Westone W80 and UMPro50 cable rolling with 2pin cables

Adaptive cable-rolling!

All the products in this review were provided to me free of charge for the review purpose in exchange for my honest opinion.

Intro.

After my cable reviews, I am often asked by Westone users: another 2pin cable? Unfortunately, it is true – I have a lot more 2pin IEMs than mmcx. As a result, my mmcx cable rolling is usually limited to using either ALO (of Campfire Audio fame) or iBasso (since their IEMs use mmcx as well) cables. It doesn’t make sense to keep every cable in both connector flavors. And it is more common to have plug adapters, going between 2.5mm and 3.5mm and 4.4mm, rather than adapters between 2pin and mmcx. I actually have tried some of these adapters in the past, but found many with issues.

When all hope was lost, I came across exactly what I was looking for – a quality 2pin to mmcx and mmcx to 2pin adapters, and decided to put them to the test with two of my favorite Westone IEMs. Also, considering I just published a review of Effect Audio budget line of Vogue series cables, I figured it will be a great opportunity to cable roll while testing these new adapters from OE Audio. Here is what I found.

IEM adapters.

As already mentioned, I have tried a handful of IEM connector adapters, but always run into problems with some being too long, or not reliable, or not comfortable with cables that have pre-shaped heat-shrink earhooks. After all, it’s not only about “adapting” one type of a connector to another, but also making sure you can wear it comfortably for extended period of time.

Then I noticed MusicTeck listed new OE Audio adapters and decided to give them a try. Never heard of this company before, Optimization Elements, but they turned out to be the best I have tried so far.

First of all, these are among the shortest adapters I have tried. Also, they have a very durable high-quality build using gold-plated phosphorus Copper for internal hardware, PU resin shell (in either clear or black) with polarity marking, and even 9.5% silver solder to improve conductivity of the signal.

Besides being offered in clear or black color to match your cable, they also come in two flavors of 2pin to mmx or mmx to 2pin. The fit is comfortable when used together with cables over the ear. Also, they have a relatively transparent sound, without coloring the tonality; I verified that with 2pin and mmcx OSLO cables in a/b comparison.

I also think they are very reasonably priced at $25 a pair considering they build/sound quality and allowing to use one pair of cables with two different IEM sockets. In addition to MusicTeck, you can also find them on Amazon, 2pin to mmcx and mmcx to 2pin.