“Westone’s W40 offers superb clarity, stunning detail and stunning dynamic expression, putting them in rare company within the hi-fi landscape.”
Avg
-
Amazing clarity
-
A huge detail
-
Expansive dynamic expression
-
Excellent balance across the spectrum
-
Impressive warmth for balanced fittings
Against
-
A little light on some tracks
-
Expensive
Renowned audio company Westone boasts an extensive audio catalogue, supplying everything from in-ear monitors for musicians to custom-made noise-canceling headphones for jet pilots. But it’s Westone’s impressive new line of consumer in-ear headphones that’s caught our attention lately—including the top-of-the-line W60s, which pack a ridiculous arsenal of six armatures into each tiny earbud. We first heard the W60 at CES 2014 and it delivered one of the most amazing portable audio experiences we’ve ever had, winning our Best of CES 2014 award in the headphone category. But the W60’s premium tones also command a seriously premium price; $1,000, in fact, which puts them in a very narrow niche.
The $500 Westone W40 gets a little less sticker shock, though it’s still quite expensive. That princely price gets you plenty of goodies, including 25dB of passive noise reduction and a still-absurd array of four balanced armatures. We recently took a luxury ride in the W40 express to find out what $500 in-ear headphones could do for our portable music catalog, and in the interest of brevity, we’ll tell you now: they can do a heck of a lot .
Out of the box
The W40s come in a premium package that gives their owner instant comfort for spending half a grand on a pair of in-ear headphones. Extracting the inner packaging from the cardboard shell was a bit of a chore, but when we did, we were rewarded with a sleek, charcoal gray box with a magnetically closed cover that opens like a printed book.
Image used with permission of the copyright holder
Inside, a layer of thick foam held the black buds in place, with a detachable cord running in ribbons around the top of each bud before disappearing into the layer below. Underneath the headphones, we discovered two solid covers in red and blue that clip over the shiny W40 logo to give the buds a pop of color. Underneath the phone we found a very durable orange plastic carrying case that Westone calls the Monitor Vault. The ‘vault’ comes with a pressure relief valve, heavy duty plastic clamps and is tough enough to survive a direct hit from a scud missile.
Tightly packed in an orange box, we found a bag filled to the gills with silicone and Comply foam ear tips, a tiny hex screwdriver, and earwax cleaner. Below that was another detachable cable, this one twisted. A small package of instructions at the very bottom of the W40 box completes the package.
Video review
Features and design
W40 are elegant, lightweight buds, simple in shape and made for use. Their matte black finish looks extremely modest considering their high price. In other words, wearing them in public won’t make you look flashy – only you will know you’re an audiophile player.
Beneath each bud’s innocuous plastic frame is a powerful four-pack of razor-thin balanced drivers.
Inserting the buds into the ear is done in the same way as with professional in-ear monitors: by looping the cable over the top of the ear and twisting the bud around to fill the entire canal for a comfortable and secure fit. The headphones come equipped with pre-installed silicone eartips, but can easily be replaced with one of the many Comply foam eartips. The foam tips will add a bit more noise dampening, but also sprinkle a bit of cloud over the sound signature.
The phones come with an iOS-compatible flat cable, along with a slim three-button microphone that sits about six inches lower than the right earcup. The secondary cable is braided and does not include a microphone, but has an adjustable ring for connecting the forks. The cables attach to the buds on a leg that extends from the top of each, feeding into a small gold inlet using tiny gold studs.
As mentioned, the W40 also includes small faceplates in blue and red, which screw into a small hexagonal slot on the back of each earcup. To be honest, we weren’t at all interested in adding color to the buds, but we think users who want to do so will find the process pretty simple, as long as they remember to remove the original black faceplate first, rather than sealing the colored panel on top like we saw in similar configurations.
Beneath the innocuous plastic frame of each bud is a powerful pack of four razor-thin balanced armature drivers. The drivers are separated by three crossover points for bass, midrange and treble, with a specified frequency range of 10Hz to 18kHz.
Comfort
The W40 fits very well and this helps them achieve an impressive amount of passive noise reduction. Westone claims the W40 reduces noise by 25db, and we’re inclined to agree. Comfort will obviously vary from person to person, but once we found the right ear mold for us, the W40s were as comfortable as any of the other headphones we evaluated. Luckily, the included accessory case offers just about every size imaginable. The foam tips were harder to insert and more invasive, but they also stayed in place with the iron retainer, which could come in handy in more turbulent environments.
Audio performance
While the W40 could be used in a number of scenarios involving high-end electronics and high-quality source material, we think many people will use it with their smartphones for MP3 playback. Here’s how we tested them: MP3s via the iPhone 5. Having done so, we can honestly say that whether the original file is degraded or not, the W40 delivers unbridled clarity, vivid definition and miles of dynamic expression, reminding this reviewer once again, that he really has the best job on the planet.
The calm ringing sweeps of an acoustic guitar or the swelling bows of a string of violins often surprised us with their pure beauty.
The W40’s detailed sound is so supremely refined that it’s allowed for fresh explorations of some of our favorite songs, creating that sought-after “rediscovery” experience that makes old classics sound brand new again. The W40s provide professional levels of mixing clarity, and you could certainly use the W40s in that capacity or as a live in-ear monitor. Every nuance, murmur of vocals, double guitar, or fluttering sweep of dissipating reverb was deployed in the revolving, primal separate corridors of the soundstage.
But the W40 is not only precise. We also found the word “beautiful” sprinkled throughout our appraisal notes. The calm ringing sweeps of an acoustic guitar or the swelling bows of a string of violins often surprised us with their pure beauty. When you’re enraptured by the applause at the end of The Beatles’ “Bungalow Bill,” you know you’re dealing with an impressive set of headphones. The W40 also did a good job of following the roots of each instrument in each recording, mining the inherent colors within and reproducing them, albeit with a taste of the brighter, laser-sharp touch that balanced armature drivers are known for.
Unsurprisingly, the W40 only really showed its full potential on works with extremely complex, richly layered dimensions by bands like Radiohead, Depeche Mode and Stevie Wonder. For example, Atoms for Peace’s “Before Your Very Eyes” sounded almost like a completely different song. Entirely new details came to life, and others that were just ghosts of the sound, like the wave effect swirling behind the upper layers near the end of the song, were pulled from the background and broadcast for the first time in the light of day.
Of course, we have several nits to choose from. As is common with an armature driver system, the bass wasn’t always as punchy as we’d like, and occasionally there was just a shade too much sibilance at the top, evident with an ‘s’ or ‘t’ in the vocal line, or a sharp snap of the snare. But these issues tended to occur only on our weakest or worst recordings, and the W40 does a great job of extracting warmth and fluidity from a design that’s often accused of sounding clinical or sterile.
Image used with permission of the copyright holder
Also, with due respect to the W40’s superior sound quality, we think most people will find their price too high for the ear. Still, if you can swing them, they absolutely deliver. The W40 gave us excellent noise isolation and brilliant portable audio compatibility, with sound quality that will only improve for those splurging on a high-end playback device. After all, even if you’ve already dropped $500 on high-end electronics, why not go for the gold with headphones?
Conclusion
Westone’s W40 offers superb clarity, stunning detail and stunning dynamic expression, putting them in rare company within the hi-fi landscape. Their $500 price tag is quite a bargain, but then again, the work that went into cramming four drivers into a tiny bud doesn’t come cheap.
These are professional headphones, designed for serious audiophiles and musicians – casual listeners need not apply. But if you want in-ear headphones that give you a whole new way to explore your old audio collection, the Westone W40 may be the set you’ve been waiting for.
Tall
- Amazing clarity
- A huge detail
- Expansive dynamic expression
- Excellent balance across the spectrum
- Impressive warmth for balanced fittings
Falls
- A little light on some tracks
- Expensive
Editor’s recommendations
Categories: GAMING
Source: newstars.edu.vn