Westone Audio MACH Series In-Ear Monitors Overview

[VSG]

Westone Audio introduces a brand new line of in-ear monitors targeting music professionals and end users alike. Today we examine the entire MACH Series starting from the $300 1-BA driver MACH 10 all the way up to the reference class $1600 MACH 80 8-BA flagship to see how they differ from each other and what they can offer to you.

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[SOAREVERSOR]

Pro IEMs aren't for everyone and the price, build, tuning, all reflects that. They are sort of hard to recommend.

Westone actually shares DNA with Ultimate Ears and JH Audio. Harvey created UE and JH but they contracted Westone to make them. FWIW these brands are used by Van Halen, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rolling Stones, Faith HIll, Enrique Englasias. It's sort of hard to argue with that. The other brand Westone shares DNA with is Etymotic as you mentioned who started off as a hearing aid company and is used by bands like U2 for mastering. Again, hard to argue with it.

While I don't normally advise pro grade gear (it's silly expensive, it's harsh, and for most people it's just stupid) it's very hard to argue that you aren't getting what you pay for with Etymotic, Westone, Shure, JH, or UE. You're just going to pay a lot for it. They don't push consumer prices because they are very much not consumer brands. People use these to make money, and in that case it pays for itself rapidly.

 

[VSG]

Pro IEMs aren't for everyone and the price, build, tuning, all reflects that. They are sort of hard to recommend.

Westone actually shares DNA with Ultimate Ears and JH Audio. Harvey created UE and JH but they contracted Westone to make them. FWIW these brands are used by Van Halen, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rolling Stones, Faith HIll, Enrique Englasias. It's sort of hard to argue with that. The other brand Westone shares DNA with is Etymotic as you mentioned who started off as a hearing aid company and is used by bands like U2 for mastering. Again, hard to argue with it.

While I don't normally advise pro grade gear (it's silly expensive, it's harsh, and for most people it's just stupid) it's very hard to argue that you aren't getting what you pay for with Etymotic, Westone, Shure, JH, or UE. You're just going to pay a lot for it. They don't push consumer prices because they are very much not consumer brands. People use these to make money, and in that case it pays for itself rapidly.

Thank you for providing this additional context!

 

[SOAREVERSOR]

Thank you for providing this additional context!

Welcome! I got into the IEM game well before ChiFi when it was just pro shit so I'm not unfamiliar with them. Back then it was pro or bust. The "cheap" option was always the Etymotic ER-4 that spiked in at 300 and remains the reference item despite hitting in the late 80s, they started with hearing aids and they don't faff about. Shure, and then the entire UE, JH, Westone crap came later. All of these are going to sound harsh as fuck to most people and bring out all the flaws in their silly apple music stuff and sound like ass. Though they all remain a solid "you'll get your dollars worth from it" sort of buy.

I don't mean this as offense but in a way once you cross into pro products you need to grasp what they are built to do. Westone is selling UIEMS and CIEMS to stage musicians and mastering artists. That's an odd market. They want to hear the flaws so they can clean it up and 1600+ for something you earn money off isn't crazy. So the ask, isn't crazy. Nor are people like that going to use some tuned ChiFi product.

What I'd look at is mastering stuff. I create sound effects for mods on my spare time and having a good set of mastering IEMs is a must. The raw detail retrevial and other stuff is worth the ask. But you don't need to break the bank, Etymotic still pumps out the ER-4 at 300 and much like the Blessing it manages to curb stomp units costing over 1k. Though you aren't going to like it. It hurts, it's harsh, it's not fun, but god damn if you can't hear and fix every microdetail.

 

[Vamp898]

As this review comes up quite often when you look for the Westone Mach Series (especially as it is one of the few that provides measurements for all IEM from 10-80) i noticed some things that might could clear up confusion i also often see.

The Westone Mach Series is divided into three lineups

• Entry --> They try their best^^
  • MACH 10
  • MACH 20
• Bass (I would rather call it warm) --> Stage Monitor
  • MACH 30
  • MACH 50
  • MACH 70
• Reference --> Studio Reference Monitor
  • MACH 40
  • MACH 60
  • MACH 80

There is also a nice graphic from Westone itself


This Review puts them into the categories 10/20/30, 40/50/60 and 70/80 and i totally understand why, looking at the accessorizes/cables and stuff, but that is actually not how they are intended to be considered.

So its basically a budget decision. The 80 gets you closest to an studio reference sound, the 40 is furthest away while still tries its best to be usable as a Studio Reference Monitor and the 60 is in the middle.

And if you look at them that way, the price progression suddenly starts to make sense.

Also i agree with @SOAREVERSOR with the exception that even if you don't make money with them, i think you can enjoy them a lot and they are still easy to recommend given the correct context. These IEM need explanation, what exactly do they, what are they made for and with that, people have an better chance to decide, if this is something they want. Because they are objectively excellent, just not subjectively to people who are used to Harman.

As the Mach 40/60/80 are Studio Reference Monitors, it is important to compare them with other Studio Reference Monitors IEM (Vision Ears VE6X1, VE7, Shure SE846 (White), FitEar TG334), Headphone (Neumann NDH-30, Sennheiser HD 490 Pro) or even better, Speaker (Neumann KH 120 II, PreSonus Studio 8, Yamaha HS-8 and so on) and when people never heard such studio reference monitors, that it is important to take time to get used to this signature and accept that its different and not an instant "Wow, this sounds amazing" but rather an "Aaaah, i get it. Now where the initial shock is over, i can finally focus on what they are able to do that is not possible with what i had until now".

If you buy an MACH 80 as an pro, your expectation is that when you mix/master something with it, you can transfer the master to another Studio Reference Monitor and everything still sounds exactly as it should sound. For this price, the expectation of an audiophile is an out of this world sound stage with in your face details hearing the pulse of the singer and an bass that makes your whole body vibrate through your bones.

 

[VSG]

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This is nice and all, but it was nowhere to be found when I wrote the review. In fact, there wasn't much of anything outside of a single product line page with a drop down menu for the various items. Since then, I have seen prices have reduced at many retailers but of course the review is written based on the information available at the time. If others find any of these IEMs useful for them, then great!

 

[Vamp898]

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View attachment 357821"
This is nice and all, but it was nowhere to be found when I wrote the review. In fact, there wasn't much of anything outside of a single product line page with a drop down menu for the various items. Since then, I have seen prices have reduced at many retailers but of course the review is written based on the information available at the time. If others find any of these IEMs useful for them, then great!

I absolutely do not blame you. I asked Westone Europe and Westone USA and both failed to explain me which one is for studio use and what is the difference between them.

I found this graphic, by pure accident, on this oudated webpage https://www.westoneaudiomachseries.com/

Westone is really bad at marketing

 

[VSG]

I absolutely do not blame you. I asked Westone Europe and Westone USA and both failed to explain me which one is for studio use and what is the difference between them.

I found this graphic, by pure accident, on this oudated webpage https://www.westoneaudiomachseries.com/

Westone is really bad at marketing

Oh, I wasn't defending myself as much as complaining about Westone marketing too haha. Sadly I've seen this happen with Etymotic too, and guess which two brands have the same owner?