Earsonics SM3 fall apart - Page 2

sm, weston, ultimate ears make stuff that breaks. I have had two pairs of utlimate ears that developed a crack in the housing and broke. My er4s and er6 etymotic research products have lasted me for 7 years so far and they are still going strong.

hmm i wonder. is it the way your using it that caused it to break or is the overall design not quite durable.

I walked on the right ear

Sorry.

good luck =]

FTW !

Are the new "materials" being used now or is it still the same? Honestly I would cry blood if these broke on me...

My left side (blue) fell apart today. I press this side often (very) hard to get a better sound. Yeah, unfortunately I got unlucky with the custom earmold for my left ear. My left ear always was more problematic than the right one.

I just let my dad glue it together with superglue. Didn't try them yet since. Either way, I find it very poor that iem's in this price range fall apart so easily. I have treated my <100 EUR Sony's way worse, and yes, they also fell apart, but it took a lot more time to do so, and it didn't reveal the driver as it does with the SM3. 

Edit: And yes I have to treat them in this way because fitting issues simply suck with the SM3 (for me), so I also can not blame myself. I'm not to keen on having to order another custom earmold for my left ear. I felt a lot more horrible initially, within the first few weeks I couldn't even get them in my ears. Then the tip search began, and still disappointed until now. 

Edit #2: And to make it worse, they do sound great if you do have a good fit. 

It's pretty crazy that some thing costs $300+ falls apart so easily. I understand that there is a warranty but then you have to factor in shipping costs and everything! 

Oh, I wanted to stress that the transparent part came off. Not the black part like in the picture. 

Nah, glue failure isn't terribly uncommon.  One unfortunate issue of glue is that it is prone to environmental effects like UV rays that break down the chemicals, temp swings that introduce stresses, physical fatigue, and even chemical breakdown (for example if you are a smoker).  This doesn't even include manufacturing variation nor the variation of the actual glue from the supplier.  Plain and simple, a glued part will eventually fail over time.  It many be 6 months.  It may be 10 years.  It all varies.  That's why these threads don't surprise me at all.  It's also why I like to see manufacturers actually screw together their products or at least use clipping mechanisms around the edges, so the system really doesn't rely on the glue.  There are also manufacturing processes that will melt the parts together rather than glue them (ultrasonic welding) which then gets rid of the reliance on a glue adhesive completely.

As for fixing that earphone.  If Earsonic will do it for free (even pay shipping), send it off to them.  If you would prefer not to be without, a little CA glue (super glue) will go a long way.  Just scrap off the existing stuff, apply a very light amount of CA glue, and stick it together.  If you want a more flexible bond, you might look at silicon instead which still offers high bonding strength but is a flexible adhesive.  Other options would be an epoxy resin, heck, even JB Weld.  Anything will work really.  It just needs to be something that bonds with plastic.

 I believe i'm using a newer batch with better adhesive applied and so far so good. 

Inks a little off topic but could you tell me how the SM3 compares with the MD's? I'm considering returning my MD's for SM3's and would like to know how they fair interms of mids/bass impact etc etc. Cheers.

Quote:

Originally Posted by matto 

Inks a little off topic but could you tell me how the SM3 compares with the MD's? I'm considering returning my MD's for SM3's and would like to know how they fair interms of mids/bass impact etc etc. Cheers.

Try this thread: http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/517747/earsonics-sm3-appreciation-thread-third-time-is-a-charm/780