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All very well, except that the maximum isolation comes with the most godawfully scratchy, hard-to-fit-in-the-confines-of-the-Tube long foam tip.


Plus, the anaemic sound will be further compromised with rumblings coming through the body.

Well tri-flanges with a bit of music playing work just as well

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Agreed Ety's standard foam tips were dreadful. But now they supply a "glider" tip - smooth closed-cell foam ovoid - with about the same comfort and fittability as Shure Olives.

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Sure, but then you're getting similar isolation to the olives. And there isn't a Tube-rapid-removal-friendly silicone tip option for the Etys... only the triflanges which scratch up your canals if you make a regular habit of removal.

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how do you know their isolation is the same as the shure olives?
and as far as i have seen, people do not remove or put on their earphones regularly on transits... if they boarded with earphones, they get off with earphones, the earphones stay in throughout...

also , tips are interchangable between IEM's of different brands, etymotic doesnt make a silicone tip but plenty of other manufacturers do, and most of them are going to fit because they have roughly the same nozzle size...

the key is that different people are going to have different fits for different tips, just because it didnt work for you doesn mean it isnt going to work for the topic starter...

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He probably knows the isolation is similar because he's tried both. Hard as it is to believe, people do try multiple tips to see how isolation and comfort are. With my X5, I've tried all of the stock tips that give me a seal, Shure olives, and Comply light and dark tips. I've also switched tips in the middle of a subway ride to see the difference in isolation. The Shure and Comply tips isolate much better than the stock tips and about equal to each other. The Comply tips are much more comfortable, so that's what I use.

episiarch and bangraman, have your avatars met?

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if he's really tried those tips before, fair enough... i'm doing the same thing too, shure triple flanges and clear flex, comply P series foam, and a bunch of others... some of them dont work well with my Philips SHE9850's , so i had to modify them in different ways, and now i am pretty sure i have myself a pretty decent pair of tips

and i thought the point of finding a good pair of tips was to stick with them, since there's no point using anything else? unless , you are talking about compulsive tendencies to use as much equipment and as many combinations as possible...

I haven't done strict A/B noise testing to see whether Gliders beat Olives or vice-versa. But I own both and I think bangraman's right, the isolation's roughly comparable. For me that's quite isolating indeed, but I'm sure people's experiences vary. I never found Ety's cylindrical foamies even slightly tolerable, so I am taking on faith the assertions of bangraman (and I think quite a few others over time) that they are the most noise-isolating of the options.

FWIW I'm currently experimenting with Klipsch silicone tips for my hf2. VERY easy in/out. Good comfort. Isolation is less than with tri-flanges but may be sufficient for my purposes (haven't stress-tested them yet to be sure). They are pretty stretchy and so I suspect they may not be long-lasting enough to become a regular habit for me but it's too soon to tell.

@iponderous, bangraman and I have occasionally participated in the same threads here and exchanged remarks (though he is several ranks above me in equipment and experience and, I suspect, discernment), but our, ah, typists have never met outside these forums.

You might consider the Dr. Dre Beats.

I tried a pair at BH Photo in Manhattan last week and was pretty amazed. It's loud in there, not subway (erm, tube) loud, but loud. The beats were really about as compact as could be while still being circumaural. I was just blown away by the isolation (helped of course by the ANC) and sound quality *in that environment*. I think this is exactly what they are meant for and they do a good job of giving you isolation and good sound quality in noisy urban environments where you just should not expect good sound quality.

Wouldn't use them at home, but for your use they might be perfect. Then get a Grado for home.