New Sleek Audio Custom In-Ears?

[Jelle Schrijver]

Originally Posted by audiojunkies.com

I've been shooting pictures of the new Sleek Audio Custom In-Ear Monitors all afternoon. This is a pretty cool shot of one lit up from behind. I'll post up some more details later, but these are some of the best headphones / earphones I've ever listened to. This pair also happens to be the very first set with front mount cables that makes it easier to route the wires up and over your ears.

We'll have a Sleek Audio facility tour up soon, some info on hearing tests and how well I fared on the test. There are some cool new features on the way for Audio Junkies as well, so be sure to keep checking back.

Link

[Claus-DK]

Mmmmm sleek customs..........

[Aevum]

i think that the key selling point for the sleek is its modular build, most single armature headphones have a somewhat stiff sound, the modular nature of the sleeks allows you to tune that, now, in a custom, its either going to be with no tuning, or prechosen tuning you select before the customs are molded,

so i suspect that the customs might disapoint some of the SA6 users,

[TheMarchingMule]

Looks like its only one driver.

[ClieOS]

Originally Posted by TheMarchingMule

Looks like its only one driver.

I remember from the CamJam'08 thread that it is the same drive as SA6 but you choice the sound signature you like (like the ports SA6) and they will make the custom based on that. Yeah, it is the custom (IEM) without the customi (of interchangeable ports).

[Jelle Schrijver]

More info from audiojunkies

Sleek Audio Custom Molded Earphones

Features:
Lightweight
Wide Band Balanced Armature Driver with Custom Tuning
Replaceable / Interchangeable Swivel Cables

Included Accessories:
Tip Cleaner
Carrying Case

Specifications:
Standard Cable: 60 inches
Impedance: 50 ohm
DC Resistance: 24 ohm
Speaker Type: Ultra Wide Band Balanced Armature Driver with Custom Tuning
MSRP $300

Link As promised here is some more info on the new Sleek Audio Custom Molded Earphones...



The Sleek Audio Custom In-Ear Monitors use the same single driver setup as the Sleek Audio SA6 earphones and they can be configured to match one's listening preferences based on the SA6's interchangeable port system. I listened to a pair of SA6's for a couple weeks and determined that I liked the "neutral" bass port and "+" treble port the best. Using that information, the guys at Sleek Audio configured my custom molded earphones with the proper tuning. The Sleek SA6's are exceptionally good earphones and I grew very fond of the pair that I had, but their new custom molded earphones that I have now are just downright jaw-dropping. I listen with them every chance I get and just don't want to take them out, they are that good. Bottom line -- Sleek Audio knocked it out of the park with these.

The Sleek custom earphones do have some serious noise reduction abilities (even more so than you would get from active noise-canceling headphones) just as all molded earphones do because of the way they fill the ear canal and block nearly everything else out. You can pretty much hear nothing else while listening to music at a normal volume, which is always a good thing. No amplifier is needed for these either, your average portable audio player will get plenty loud enough.



To make the molds (shown above), Jason Krywko at Sleek first blocked off the lower portions of my ear canals with small pieces of cotton, and then injected a two-part silicon system into my ears. The process only took about five minutes and I had to keep my mouth open with a plastic bite block. Sleek does not send out a kit for customers to make their own ear molds. There are some serious safety issues with this (trust me, you don't want to hear the stories I've heard about ear molds going bad) and customers are required to go to an ear doctor for a proper mold. Jason said the molds typically only cost about $50, and then the molds are sent to Sleek to start the process on making the custom earphones.



The process typically takes about two weeks and there are a variety of colors to choose from. Mine are a translucent dark blue that look really nice, and they also offer the standard red, yellow, clear, black and a few others.

The custom molded earphones are currently available from Sleek Audio with a price of $300. They have not been officially released yet and as such are not shown on their website. You can order them by contacting Sleek Audio directly though. They are currently working on a system to give customers everywhere the opportunity to listen to a pair of SA6's so they can determine what tuning they would like for their customs.

We will be posting up a facility tour of Sleek Audio as well as quite a bit of info on the company in an article in the near future, but I just wanted to quickly touch base on what makes the SA6's and Custom Molded earphones by Sleek so good. The crew at Sleek has nearly 100 years of experience in addition to two board certified Hearing Instrument Specialists and one Audiologist. I was thoroughly impressed by the knowledge and passion that the Sleek Audio employees had for hearing and sound. These guys have an amazing amount of experience behind their products, and it shows.

Can hardly wait to read about the facility tour...

[ClieOS]

Nice. Great way to up the IEM game, Jason (assuming he will be looking at this thread)

Especially like that fact that Sleek Audio folks keep the same connector jack on the custom.

[Luke G]

Originally Posted by Jelle Schrijver

Can hardly wait to read about the facility tour...

I'm working on it right now and will hopefully have it up later this week.

[Jelle Schrijver]

Originally Posted by Luke G

I'm working on it right now and will hopefully have it up later this week.

LOL

Full circle then, you reading your writings from audiojunkies back over here in head-fi.org, writen by me.

[Luke G]

Originally Posted by Jelle Schrijver

LOL

Full circle then, you reading your writings from audiojunkies back over here in head-fi.org, writen by me.

Haha, it's all good.

(^ My new IEM smiley.)

[deviationer]

lol livewire knock-offs that are more expensive

[Luke G]

Originally Posted by deviationer

lol livewire knock-offs that are more expensive

The Sleek's use a single driver and the Live Wires use dual drivers. That alone makes them quite different, unless every custom molded earphone in the market is a knock-off of one another.

[Jelle Schrijver]

Originally Posted by deviationer

lol livewire knock-offs that are more expensive

and as it seems, the driver in the sleek is a tubeler, so it's not the standard boxy drivers from Knowles (or sonion) that the others use (i.e. Livewires).

It does make me wonder if the driver sleek uses is the same as in the image from Klipsch and the ones used by Etymotic.

[elnero]

The driver that the Sleeks use was custom designed to their specifications so I expect they are the only company to use it.