Yo...
if anyone still doesn't know.. i'm quite an audiophile myself... but not those high-end kinda audiophile rah... just a person who loves listening to high fidelity music... just bring joy to my face... hehe... i have a set of Klipsch Promedia 5.1 speakers which costs me 830 six years ago.... just to show you the degree of my audiophile-ness... ha.. now is not available in the market liao.. and till today... it still provides me the best sound experience on my PC....
so yes.. i'm gonna give you a review of my latest pamper-myself-gadget.. the Westone UM1! You might not have heard of this Westone brand... Westone is not the usual Sennheisers or Shures or Audio Technics or Sony or Panasonic or Philips you see on the mainstream electronics store... but it is very well known in the IEM community... wondering what does IEM means? In Ear Monitors - thats what the community calls them... cool rite?
So Westone is an American brand.. solely made in the US of A... while most other brands of the same class is from China... more info at their website.
My 129 bucks Ultimate Ears Super-fi 3's left monitor was giving me problems... i'm just freaking annoyed when i can't listen to proper music on my ipod when i'm traveling.... so i decided to get a new one... so into the evil store called Stereo at level 4 plaza sing... the shop just sells full of evil stuff rah... so anyway the shop is known for its good customer service and i can understand why... the salesperson was very patient with me while i was auditioning like 10 different earphones on my ipod... and so i put on the Westone UM1 and boy did it left me a good impression!
(Technical Warning: The following paragraph might be too much for the ignorants, but whatever, just read on rah.) The mids and the highs on the UM1 was bright, defined, accurate and rich which instrumentals and sentimental's suit fittingly. The bass was subtle, punchy, tight and not overpowering. I personally dun like boomy, loud and overpowering bass... it just kills the essence of the music... like some ah beng driving his flashy-zhng honda-civic across orchard road, playing some techno music.... puke man~.... Musical instruments was beautifully orchestrated, vocals was pronounced, both which synchronizes in pure harmony.... never have i heard such fidelity music in my 20 years of listening! even the 200 dollars plus klipsch and shure IEMs that i auditioned there were incapable of providing me such an impression.. for 149 dollars.. super worth it if you think like me.. haha...
so comparing the Westone UM1 and the Ultimate Ears Super-Fi 3, the UM1 won me over. The UM1 has such comfort on my ears that having it on for 3 hrs straight and driving at 75db approximately gave me no signs of fatigue... the SF3 on the other hand was a little too large for my liking... i presume they are more suited for the ang-mos rather than the asians.... sound quality wise... the UM1 won by a margin but not by much... the UM1 to me gave me a new level of richness while the SF3 is a little muffled in my opinion... another good thing that the UM1 has... the wires are non-stiff type... so you wun get the folds on wires when you unwind them... something i'm not really fond of with the SF3s... the wires on the UM1 is thin and yet reduces micro phonics... an inherent interference on typical low quality IEMs
so if you want to give justice to your ears, listen to music that was meant to be heard and dun mind forking out 150 dollars for a pair of mini thingys that fit in your ear, then i would highly recommend the UM1s.... listening to the same music will never be the same again.
cheers!
