My moulds finally turned up, about 2weeks start to finish - From a David Ormerod in boots. £88 in total.
My initial impressions were, after going from comply T400's to the custom moulds - Where has all the bass gone?!? That was after about 20mins listening on the way back from lunch. But now I've had about an hour with them in the car this morning, they have completely changed the sound signature of the IE8, and I'm starting to think that even though I enjoyed the oodles of bass that the IE8 provide with comply tips, it may well have been muddying the sound. Because they have excellent clarity and width to the sound and to be honest they are much improved.
They are extremely comfortable to wear and I can't even feel I've got them in unlike the complys, but the seal doesn't feel as good? But, even though it doesn't feel as good, it is actually better? If that makes any sense? Before, with foam tips, if I didn't have a good seal, I used to test by pushing the IEM in a little further and holding it there, to see if the sound signature changed - If it did, I knew I didn't have a proper seal so would reseat them. With these custom sleeves, when I push them in a little further, there is no signature change at all, the seal stays perfect, even though it's not feeling perfect lol
Overall, with about 1.5hrs of listening time behind the IE8+ACS Customs, they are defo and improvement, but they do change the sound signature a lot to the IE8 and a foam tip. A lot. Changes them from being very bassy, to a much more rounded sound.
My Sony X series gets here tomorrow, so it should be interesting to see what the X+IE8+ACS sounds like, as I've been using my A818
