Custom Molded Earpieces for UE Super/Triple.fi IEM from AverySound

I have lusted for UE10 and UE11 for some time, but I can't aford them yet at $1000, plus I don't want my wife to try to collect my life insurance too early!

Given that I really like my UE Super.fi 5 Pro and the Triple.fi 10's (I also tried but sold the Shure 530's - not the "right" tone/balance I liked - too little highs and unnatural female voices), I decided to investigate getting custom ear molds/tips for the UE's since I have tried all kinds of universal tips, foams, etc., but nothing gives me long-term comfort given my very narrow and thin ear canal. I asked here in an earlier thread, but few had experiences with these:
http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f4/exp...ves-ue-276745/


After talking to both AverySound and the EarPlugStore (both priced at about $125 for the pair) I decided to try the folks from AverySound. They promptly sent me the kit for the ear impressions, and they said there was no need to use an audiologist as long as I had somebody that could work with me and follow simple impressions:





The folks at AS (AverySound) stated that I did not need "deep" impressions, so no foam/cotton was needed. They had experience with many IEM's, but not with the Triple 10's - however, once I pointed to them that the Super 5 Pros (which they have done already) have the same "tip" as the Triple 10's, my order was placed!

With the help of my lovely wife I got my impressions made:



Then today, 18 days later, I got my custom ear tips:









Here is how they look next to my recently completed mini^3 and my 16G iAudio7 (yes, I know, running low on batteries!):



Here are some closeups (I ordered these in the "no color" option). The tips are not hard (like acrylic) but made from a soft but firm silicone-type material:







Here are my Triple 10's before and "after":









And this is how they fit in each of my ears:





So of course, to answer the most important questions:
1) How do they fit?
2) How much isolation?
3) How does the UE sound with these?

The instructions from AverySound state to wear them a couple of hours a day max for at about two weeks to give the ear a chance to "adapt" to them. If after two weeks they are still not comfortable, they will make new ones for free. So far, I have them in my ear while I have been re-sizing photos, uploading to my server, writing this post, etc., or about 50 minutes, and so far they feel really good. I feel a "little" bit of soreness from having something in my ear this long, but nothing like before. These are already much more comfortable than anything I had tried before, but I will follow their instructions and wear them as described. So far so good

Sound-wise, they provide great isolation (due to their great fit - after all customized to each ear), but perhaps not as much as the Shure black foams that I tried again at the CES Show in Las Vegas just last week. The Shure black foams are awesome to get you away from it all, but the constant pressure hurts my ears after a short time. The isolation seems to me similar to the seal I was getting with the small single flange tip from UE, in other words, very good. Just now my wife asked me something (just 5 feet away from me), and I had no idea she was talking to me even though the music was not loud at all!

Sound-wise, it has been interesting this past hour. At first, I seem to miss some bass - like they were not quite sealing well enough. However, as I continue to listed to them, either my ears are sealing better, or my brain is getting used to them, because I am finding the SQ to be perfect - just as I remember the Triple 10's sounding with the small UE tip (but without the disconfort, of course!).

These are just my initial impressions. I wanted to close this first post by saying that dealing with AverySound has been great and that John Meyer has provided great customer support during the whole process.

I will report more as I use them more, but for now I am very happy with these custom tips

Will

Possibly. But from what I have tried so far, only the foam tips provided ultimate isolation, and those put lots of pressure and get fatiguing quickly.



Absolutely true. Every single photo of Universal IEM with custom tips appear to stick out more than with the "normal" tips. Then again, of the many IEM's, the Universal UE (like my Super.fi and Triple.fi) stick the most anyway, so I knew what to expect . I had the Shure 530's which look "flush" compared to the UE's, but I went after better SQ over looks



Yes, as I noted above, they stick out even more than "normal" , but I worry more about SQ than looks


Yes, correct: both companies charge about the same amount - right around $125 for everything including shipping.



I am definitely getting pretty good isolation, just not as much as the Shure black foam tips (which I could not use for long due to them getting painful after a while). I never had true custom IEM (Livewires, FreQ, UE10/11, etc.) to compare the isolation, but this is pretty good so far.

About altering the signature, when I took them off last night after an hour of listening, to me they sounded as good as the Triple's ever sounded. I have to put more hours on them today and over the next week to be able to do better comparisons, but at least this early on, I feel that the music signature has not changed.

Will

You can flip the earphones any way you want with these custom tips since it only "grabs" the tip area - full 360D rotation. In fact I have tried them already both ways - I am now back on "normal mode" with the driver marked left on the left side. Either way, they stick out more than when using the universal tips.


True. In general, the universal UE do stick out, more so with any soft of custom tips

No problem. Here are some pictures showing them both ways. For reference, here in this first picture note the plugs by themselves, the left one in the picture goes in the left ear, the right one goes in the right:



In this picture the left UE driver (marked with a little L) is on the left custom ear plug:


Here in this picture the left UE driver is on the right custom ear tip (and vice-versa):


Hope this helps

Will

Just a little higher. It is still comfortable - you don't feel these extensions at all. It might be easier to get them in/out without them, but I don't want to modify these just to try it out