The Westone UM Pro 10 are in-ear headphones that have been designed to fit comfortably. Each earphone has a removable braided cable that tucks neatly behind your ears. Replacing the cables is a little tricky, but that’s no bad thing, as it means that the cables are securely attached and shouldn’t come off accidentally. To remove a cable, you have to hold the base of the earphone with one hand then pull firmly on the top of the cable with your other hand. The L-shaped 3.5 mm headphones jack is another nice feature. It’s sturdy and robust, and should ensure greater resistance to wear and tear than a straight plug.
Build quality is good. The Westone UM Pro 10 are designed to withstand regular concert-going. They therefore resist heat, humidity and frequent transport, and they come with a compact hard plastic travel case. Eight pairs of earbuds are included, with four sets of silicone buds and four sets of memory foam buds. They come in a range of sizes and are all color coded so you can easily find a pair.
If you’re not used to wearing in-ears, then the Westone UM Pro 10 can feel strange and tricky to position at first. Still, you soon get used to getting them in place after a few attempts. And it’s well worth persevering, as the Westone UM Pro 10 are light and comfortable to wear. With quality like this, there’s no doubt that these in-ears have been designed and built with professional use in mind.
The Westone UM Pro 10 headphones are primarily designed for use on stage, and for that they’ll be great. General audio precision is excellent and the frequency response is incredibly accurate. Bass frequencies are rendered with no blips, and with exemplary fidelity and excellent responsiveness. Mids are boosted a little compared to the rest of the spectrum, although they drop off after 2 kHz. High frequencies come in at 6 to 9 kHz, adding a touch of vibrancy and a hint of brilliance. With this kind of frequency response, voices find their place naturally in the output and are rendered with great clarity. Audio is crisp and smooth, but with a little more brilliance than the UM Pro 30.
Power levels are excellent. The Westone UM Pro 10 can therefore be used with all types of audio source without volume levels sounding too weak. However, there is a certain level of distortion. In fact, this rears its head even before you reach moderate volume levels. This marked presence of distortion is a real problem when using these headphones in places with a lot of background noise, even if Westone’s passive sound isolation is excellent—particularly with the memory foam earbuds.