Westone B50 Five-Driver Earphones w/ Extra Cable $299 + free s/h

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03-17-2020 at 08:13 PM #2

Seems like a good price based on history, but caught this mini review in a previous thread:

Terrible, muted treble response. Poor detail retrieval, especially in the treble, since the treble is vacuumed out. Muddy, mushy bass. Creates a gross, dark sound signature that's bad for listening to pretty much any genre. It's an absolute disaster. Positives are good comfort and fit, good build quality, and good cables (material is nice for using out and about). Negatives are the actual sound.

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03-18-2020 at 11:05 AM #3

Does having that many Drivers actually make a difference in sound quality?

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03-18-2020 at 11:08 AM #4

Quote from roald.dukeness :

Does having that many Drivers actually make a difference in sound quality?

i have the 4 driver w40 and it makes a huge difference in sound quality when compared to single or dual driver. Never listened to the B50 though, so i can't comment on quality.

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03-18-2020 at 11:13 AM #5

Quote from AlexH5267 :

i have the 4 driver w40 and it makes a huge difference in sound quality when compared to single or dual driver. Never listened to the B50 though, so i can't comment on quality.

Thanks for the input, I'm doing a bit of reading up on some audiophile forums and trying to find a decent non-bias review.

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03-18-2020 at 12:44 PM #6

Trying to think, how 5 drivers in ear headphones work? When it's this all can your ear physically tell the difference?
thought multiple drivers were a thing for "gaming headphones"

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03-18-2020 at 12:57 PM #7

Quote from alm7m00ood :

Trying to think, how 5 drivers in ear headphones work? When it's this all can your ear physically tell the difference?
thought multiple drivers were a thing for "gaming headphones"

So this isnt like how Razer does it where they are trying to fit a 5.1 surround system into a headphone. This is made so that each driver is dedicated to a specific frequency range. Theoretically more drivers will deliver superior sound. I had the Westone 3 like 8 years ago and it definitely sounded better than any 1 or 2 driver in-ear I heard. 1 for bass, 1 for mid, and 1 for highs. It's only issue was that bass wasn't very clear so they made the W4, that had two bass drivers and as a result the bass was clearer and reached deeper, but the trade off was a reduction in how much bass there was since the W3 had a bigger driver. This isn't always the case. The W5 could potentially have a strong and balanced bass.

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HIDDEN 03-18-2020 at 02:24 PM

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03-18-2020 at 02:44 PM #9

Quote from roald.dukeness :

Does having that many Drivers actually make a difference in sound quality?

Its not so much the drivers so much as the tuning, and more drivers just means more tuning potential, ofc that doesnt mean its always tuned well. More drivers means more control over certain frequency ranges, and often times you can get a lot more detail, instrument separation, and soundstage, out of it if its done properly.
Imo for $300 tho u can do so much better in chifi than what westone offers currently.

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03-18-2020 at 02:46 PM #10

Quote from alm7m00ood :

Trying to think, how 5 drivers in ear headphones work? When it's this all can your ear physically tell the difference?
thought multiple drivers were a thing for "gaming headphones"

Multiple drivers in actual hifi is different than the gaming headphone implementation, the hifi community has had iems with 8-20+ drivers per ear for years now many of it was for professional use until now where its come down to the consumer level.

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03-18-2020 at 03:09 PM #11

Quote from ProbablyChinese :

So this isnt like how Razer does it where they are trying to fit a 5.1 surround system into a headphone. This is made so that each driver is dedicated to a specific frequency range. Theoretically more drivers will deliver superior sound. I had the Westone 3 like 8 years ago and it definitely sounded better than any 1 or 2 driver in-ear I heard. 1 for bass, 1 for mid, and 1 for highs. It's only issue was that bass wasn't very clear so they made the W4, that had two bass drivers and as a result the bass was clearer and reached deeper, but the trade off was a reduction in how much bass there was since the W3 had a bigger driver. This isn't always the case. The W5 could potentially have a strong and balanced bass.

Ya that makes more sense, when I hear about multiple drivers gaming headphones comes to mind

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03-18-2020 at 03:43 PM #12

Quote from ProbablyChinese :

So this isnt like how Razer does it where they are trying to fit a 5.1 surround system into a headphone. This is made so that each driver is dedicated to a specific frequency range. Theoretically more drivers will deliver superior sound. I had the Westone 3 like 8 years ago and it definitely sounded better than any 1 or 2 driver in-ear I heard. 1 for bass, 1 for mid, and 1 for highs. It's only issue was that bass wasn't very clear so they made the W4, that had two bass drivers and as a result the bass was clearer and reached deeper, but the trade off was a reduction in how much bass there was since the W3 had a bigger driver. This isn't always the case. The W5 could potentially have a strong and balanced bass.

Great explanation on why the W4 didn't have a "boomy" bass sound. Clarity all day

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03-18-2020 at 04:01 PM #13

Quote from itsarectangle :

Seems like a good price based on history, but caught this mini review in a previous thread:

Terrible, muted treble response. Poor detail retrieval, especially in the treble, since the treble is vacuumed out. Muddy, mushy bass. Creates a gross, dark sound signature that's bad for listening to pretty much any genre. It's an absolute disaster. Positives are good comfort and fit, good build quality, and good cables (material is nice for using out and about). Negatives are the actual sound.

Depends on the device that was used to power up the earbuds. If it was a high quality amplifier then I would deem it a legit review. If a stock pc output with 64kbps stream, not legit.

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03-18-2020 at 05:09 PM #14

Quote from drznak :

Great explanation on why the W4 didn't have a "boomy" bass sound. Clarity all day

Do you own the W4? I'm jealous. I got the W3 for free from a contest Westone held. When the W4 came out I really wanted it since everyone was talking about how good the sub-bass was on it. I enjoyed how fun and how much bass my W3 had, though.