The design of the UM2’s is no nonsense, straightforward, dual balanced armatures with a passive crossover to split the bass from the mids and highs. In use, the UM2’s can reduce background noise by up to 25dB, which is useful for those on-stage to preserve their hearing, whilst reducing the clutter at front of stage of personal monitors. Also saves extra costs in shipping less weight, and less time spent on the get-in and get-out of each venue.

The UM2’s are clear plastic, with similarly clear outer sheath for the wires, and a 90º angled 3.5mm stereo jack – gold plated of course! They also come in a very elegant and quite large compared to other brands offerings, gloss black carry case, in which you can keep the wax removal tool, and 2 extra pairs of compressible foam tips. Unlike others, the foam tips provided are shaped in a conical fashion, whereas the others are straight cut cylindrical type. Certainly, first impressions wow you, and make you appreciative of the extra lengths Westone/Variphone have gone to in persuading you your £300 or so, was money well spent.

That aside, the real selling point for users, will be their sound quality – are they getting £300 worth of quality or £300 of so-so-ness. Having spent the better part of 4 months with these before finally getting round to writing about them, I can honestly say that they are worth their weight in gold – which by my guess of 30g weight x $16,000 /kg equals £270 odd. So, pretty close then, eh?

Seriously though, the UM2’s are absolutely superb – at any monetary value. They have a naturalness and ease with which they convey every succinct emotion an artist expresses. My passion is solo guitar players, and they don’t come much better than Joe Satriani, Symphony X’s Michael Romeo, and Dream Theatre's John Petrucci – all of whom have released solo albums of instrumental music. The art of guitar playing has evolved since the likes of Chuck Berry, Albert Lee, Eric Clapton, and numerous others of those eras gone by. Some of the technicalities and sounds achieved are mind blowing in their complexity and speed of execution, but yet provide an insight as to what the artist was trying to convey. Certainly with Joe Satriani, some of his work is so soulful, he really does seem to have originated from another planet other than this one, and if you’ve heard Gary Moore’s live recording of Parisienne Walkways – well, I dare you not to cry after you’ve listened to it through the UM2’s.

Using the Westone/Varipone UM2’s allowed me greater feeling of the emotions expressed in their works, as well as hearing more into the mix than one might have otherwise. In fact, I’d be hard pressed to hear the delineation of the notes through anything less than seriously priced loudspeakers – easily anything upward of £3000, which I used to do, many moons ago.

The bass is full, extended, and tight as a proverbial gymnast’s buttocks – there’s no overhang or wallowiness. If the recording has bass guitar, drums, etc well recorded and mixed, then that’s what you hear. No more, no less.

The midrange is just…….liquid. There’s no other way to describe it! Sonically, it puts many Hi-Fi speakers to shame; or rather it shows some sub £1000 speakers are poor value for the money. With the midrange being the most sensitive portion of our hearing, it’s this area of any audio product that needs to be as accurate as possible, even if at the expense of the frequency extremes.

 Thankfully the UM2’s don’t sacrifice those, and to that end, the upper mid and beyond is relatively balanced and devoid of any major humps or troughs in the response. I wouldn’t call the treble sparkling or alive, but it’s more than acceptable as it stands. Vocals are delightfully and faithfully recreated – so much so, that nuances and inflictions are picked up with almost disregard that they are normally masked, as if it’s no big deal. This difference alone generates a feeling of connection with the music being reproduced and draws you into it more – making you feel involved in it, as opposed to merely just listening to it. This was very similar to the reason why I got bitten by the audiophile bug all those years ago. The removal of layers of distortions to let you hear the music more like that in the recording studio was the primary factor.

Moving on now, the treble could do with just a tad more air – but with the iPod (as these were tested with) having eq’s, this is readily remedied if so desired. More often than not, I didn’t bother and was happy enough at that.

Where things go a little pear shaped for the UM2’s, is the low level listening – the type you might do in bed whilst you try to drift off, or in a quieter environment. In this sort of scenario, the bass was curtailed, and the treble had a definite closed in feel. Maybe it’s a vulgarity of the iPod’s design – not enough power to really drive the armatures properly. But, understand that this was not wholly detrimental to the sound – it’s just by comparison it would be noticed.

With using an iMac G4, and iVolume to set the overall level of the songs on the iPod to 94dB, generally this change in response occurred at around 1/3 volume, up to 1/2. Between 1/2 and 3/4 – never needed to go higher, even with a busy street in the background – the sound was glorious, and as I described above.

The best part of the Westone/Variphone design of the UM2’s is the shape and fitment. They have hit the nail on the head with this one, and it makes wearing them painless and pleasurable. The only slight improvement I’d make, would be to extend the length of the cables from the Y-section to the earpieces. It’s just a smidgen too short, even when properly sited behind the neck, and over the ears.

So, final analysis – the Westone/Variphone UM2’s are a costly option for using with your iPod, but in choosing to do so, you can be sure that you’ve probably bought the last word in comfortable, stylish, and downright superlative sonic, canal type earphones.

Variphone.co.uk

Westone.com for readers in the USA

Specs:

·      Balanced ‘dual driver’ system with passive crossover

·      Frequency response 20-18000 Hz

·      Impedance 27 Ohms

·      Sensitivity 119 dB/mW

·      Replaceable foam tips (also available separately)

·      Deluxe carrying case

Review by - PJ Skelton

Published - 24/12/2005

More Earphone Reviews-

[ Up ] [ Sennheiser PX100 Review ] [ Sennheiser HD497 Headphones ] [ Future Sonics EM3 ] [ Bluetake BT420EX Review ] [ Shure E3c ] [ Shure E2c ] [ Sennheiser HD 650 ] [ PX250 Sennheiser Headphones ] [ Westone UM2 Review ] [ Shure E500PTH Review ] [ Cresyn LMX-E630 ] [ Soundwise G3 Earphones ] [ Yahba Opus Review ] [ Jabra BT620s Review ] [ V-Moda Vibe Earphones ] [ Soundwise S1 Earphones ] [ EzEars SX50 Review ] [ Sony Fontopia Headphones ] [ Etymotic ER6i ]