Feb 27, 2009
SMART TALK
We tested the Smart Talk and we loved it!
Very clever accessory that lets you take calls and manage songs on your iPhone at a very affordable price ($19.95). It is not as practical as having the inline mic due to the added cable length, but if you want to preserve the quality of the sound of your favorite in-ear earphones, then that’s the way to go.
Sound when taking calls was crystal clear. The caller we tested them with mentioned a somewhat loud background noise but I tested these in the kitchen and rattling some pans was part of our testing. Just like with the Super.fi 5vi, you’ll have to mind your surroundings.The earphones connect directly into the mic, and the clip is really a must. I had my iPhone on my waist and the Westone 3 cables dangling from the back. The added cables were not a big issue. No interference on the quality of the music. The smart button lets you take calls, skip the songs forward and backward. The Smart Talk is an excellent solution for less than $20 and it will work with both iPhone 2G and iPhone 3G.
MPA
Like the Smart Talk, the MPA is another device you use in order to use your favorite earphones with the iPhone to listen to your music and take calls.
It was developed to be used with the Shure SE line, but in reality, it will work with any earphone.
The clip is not located on the mic, it is located on the cable and you can slide it to position it the way you prefer. I had it slid all the way towards the mic, and I clipped it to my shirt. I had my iPhone on my waist and the added cables were not an issue, just like with the Smart Talk, however because the clip is on the cable, the mic kept bending down (this would not happen when using one og the Shure SE earphones.
The sound when taking calls was loud and clear. The caller noticed less background noise (around 20% less than Smart Talk and Super.fi 5vi) and the button to manage the calls and music worked just fine, skipping the songs forward and backward, pausing or choosing to answer a call. For twice the cost of the Smart Talk ($39.99), we expected a bit more. Nevertheless, the caller on the other end heard the pans rattling at a lower volume which would make the MPA a better choice for noisy environments.
Super.fi 5 Liquid Silver vi
With a smaller size, the Super.fi 5vi has the best fit of the UE family. It is super-light. It’s a complete solution since you get the earphones and the mic built-in the cable. The best seal was achieved with the Comply Tips (foam). It is nice to have the option of routing the cables behind your ears or to just let them dangle like regular earbuds.
The sound is a pleasant surprise. It is clear and strong on the mids and highs. However, do not expect excellent bass. Depending on the song you are listening to, it tends to be bright.
Phone calls were no hassle to handle. The mic reproduces your voice loud and clear. At times my caller complained about background noise, so mind your surroundings.
The inline button lets you pause the songs, skip them (forwards and backwards) and take calls. Everything is pretty straight-forward.
- “single click” = pause/play song or take/end incoming calls
- “double click” = skip song forward
- “triple click” = skip song backward
Microphone performance with the iPhone 3G was very similar to the Smart Talk. Loud and clear but let a bit more background noise in than the MPA.
CONCLUSION
- If you don’t have a set of high quality in-ear earphones yet: Super.fi 5vi is a great tested solution
- If you want to continue to use your favorite in-ear earphones, the Smart Talk is hard to beat on performance/cost
- If cutting around 20% background noise (for the caller on the other end, not you) is very important to you, the MPA would be my choice
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Feb 16, 2009
The Westone 3 – I don’t know where we go from here!, January 11, 2009
Reviewer: Giovanna Visconti
“I want a balanced sound that perhaps offers the SE530s’ outstanding soundstaging but with tighter, less-intrusive bass, plus most importantly a clearer, fuller, more prominent midrange, and the “airy” extension on the highs that probably only electrostatic sound can provide.”
I wrote that on this web site last August in a review praising the UM2 in-ear headphones, Westone’s outstanding two-way system that, to my mind (and ears) trumps their competition by a wide margin.
In that same review I said I’d be first in line when Westone finally delivered their triple armature system. And I was. Well, pretty close to the front anyway.
I’ve been living with the 3s for about a month now and several times during sampling I had to remind myself these are itty-bitty, ECHs! The technology available to create something this grand in such a small size is remarkable and something to be grateful for, but individual designers still have to apply that technology. And Westone has, again, trumped everyone in my opinion based on the ECHs I either own or have had the opportunity to sample.
In fact, the 3s are almost too good for portable devices. If you don’t believe me, run them through a high-end home system. I’ve been doing both and have been tremendously impressed with how they sound within my system. Oh, and also when connected to an iPod. Almost forgot!
Once again, the bass is tight. It neither intrudes upon nor overwhelms the mids. It’s…balanced. Well, of course! However—as John Belushi used to say—“But, Noooo!” It just doesn’t happen that easily. As I mentioned in my UM2 discussion, bass is a tricky thing to balance in speakers and headphones, particularly in classical music recording. Because Westone have “balanced” the bass here, the most important area of music reproduction, the midrange, is left free, warm and detailed. And the difficult high end is revelatory. By that I mean, I’m hearing high detail that I knew was there in pieces I’m very familiar with but didn’t always hear via iPod. (Just to clarify, I transfer music uncompressed using Apple’s AIFF, i.e., WAV, format.)
The wicked test for the 3s was, however, in my home system. I have two, but don’t want to clutter this long review with more information than anyone wants. I use separate amp, preamp and D/A conversion. I also have an A/V amp for home theatre.
For headphone listening I’ve a pair of Beyer DT880s and the Stax SR-202s. However, I currently run those through a Luxman amp used solely for that purpose until I can afford to upgrade SRM-252II driver unit. All Cardas interconnects (and speaker cable), either Microtwin or Quadlink. For playing CDs, I use either my Oppo DV-983H or the DV-981HD. (Waiting for their Blu-ray player due out soon!)
By definition, all ECHs are closed systems. So I’m not going to compare the Stax, or even the Beyers (which are open phones) to the 3s. The 3s simply stand on their own against all other ECHs. They should probably be compared principally to the UE Triple.fi and Shure’s SE530. I wish I owned a pair of these because I think the 3s would equal or surpass them based on my experience with the E500s. Also, I believe Sennheiser has delivered a triple armature unit, but I haven’t heard any of their ECH products.
I’ve used several recordings as sound samples ranging from remastered analogs to more recent strtictly digital recordings. The fact that there are still sonic issues inherent in digital recording is not for this discussion since, for better or worse, that’s what we’re listening to these days. Mostly. (I’m leaving out any discussion of vinyl because I haven’t gotten round to sampling it yet. I’m saving the best for last. Perhaps another time!)
I ran the gamut of solo voice, large symphonic work, Wagner and Strauss operas, solo piano, heavy choral involvement, and so on:
- Christa Ludwig’s famous 1964 recordings for RCA of scenes from Ariadne and Goetterdaemmerung
- Nicolai Gedda’s four-disc “Best of” set which ranges from the 1950s through the ‘80s
- Gilels’ Brahms Concerti
- Kempff’s Beethoven Sonatas
- Klemperer’s 1964 Messiah to gain the benefit of the spectacular Philharmonia Chorus and Kingsway Hall
- Karajan’s magnificent 1980 Parsifal with the Berlin Philharmonic recorded in the Philharmonie
- Boehm’s 1967 Siegfried recorded live at Bayreuth
- Klemperer’s 1962 Mahler Second, again recorded in Kingsway and featuring the Philharmonia Chorus and Orchestra
- Basil Poledouris’s grand, thunderous score for 1981’s Conan, the Barbarian recorded with the Orchestra & Chorus of Santa Cecilia, and the Radio Symphony of Rome; produced for Varese by Robert Townson
- James Horner’s splendid score for 1994’s Legends of the Fall with the London Symphony Orchestra
- John Williams’s scores for the last (uh, first) three Star Wars films also with the LSO and the LSO Chorus
- Williams’s 20th Anniversary reissue of the E.T. soundtrack
- Charles Gerhardt’s benchmark recordings of Korngold and other great film composers from the early 1970s, recorded in Kingsway under the supervision of premier genius engineer, Kenneth Wilkinson
- Miklos Rozsa’s monumental and stunning score for El Cid reconstructed by Tadlow Music on three discs and recorded in 2007 by James Fitzpatrick—he is Tadlow—and Nic Raine conducting the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus
- Rozsa’s complete multi-track recordings of the Ben-Hur soundtrack recorded in 1958 on the M-G-M soundstages, resurrected and restored by Rhino and Turner Sound
Most of this music will test any system, and if it plays well then any pop/rock/jazz, whatever, will present no problems to the 3s. And, indeed, after all that, Rod Stewart, Frank Sinatra (the Mobile Fidelity remaster of “Only the Lonely” as well as the comprehensive Columbia Years)…Glenn Miller, Paul & Artie, Fleetwood Mac, even The Everly Brothers(!) and anything else thrown at the 3s sounded just fine, thank you! The Miller originals, by the way, were really beautifully remastered by Proper Records and the 3s didn’t miss any of it.
The Conan score alone contains just about anything one could want to “test” speakers, or any part of a high-end system! However, Horner’s Legends and Rozsa’s El Cid are more recent recordings.
Selections 5 (“Death of Samuel”) and 11 (“Revenge”) on the Legends CD—just two examples, mind you—are simply stunning. Horner uses all his trademarks here, and listening is actually a lot better than sitting through the film which didn’t live up to the score, unfortunately.
As I mentioned in my August review, I own the UE Triple.fis. They’re very good in my system, very explosive, but they do lack the warmth and musicality of the 3s. The UE’s soundstaging doesn’t have quite the easy pinpointing of the 3s: There are the upper strings stage right; the lower stage left; the brass and horns in the center back; the winds forward center, and so forth.
I had the opportunity to spend a lot of time with the Shure SE530’s predecessor, the E500s, and was startled at the soundstaging Shure achieved. The most impressive thing about them, I think, but surpassed, or certainly equaled, by the 3s. Also, as I mentioned in the earlier review, with prolonged listening bass seemed to swamp the mids on the Shures. I was always conscious of this and found it intrusive.
Because of the superb soundstaging Westone has built into them, along with the smooth balanced sound throughout the spectrum, the 3s seem to wrap the music around you. It almost seems to be coming from within you, the listener, and you can focus on any detail at any time, or simply allow the music to flow through you. In the closed, dynamic headphone environment, the listening experience is very personal—one of the points of this kind of headphone.
Almost forgot: fit. I still forget I’m wearing these even though the body is slightly fatter than the UM2s, as you’d expect, and they’ve a slightly shorter nozzle. However, the grey, soft rubber tips are still the most comfortable choice for me and Westone’s own, included in the package, are slightly softer than those I’d ordered from Shure for my UM2s.
So what else could I want from such teeny-tiny giants? Maybe Westone’s custom fit earpieces since I’m guessing the 3s might be hiding a secret or two yet, they’re obviously that good.
Oh, and guys…just one thing: For those of us old enough to remember when we didn’t need glasses, perhaps the logo on the left earpiece could have been blue? I solved this problem by “coloring” in the letter “R” on the inside of the right earpiece with a Pentel Metallic Gold pen. Now I can see without my glasses which side is…right.
But I don’t think I’ll send them back to you to put a blue logo on my left earpiece! Although…I COULD use my UM2s while you did that…ahem.
Thank you, Westone. That doesn’t sound sufficient for what you’ve done here, but I don’t know what else to say.”
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