accurate and encompassing bass, Forward mids, and extended trebles with no distortion on lossless formats. Comfortable. array of tips. Included volume controller.
Cons: Brings out flaws in lossy formats. Slightly suppressed lower mids. Earbuds are on the large size
Summary: Sounds brilliant all round. No flaws. A lot better than its main competitors in the Shure se 530, Westone UM3x, klipsch custom 3.
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"The best I've ever heard" on by MacedonianHero
Pros: - Just phenomenal sound. Great highs, mids and awesome bass
- The build quality is top notch
- Awesome noise isolationCons: - Price is a little too high.
Summary: The best IEM that money can buy...period.
Westone 3 True-Fit Earphones user reviews
