Westone 3 earphones

My job allows me to try out earbuds all across the spectrum in terms of price, design and quality. And while I admit that the majority of music I listen to on my iPhone comes through earbuds that cost $100 or more, I’d like to think I’m not a snob – if a decently balanced set of $25 earbuds or even the iPhone’s own bundled earbuds happen to be all that’s available to me on a given day, I still consider it an enjoyable listening experience.



That having been said, there’s no question that some earbuds sound day-and-night better than others. Earbuds that protrude into your ear canal (as opposed to simply sitting next to it) can offer you a whole new level of listening experience. And even among those in-ear earbuds, the audio quality can vary drastically from one product to the next. Sometimes price is a good indicator of what you’re getting, while in other instances you’re merely paying for a brand name.



So what to make of Westone’s simply titled “3” earbuds, whose retail price tag is a stunning four hundred dollars? Seeing as how the iPhone, iPod nano, and iPod shuffle don’t cost that much COMBINED, the Westone 3 had better sound so stunningly fantastic that they make you suddenly want to take your existing less-expensive earbuds and throw them in a river. Well, after spending a week with the Westone 3, I can confirm first-hand two things: they sound significantly better than I thought earbuds were physically capable or sounding, an I do in fact now want to throw all my other earbuds into a river – they all suck now in comparison.



The most straightforward way in which I can describe the Westone 3 is they don’t sound like earbuds; they sound like full-on cup-shaped headphones. In other words, the audio you’re hearing isn’t just of a higher quality than cheaper earbuds, it’s also more expansive (I almost just typed “expensive” by mistake, which I guess in this case would also be accurate). But what I’m getting at is that it feels like you’re hearing the music not only all the way through your head but also expanding in both directions outside your ears. You feel as if you can hear every individual note coming from every instrument in its own separate space.



Sure, various earbuds in the $100-$200 range can do this to a certain extent, but this is a whole new ballgame. I’ve gone back and listened to favorite songs of mine, songs that I thought I knew pretty well, that now sound so different through the Westone 3 earbuds that it literally sends chills down my spine.



Westone’s website says that the product is called “3” because “Its balanced armature drivers and three-way crossover network add incredible realism and punch to your listening experiences.” I don’t even really know what that means, nor do I much care. Bottom line is that these earbuds make me never want to listen to music through any other earbuds again, and despite the impressive collection of great-sounding earbuds I’ve amassed, this is the first time I’ve ever tested out one pair that made me suddenly find all of the others to be incompetent in comparison.

And that’s actually not a good thing in my case. You see, despite the various iPods I keep around for testing purposes, I’m an iPhone user, not an iPod user. And as an iPhone user I’ve grown used to, and come to expect that, any earbuds I use with my iPhone will have built-in microphone and a play/pause button so I can take phone calls and control the music without having to dig the iPhone out of my pocket. Those features have been a part of the iPhone experience from day one, and at this point I find them indispensable. As a result, I’ve refused to use any earbuds that don’t have those iPhone-specific features for anything other than testing purposes. For example, while I consider the Future Sonics Atrio earbuds to sound better than the Etymotic hf2 or the v-moda vibe ii earbuds, it’s the latter two that I use from day to day and not the former – for the simple reason that the Atrio doesn’t have a mic or play/pause button, and it doesn’t sound that much better than the other two. The problem here, of course, is that the Westone 3 does sound that much better than anything else I’ve been using. Except that the idea of having to dig my iPhone out of my pocket when it rings, then hurriedly take an earbud out of one ear before I answer, and hold the iPhone up to my ear for the duration of any phone call I receive is just not something I’m interested in doing. So that leaves me in a quandary, as the Westone 3 simply isn’t designed to be iPhone-specific in nature.


Which is a shame, because so much about them is well-done, and not just the overwhelmingly strong audio quality. The twisted double-rope design is extremely thin and light, even by thin and light standards, meaning that even though the earbuds mechanisms themselves are larger than with most other earbuds, but overall product is decidedly in the non-bulky category. And the bundled buds include a wide assortment of different-sized black and clear rubber buds, squishable foam buds, triple-flanged buds. I wouldn’t expect any user to have trouble finding at least one size/type of buds that works well for them. And for those users who want to use their earbuds with a traditional stereo system (not out of the question, since the Westone 3 is clearly a viable candidate to replace your over-the-ear headphones), an adapter to fit larger quarter-inch headphone ports is also included.



The final bundled item left me both excited and a bit frustrated. An attachable cable add-on offers you the ability to control the music’s volume via a a small volume wheel. I find the inclusion of the volume control exciting because, frankly, all quality earbuds should come with this feature (in reality, very few do). But I also find it frustrating because the Westone 3’s volume control apparatus is about twice as bulky as the one included on another set of earbuds I’m currently testing, the $80 z.buds from Zagg. At five times the price, I would have thought the Westone volume control would be less bulky, not more. It appears Westone has hedged their bets by making the volume control apparatus an optional snap-on than can be left off for those who don’t want the extra bulk, but this only serves to make them even a little bulkier since there’s now an extra plug involved. But in fairness, since most earbuds don’t come with in-line volume control of any kind, I can’t detract from the Westone 3’s star rating for the imperfect implementation of the volume control; if it hadn’t been included at all, these would still be five star earbuds.


That leaves the fact that the Westone 3 works just fine with an iPhone but doesn’t include the iPhone-specific features I mentioned earlier. I’ve asked Westone privately to bring out an iPhone-specific version of the 3, and now I’m doing so publicly. As iPod users continue to gradually replace their iPod with an iPhone, it would seem to be a no-brainer to me. But of course I’m biased; I haven’t really been an iPod user since 2007.



I tried using the Westone 3 out and about town with my iPhone while conducting my testing, but eventually the phone rang and I had to go through hoops to answer it, or someone wanted to speak to me and I had to not only pull an earbud out of my ear but also yank the cable out of the iPhone’s headphone jack to get the music to stop playing. And that just doesn’t work for me. So while I’ll keep the Westone 3 around for home use, particularly when I’m listening to a new album for the first time, I’m left with no choice but to continue using lesser but iPhone-specific earbuds from other companies when I’m out of the house. Except that before I tested out the Westone 3, I found those other earbuds to be perfectly acceptable in terms of audio quality, and now I no longer do.



I’ll get off my soapbox now and make it clear that for iPhone users who don’t care about the mic or play/pause button, the Westone 3 is an ideal product (assuming of course that $399 is within your budget), and for iPod users the Westone 3 is a no-brainer if you can afford it. They really do sound so amazing that you’ll be so convinced you’re wearing headphones, and not earbuds, that you shouldn’t be surprised if you find yourself trying to remove them by reaching for headphone cups that aren’t there.



Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m walking down to a diner for dinner, so it’s time to put the Westone 3 earbuds away and head out the door with some other pair of really good iPhone-specific earbuds that sound like crap in comparison.