Using Shures w/o nozzle-filters

[drippydonut]

The left ear of my pair of Shures has been making a funny bubbly-noise when at certain angles in my ear for a while now. I thought it could just be earwax but even with clean tips and clean ears it still did it (only on the left). Today I felt like cleaning the nozzles out and when I did so I pushed out the little [green] filter things. I listening without them and the noise has now gone!

So, I just wanted to check there's no harm in using them without the filters. I don't think any much could actually get that far down without me realising, or could it?

The sound is pretty much the same, maybe a bit more open in the highs (but to me possibly a bit shrill - I ended up EQ'ing them down a bit). Of course this could just be my mind.

[joeshambro]

your observations would be correct -- those filters aren't just for wax, they actually dampen certain frequency ranges to smooth out the response.

[3X0]

I would be careful.. down the line I think gunk on the armatures would be harder to service than gunk in the filters.