Westone ES5

Disclaimer: This review is just a reflection of my opinions and experience. ES5%20Pinot%20Noir%20540x490_0.jpg Specifications: Sensitivity: 120 dB SPL/mW Frequency response: 8 Hz - 20 kHz Impedance: 20 ohm Speaker Technology: Five balanced armature drivers with a passive three-way crossover Features : Replaceable cable, one year parts and labor warranty on internal components, 25 dB average noise attenuation, user manual and deluxe carrying case Equipment Used In This Review: Hifiman HM-801 iPod Touch 3G iPhone 4 Sansa Fuze Macbook Pro Introduction Before I had the pleasure of listening to the Westone ES5's I went through an obstacle. My first pair of quality IEM's back in 2006 was the Etymotic ER4P. Coming from a bunch of cheap earbuds, canal phones and clip on sports headphones, the ER4P really surprised me at how much I was missing. The ER4P's are one of the top monitors in the universal IEM arena when it comes to detail and clarity. The soundstage isn't that great, more on the slightly below average level, but the instrument separation is very sharp and distinct. I was very happy with the ER4P's until I lost them while coming home from work. Whoever found them, I hope you can experience their wonderful detail and clarity. I couldn't go back to my previous earbuds, earphones, etc... So I decided to look for a better universal IEM and came across the Westone 3. The Westone 3's were like the polar opposite of the ER4P in terms of sound signature and it took me a while to get accustomed to the 3's. My first reaction to the sound of the 3's was " Oh gawd, the bass!!!

". Though the bass was no doubt tight and detailed it was well beyond it's wanted presence. In some songs the added bass was welcoming, but in other songs it ruined the whole balance. Usually speakers that have this much bass output don't have great clarity or detail to their overall sound. The Westone 3's really changed that general thought for me. It's sound is very detailed and clear. The midrange was slightly laid back and sometimes a bit harsh, but it was nicely presented most of the time. The treble was sometimes a bit too hot and really induced listening fatigue quickly. This was on poorly mastered recordings though and never really did this on my reference ones. To me the ER4P's were a bit clearer and detailed, but the Westone 3's had a MUCH larger soundstage and musical characteristic feel to the sound. I ended up selling my Westone 3's in preparation for purchasing a custom IEM. Now that I think about it, I should have kept my Westone 3's as a back up IEM... I visited a few audiologists in NY and got to listen to Jerry Harvey's custom IEM's ( JH13 Pro, JH11 Pro and JH10 pro ). I actually had my mind set on the JH13 Pro, because the sound was just spectacular on so many levels. It was like the Etymotic ER4P and Westone 3 had a baby and then that baby found steroids. What ultimately lead me to the Westone ES5's was the realization that Westone uses vinyl tips for their custom IEM's leading to superior comfort than an all acrylic shell. I wanted something going that far into my ear to be of a soft material not hard. Arrival of the Westone ES5's The Westone ES5 arrived to me via UPS. From the time spent sending my custom molds to Westone and receiving my Westone ES5, it took 2 weeks. The packaging of the Westone ES5 consists of a free Tshirt ( I wear it sometimes ) with Westone's logo and website labeled on it. There is a nice crush proof and water tight pelican case that in which you'll find your ES5's wrapped up nicely along with a microfiber cloth for cleaning the exterior shell of the IEM's. Also, there is wax removal brush, oto-ease bottle for easier insertion of the IEM's, and a desiccant pod which helps remove moisture from inside the IEM's. First impressions of the Westone ES5's Unfortunately, I wasn't able to listen to my Westone ES5's as soon as they arrived because I promised a friend that I would go with her to the Museum of Natural History. I thought it wouldn't be appropriate to take my Westone ES5's with me, because my attention wouldn't be on her or anything in the museum. As soon as I got home, I hurried to get everything that needed to be done, done. After reading on the web from many different areas I finally found out how to get the ES5's into my ears. For my first custom IEM it felt awkward. I felt like I was underwater due to the superb noise isolation. Nothing else I've used isolated ambient external noise at this level. They felt nice and snug in my ears too. Within the first 2 minutes of the first song I played I couldn't help but chuckle and smile. The sound was just completely effortless, coherent, balanced, detailed and clear. I then sat there in my nice comfy chair and proceeded to listen to the rest of my musical library with my eyes closed and a big smile on my face. The sound

The midrange is no doubt the heart of the music and is a deal breaker for many in terms of the overall performance of a speaker. The midrange of the Westone ES5 is just slightly forward, but not ever congested. Male vocals are very natural and not overly chesty, or dry. The midrange has great body, but it does not have any noticeable coloration that I can hear. What amazes me the most about the midrange presentation of the Westone ES5 is how easily it lures you into the music and takes away what little grip you had with reality. It's very coherent and smooth. Great midrange simply produces a better connection to the music. The realism of the midrange creates great mental imagery corresponding to the actual instruments used to my ears. This type of categorizing happens subconsciously and is further an extension of the resolution of the Westone ES5. This helps me connect with the recording and enhances the musical experience. I expect much of the refinement in the midrange is suspect for this effect. The treble is extraordinarily clean. There is no grain, spit, grit, or veil of any kind here. The treble is very pure in nature, and it has no texture that detracts from transparency. In fact, I would classify the treble as being astonishingly transparent. Like the bass response of the Westone ES5, I sense no interference in the treble with any other parts in the frequency range. The marks in the treble seem to extend with realistic decay in all directions, which is remarkable for an IEM. The decay of treble is one best attributes of the Westone ES5. The resolution on the Westone ES5 help the decay in illustrating sound images accurately from beginning to disappearance. This strength helps in providing realism and building melodies. When a vocalist is harmonizing with other performers or instruments, the resolution of the Westone ES5 takes the music to another level. This effect is demonstrated nicely on Andre Reius The Flying Dutchman. With its texture, extension, and decay, the Westone ES5's bass is something to appreciate from any audio enthusiast. The quality of the bass is stupendous very well defined, tight, and with great definition, extension and attack. The sub-bass in live recordings are retrieved with immediacy and accuracy on the Westone ES5. The Westone ES5's bass also scales up and gives you the extra distance if present in the source recording. Coming from a single subwoofer as opposed to the dual or quad subwoofers that the immediate competition utilizes I didn't expect this type of bass presentation. Boy was I wrong... For those on the fence thinking these are bass-light, lay those worries aside. But, they are not going to satisfy a bass-head unless some heavy EQing is applied. With the Westone ES5, it is easy, not work, to imagine real performers in real space. Its very tempting to keep closing my eyes when listening to them, because the imaging is so convincing. For anyone who has avoided IEM's because they dont image like headphones, spend some time with the Westone ES5. The stereo imaging on the Westone ES5's really shines with live studio recordings. With higher quality recordings, you can discern details such as when a singer moves his/her head while performing. This can be heard on Alison Krauss & Union Station's Live during several passages. I have more easily noticed other micro details on the Westone ES5 such as singers licking their lips, fingers crossing over strings, or performers taking in a breath. Also, the decay of micro details and transients is nothing short of a strength on the Westone ES5. Conclusion

In short, the Westone ES5 is capable of producing a lucid yet vividly alive rendering of your best music. The Westone ES5's disappear completely. These monitors provide a plethora of details that come at the wearer with great accuracy and speed. The Westone ES5 has the ability to recreate music with realistic soundstaging, imaging and decay. There is a sense of realism in the Westone ES5's imaging, and where clarity and resolution are second to none. The Westone ES5 handles micro detail with the speed and attack necessary to image the effect's appearance, and makes disappear the effect with a natural sense of time. There is also very little to no roll off of the treble. I also detect no smearing of details nor marks anywhere in the imaging. Complex passages become alive with concise pace, rhythm, and timing. The Westone ES5 can provide accurate sound of varying volume levels that occur simultaneously in a recording. I would without a doubt recommend the Westone ES5 to anyone looking for a well balanced highend custom IEM as I feel they are simply breathtaking. Thanks for reading my review and I hope you found it enjoyable!

STICK IT IN YOUR EAR AGAIN! A Sound Editor Reviews the Latest IEMs by Michael Hertlein, MPSE It has been almost five years since I reviewed in-ear monitors (IEMs) in Editors Guild Magazine [https://www.editorsguild.com/Magazine.cfm?ArticleID=159], but I have kept an eye on custom in-ear monitors over that time, curious about the new developments. There are over a dozen companies offering many different models, so in revisiting this topic, Ive included an equal mix of newer and older companies. My previous review included products from Ultimate Ears and Westone, and both companies were kind enough to provide their newest models for this one. The new companies included ACS (Advanced Communication Solutions) from England, E.A.R. Inc in Colorado and Floridas JH Audio. As a point of reference, JH Audio is owned by Jerry Harvey, who startedand subsequently soldUltimate Ears. A quick recap of whats involved with getting custom in-ear monitors: You need to get impressions made by an audiologist. Expect to pay anywhere between $25 and $100, but remember to get them done by someone who has experience making them for IEMs. Those impressions are sent off to the manufacturer and several weeks later youve got your custom-fit monitors. The monitors are most frequently made of a hard acrylic but occasionally silicon is used. Once youve gotten accustomed to having something in your ear, IEMs are quite comfortable, even over long periods. Ultimate Ears, JH Audio and E.A.R. Inc all use acrylic, while ACS uses medical-grade soft silicone. Westone uses a hard acrylic for the main shell and a material somewhere between the hardness of acrylic and the softness of silicone (it actually softens as it warms to your body) for the stem. I didnt find a huge difference in comfort among them, but the soft ACS T1 was probably most comfortable

while also being to hardest to insertwith the Westone a close second. The downside to the softer stems is that they can be harder to get into your ears as they tend to bend with any resistance. I was able to find someone locally who could do all of my impressions in one sitting and was highly recommended by each company. Because fit is so important to getting the best sound, you dont want to compromise potential fit issues just to save a few bucks. All of my new IEMs fit perfectly the first time. One huge benefit with custom IEMs is noise reduction. All of them reduce outside noise by about 25 db. This not only makes planes, trains and mix stages almost completely silent, but allows you to listen at a much lower level and yet still hear more detail than youve ever heard. Having multiple drivers literally millimeters from your eardrumsin an almost noiseless environment means that the subtlest nuances (or mistakes) are clearly heard. So what else do these kind of headphones provide? Theyre certainly more versatile than your typical over-the-ear headphone. Theyre very small and extremely portable, but also easy to power, so theyll play nicely with any iPod type device or laptop. My Sennheiser HD-600 over-the-ear headphones, which with I edit, require quite a bit of juice, and I need to crank my iPhone or iPod up to get any kind of listening levels, which quickly sucks the battery dry. In my first review, I used a portable headphone amp just to be able to hear what kind of difference it made, but it was better suited for my Sennheisers because it introduced some hiss with the easy-to-drive IEMs. While an amp isnt necessary with IEMs, there is a benefit from providing headphones (or speakers of any kind) with plenty of power. This time around, I went with a really small amp/DAC (digital to analog converter) from Nuforce called the Icon Mobile (www.nuforce.com/hp/products/Iconmobile/index.php. It definitely improved the sound and didnt introduce any hiss. It also plugs into a USB port to recharge, provides two headphone outputs, and becomes your headphone jack for your computer. In my earlier review, I mentioned how important a proper seal is to performance, so I needed to verify that the sound wasnt being compromised during my evaluation. In the last five years, Ive found a few different tests to verify that all of my IEMs were performing as they should. My first test is to rub my fingers together all around both ears. This subtle, yet distinct, sound will tell you if there are any leaks and where they exist. My second test is from the website of a company from my previous article. It plays 50 Hz and 500 Hz tones to verify that there is a proper seal. The 50 Hz tone will be much lower in level if you dont have a proper seal. Finally, I used the signal generator plug-in in ProTools and swept back and for through the entire spectrum. Nothing I heard during my evaluation indicated that anything was broken or not sealing properly on any of the models. In an effort to simplify my findings, Ive broken down my ratings into different categories that give each IEM a rating of 1 to10 with the totals added to come up with the final scores. The first category is Soundstage, which I usd to describe how well the left and right headphones worked together to create a seamless sound field, as opposed to it sounding like just a left and a right sound. Did the sound have a solid phantom center (and areas in between), and was there depth to the sound or did it come across as flat? Its a difficult thing to put in words, but you just know it when you hear it.

JH Pro.

SOUNDSTAGE
Westone ES5: 8 Nice and wide, but a little less cohesive in the middle than JHs. Ultimate Ears 18: 7.5 A very good soundstage; just not quite as good as others.

JH 13:
JH 16: 10

10

Throws a wide and yet cohesive soundstage.

Throws a wide and yet cohesive soundstage. ACS T1: 6.5 Decent soundstage. Not bad, not great. E.A.R. Inc Z5: 5 A distinctive left, right and center, but not as cohesive among them.

HIGH FREQUENCY DETAIL Westone ES5:

Ultimate Ears 18: 7 Roll off in upper frequencies means less air and sizzle; nice if you listen loud. 9 Great detail, but occasionally approaching sibilant.

JH 13: 8.5 Despite the tendency to exhibit sibilance, the detail was great. JH 16: 8.5 Despite the tendency to exhibit sibilance, the detail was great. ACS T1: 6 No sibilance; not quite as rolled off as UE18, but lacks enough to rival the best. E.A.R. Inc Z5: 6.5 Never exhibited sibilance but didnt have the same sizzle as JH and Westone

MID RANGE
Westone ES5:
Ultimate Ears 18: 7 Visceral lower mids lead to tapered off upper mids. JH 13: 8 Great punchiness; only slightly less detailed than ES5s. JH 16: 8 Great punchiness; only slightly less detailed than ES5s. ACS T1: 8 Punchy lower mids and visceral upper mids; vocals slightly recessed. E.A.R. Inc Z5: 5 Doesnt have the same visceral impact as others in lower mids, and vocals come across as forward. 9 Very good detail, but not as much impact as UE18.

LOW FREQUENCY
Westone ES5: 7.5 While it doesnt play as low as others, it plays low enough and handles it well.

Ultimate Ears 18:

Great bass.

10

JH 13:
JH 16: 9.5

Great bass, and may not need the extra drivers in the JH16s.

Great bass, but occasionally seems a little bloated (+4 db at 50 Hz more than JH13). ACS T1: 8 For a single bass, driver this unit does bass very well. E.A.R. Inc Z5: 6 There is some bass; it just is less refined and constrained.

BUILD QUALITY/ATTENTION TO DETAIL

Westone ES5:
Ultimate Ears 18: 9 10 Best build quality, which includes a seamless combination of two materials.

Excellent build quality, except for one stem longer than the other, and heavy cable. Best carrying case. Ultimate Ears. JH 13: 7 Plugs dont fit all the way into IEMs; cheap carrying bag; pelican carrying case has no padding. JH 13. JH 16: 7 Same as JH 13; on a positive note, the cable is very lightweight and flexible. Comparison of cables. ACS T1: 9 Excellent build quality; no detachable cord, but bonus point for plug that fits iPhones and includes oneeighth- to one-quarter-inch adapter. E.A.R. Inc Z5: 9.5 Unique cable design but no labeling as to which is left or right. Shells have no bubbles or other flaws.

THE FINAL SCORE Westone ES5

Ultimate Ears 18: 40.5 The rolled off higher frequency detail was the main problem I had with these. At lower volume, detail is missing. Otherwise, a great IEM with a warm engaging sound, but also the most expensive. JH 13: 42.5 The choice if you dont need that extra little oomph in the bass that the 16s offer. JH 16: 43 More bass than the 13s, but otherwise the same pros and cons. : 43.5 I really like these IEMs and could easily make them everyday headphones.

ACS T1: 37.5 For being the only triple driver in the review, these are great all around IEMs. Price is a little too high for having fewer drivers. E.A.R. Inc Z5: 32 Using five drivers per side doesnt mean they work well together; these need to be tweaked for better overall performance. These didnt seem as bad until I heard all the others.

TECHNICAL SPECS
Westone ES5 (www.westone.com) 5 drivers per side (single low, dual mid, dual high) $950 Ultimate Ears UE18 Pro (http://ultimateears.com/) 6 drivers per side (dual low, dual mid, dual high) $1,350 JH Audio 13 Pro (www.jhaudio.com/promusic/) 6 drivers per side (dual low, dual mid, dual high) $1,099 JH Audio 16 Pro (www.jhaudio.com/promusic/) 8 drivers per side (4 low, dual mid, dual high) $1,149 ACS T1 (www.hearingprotection.co.uk) 3 drivers per side (single low, single mid, single high) 649 (approximately $1,000) E.A.R. Inc Z5 (www.earinc.com/p2-music-z5.php) 5 Drivers per side (dual low, single mid, dual high) $1,000

Conclusion
Word of mouth is such an important aspect of custom in-ear monitor sales because its very difficult to audition such a specialized product. I have read of these companies providing universal versions of their custom products through some dealers and at trade shows, but even that is still compromising the final product to a certain degree. I honestly think that if I had blindly bought any of these products the deficiencies I noticed wouldnt have been anywhere near as obvious to me. Only with the ability to switch immediately from one product to another was I able to notice how they sounded differently. ACS T1. The ACS T1, for instance, would be a great triple driver IEMbut at $1,000, I couldnt recommend it over the Westone or JH 13s, which are similarly priced. The price difference between the UE 18 Pro and JH 16 Pro is $200, which alone would buy you an excellent set of regular headphones. Even with both JH models exhibiting more sibilance than the others, I still preferred their sound to the UEs, which, while not exhibiting any sibilance, just didnt have the sizzle and detail I had hoped they would. When it comes to describing sound, theres always this nebulous area between what some refer to as neutral and others call bright. While I certainly wouldnt describe both JHs or Westones as bright, they all exhibited more sibilance than any of the others. For clarification, Im not saying the JHs are introducing sibilance that isnt there; they are just accurately reproducing that sibilance. I understand when people describe that as being neutral or accurate, but I personally gravitate towards headphones or speakers that can mask that sibilance while maintaining clarity and detail. If this means I prefer slightly colored headphones (those that introduce their own sound), so be it. Coupled with this is the fact that they also extended higher in the frequency range than the others; having one without the other is very difficult. At lower listening levels, this more neutral sound helps with clarity, while the darker UE 18s and ACS T1s are more pleasant when listening loudly. E.A.R. Inc Z5. A reviewers bias towards whatever sound he prefers will always factor into a review such as this, and Im not afraid to admit that. For my work as a dialogue editor, I would go with the Westone ES5s or JHs. If listening to music, I couldnt rule out the UE 18s or ACS T1s. One could make the argument that at almost $150 cheaper, the ES5 would be the way to go and I myself couldnt diosagree. Honestly, I couldnt argue against the Westone ES5s, even if the price were the same as the JHs. Despite their handling of sibilant material, the JHs are just an amazing sounding headphone.

Let me also add that this round of IEMs is markedly improved over the previous ones. Whereas before I wouldnt have thought the earlier versions were as good as some top-tier, full-size headphones, I feel

this current crop is real close. See websites for ordering details and any other pertinent information or give them a call. I would like to thank Nuforce (www.nuforce.com) for providing their superb Icon Mobile portable headphone amplifier for use during my evaluation. Michael Hertlein, MPSE, is a dialogue/ADR editor who also occasionally cuts Foley. He can be reached at dialedit (at) yahoo (dot) com.