The All New Earsonics SM3 Appreciation, Discussion and Review Thread! - Page 77  

If you contact the Earplugstore they may be able to bring them in for you. Otherwise you are kinda stuck ordering them from Sensorcom and they kill you with shipping charges. The upside down comply trick also does help make them less sucky (pun fully intended :-) ) as you really do limit the amount of foam exposed to the sound.

You could try custom tips from Earsonics or Westone and see if you like them. They should have the same sound as a full custom remold. One advantage of a full custom remold is better durability all around (and a detachable cable).

Quote:

Originally Posted by dweaver 

If you contact the Earplugstore they may be able to bring them in for you. Otherwise you are kinda stuck ordering them from Sensorcom and they kill you with shipping charges. The upside down comply trick also does help make them less sucky (pun fully intended :-) ) as you really do limit the amount of foam exposed to the sound.

Wow, you're totally right! The plastic on the other side is stupidly painful though... But I love the extension.

Quote:

Originally Posted by clarinetman 

Wow, you're totally right! The plastic on the other side is stupidly painful though... But I love the extension.

I believe one person (kwkarth?) said that cutting the foam past the spacer on the Comply gets rid of the treble suction.

Quote:

Originally Posted by violinvirtuoso 

I believe one person (kwkarth?) said that cutting the foam past the spacer on the Comply gets rid of the treble suction.

Yep, IMO what I found best (and most comfortable) is to cut all the foam after the spacer off THEN putting it on backwards. That way you have the plastic blocker and then the foam; giving you more treble. If you cut the foam off and just put them on, I found that if inserted too deeply, the plastic hit the inside of my ears and got uncomfortable.

YMMV though. 

After 10 years of Etymotic ownership, I impulse ordered these (should have never peeked back here) and just received them today.

First impressions: The sound is exactly what I was hoping for.  Excellent soundstage, impact, just enough detail, but most importantly, they make the music I listen to sound FUN.

These will compliment my PRO 900's quite well.  Thanks everyone!

raynman, where did you order these from?

^ Your best bet is SoundEarphones and check their coupon deals.

The coupon deal is over for now on soundearphones. And the price went higher compared to previous.

^ Yeah but they still have 10% off if you check out through Facebook. http://www.facebook.com/soundearphones

mine are for sale now. need to pay off some other things.

check link in sig

Quote:

Originally Posted by violinvirtuoso 

I believe one person (kwkarth?) said that cutting the foam past the spacer on the Comply gets rid of the treble suction.

Yes, and I've followed his advice on this, to great satisfaction.

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Young Spade 

Yep, IMO what I found best (and most comfortable) is to cut all the foam after the spacer off THEN putting it on backwards. That way you have the plastic blocker and then the foam; giving you more treble. If you cut the foam off and just put them on, I found that if inserted too deeply, the plastic hit the inside of my ears and got uncomfortable.

 

YMMV though. 

Indeed... but I do not turn them around as that actually bothers my ears.

I trim the overlap / flange of the foam that extends beyond the core... to the core, and flat with it. I use this technique now almost exclusively.

shane
 

My suggestion of doing the flip with Comply tips is just a quick way to test if you like the sound better. Trimming the foam down to the sound tube certainly would be the long term comfort solution.

On a different topic, I am now 100% satisfied with my SM3. I can not find one single area within the sound spectrum that does sound right to me and that is regardless of the genre I am listening to. The filter mod I discussed above as a replacement for the green filters has worked better I could have ever imagined. The whole muffled effect I occasionally felt is gone as is the sensation that instruments like cymbals are to far away in comparison to everything else. I have these now riding the extremely fine edge of detail and the ability to capture emotion with the original smooth presentation. Whats so cool is that this can be so easily custom taylored to get just the right sound, I went from glaring and fatiguing to the point of headaches (no filter) to very muffled (to much filter material) to my final configuration (4 attempts before I found the sweet spot for my ears).

If your completely happy with the original design then I don't recommend modding. But if your like me and feet the SM3 is close but quite where you want it to be, you may be able to save yourself the trouble of trying different IEM's and taking a loss when selling your SM3 by trying initialy just removing the green filter and then using a replacement filter if you find them to fatiguing unfiltered. BTW I used the little foam stopper I recieved with my ear impression kit for the filter versus anything dense (old comply foam would be a bad idea I suspect :-) )

You're so right, Dweaver!

Thanks to my modding idea and your filter size and material, we've made the prefect IEM at least to our ears!

I just tried to use a foam with a similar density to the one you've used, and geeze, what I hear is really, really excellent. As you, I simply cannot fault them. They were already very good with the stock filters, but now, they do not even suffer the very slight weakness they had, that is the recessed upper mids and highs. They also seem more focused and have a better imaging, maybe thanks to the increased transparency.

Anyway, i'm gonna try to listen to them for a while with this foam, and then report back, because with my last attempt (with another foam density), I ended up returning to the original filter, as I preferred the sound. But now, again, I'm impressed with what I hear.

We'll see

Great to hear that type of foam filter is working for you too Photofan, now I know it's not just my ears. If anyone is wanting to try this in North America but has a problem finding this type of foam, I can send you one of these plugs (after I wash them of course) for free as it will only cost me about a dollar using a regular envelope. Unfortunately I can only afford to do it for 2-3 people though. Just PM me if interested. If more need the foam I may start to ask for a small payment to help cover shipping costs. I'll make sure you have enough foam to experiment in case you make a mistake the first time.

I have never had a headphone or IEM that I have felt was sonically right in every way until now and that list includes 5 high ticket items (HD600, AT AD900, IE8, MTPC, and MTPG). I am sure these may still be a bit to warm for some people's tastes but for me they are perfect and as of now I am no longer in the market for an IEM. I have made that statement before but I actually think I mean it this time.