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rkivie

Westone ES2

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i've finally received these last week, after an arduous five-week wait. these are the Westone ES2 and they represent the end of the road, the top of the ladder for me. upgraditis no more, i say!

 

 

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these were done with open-jaw impressions, as opposed to the closed-jaw impressions that my UM56 were previously made from. with the closed-jaw impressions, the seal would break every now and then when i move my head (eg: to check the traffic before crossing the road) or jaws (eg: to yawn). however, in terms of comfort, they were a bit more comfortable than the open-jaws ones out of the box. you could feel the open-jaw fit push outward against your ear canal. that said, i have to add that i'm in no way saying that i did not feel the closed-jaw fit in my ears. their presence are very much felt still; there wasn't a time when i could "forget" that they were there. in terms of isolation, the open-jaw fit does block noise out slightly better.

 

 

now about the build quality. for persons thinking of going down this route, my suggestion is to find a nice picture or design for the custom artwork. i ordered mine to be a solid red colour, and i must said i wasn't exactly thrilled when i received these. my first impression was that they look sort of cheap and plastic. the finish on the outside of the mold wasn't as, errr, shiny as the ES2 with the flag we saw previously. however that wasn't the worst thing about it. upon careful examination of the earpieces, i discovered that there was some inconsistency in the colouring of the outer molds. some parts of it looked "translucent and i could see the drivers thats were housed within it. i saw this as a defect and i emailed music@westone and spoke with the rep. he claimed that it was not possible to achieve a earpiece that was entirely "opaque" as some part of the colouring needed to be removed so as to squeeze the drivers in. it was more of a build limitation, rather than a build defect. i then asked if they could make these into entirely "translucent" so i won't have to deal with the colouring incosistency. they said no, and added that it would cost an extra USD$300 to redo the molds. but they would let me send them back to add custom artwork though. i know this sounds suspiciously like a rant, well, yeah i suppose it is.

 

 

the other thing i would like to talk about is the memory wires. i've had a horrid one day experience with memory wires on the UE super.fi 5 Pro before, so even before i received the ES2, i was already comtemplating the removal of those wires. however, the memory wires on the ES2 cables are nothing like those from UE. this time round, i could wear these comfortably with glasses on. i'm not sure why theres such a huge difference, but i know that the memory wires are not going anywhere now.

 

 

well lets get to the sound now. having paid a bomb for these, one would expect them to sound stellar. as teddysaur said, the worst it could be was to sound like the UM2. well, not surprisingly, the ES2 retains the same Westone sound signature characterised by a huge bass and forward sounding mids. i was down at Jaben yesterday (to listen to the Orpheus) and since i was there, i picked up his UM2 demo set and fitted on the small Shure grey tips. i can tell you now that the difference between the UM2 and the ES2 is definitely not subtle. i can truly understand the old "blanket over speakers" cliche now. same type of sound, but in comparison with the ES2, the UM2 sounded extremely veiled, and if i dare say so, lifeless. at that very instant, i felt so much better having splurged on the ES2, heh.

 

 

i'm no audiophile, neither do i possess such a vocabulary to adequately describe what i'm hearing. nonetheless, i shall have a go at it. the bass is the same tight, impactful bass, except that it seemed to have developed much more energy now...i mean the kick to the head becomes literal and it was like ouch! i think it may have something to do with the Hornet though, but we'll see; i've just sent it back for the mod. like the UM2, in my opinion, the mids is the biggest plus point of the ES2. forward and lush (and un-veiled now), the ES2 offers a level of intimacy with my music that i haven't experienced before. listening to the last two tracks of the Phantom of the Opera made me feel like i was really part of the mob to hunt the Phantom. the treble is another area that represents a clear improvement over the UM2, which was in my opinion, more than a little recess even for my bass biased taste. for instance, the triangles are now sparkling, have a very nice ring to it and does not decay prematurely.

 

 

i didn't bring my UM56 along to do a ES2 v UM2+UM56 comparison, but i imagine there may be some interest in that. perhaps i'll remember that on my next Jaben visit.

Edited by rkivie

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i noticed the part of the ES2 that faces the outside when you put them on, isn't flat. it looks as tho someone removed a portion of it. isn't it supposed to be flat? especially if you chose a single color?

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Woah red hot! :lust: Matches your clickwheel. lol. Got snakey hiss?

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Very nice customs you've got there (The U2 package). Hope you'll have a cracking good time with them!

 

 

 

 

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VERY VERY TEMPTING HORNET.

and u coloured ur dockout silver? lol

 

the silver dockout might be a product of AudioLineOut.

 

anyway his setup is awesome! the hornet amp... my god.. that's my fream amp!!!

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lol dream u mean xenocide

i almost wanted to reply u as scanfiend for having the same or similar avatar.

oh audiolineout.. their stuff r pretty ex :(

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i noticed the part of the ES2 that faces the outside when you put them on, isn't flat. it looks as tho someone removed a portion of it. isn't it supposed to be flat? especially if you chose a single color?

i know what you're talking about. i also didn't think it would be like that. if you go to Head-Fi and look at the ES2 thread, you will see that for the translucent ones as well. i think that part gets covered up only if you apply custom artwork, like Braxton's.

 

VERY VERY TEMPTING HORNET.

and u coloured ur dockout silver? lol

no lah, my arts and craft/handiwork sucks. i ordered the silver dock. and yah it's from ALO.

 

Woah red hot! :lust: Matches your clickwheel. lol. Got snakey hiss?

dead quiet with the Hornet at low gain. some hiss straight out of the iPod headphone out. if memory serves, i think the ES2 has slightly less hiss than the UM2. but i could be wrong though.

Edited by rkivie

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