drarthurwells
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Jul 1, 2005
- Posts
- 2,604
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- 15
Any canal phone is subject to ear canal secretion build up inside the canal phone which can clog and block the sound.
With the proper care this can be managed. The Etymotic has replaceable green filters in the tube leading to the internal driver. This is a mesh screen filter placed inside a tiny metal cylinder that is inserted at the end of the tube leading into the driver. When this filter gets dirty, the sound level will drop and the music center will shift to one side instead of being centered. Time to act when this happens.
You don't know a filter is dirty until the sound level drops in one ear - they get clogged one ear at a time instead of both ears at the same time.
I have greatly reduced filter clogging by regularly cleaning the latex tri-flange's inner canal leading to the filter. I ream this canal out (leaving the tip in place on the Etymotic driver) with a small jeweler's screwdriver tip inserted no more than 1/8 inch (3 mm) inside the tip of the flange, twisting it around to scrape any debris inside the canal. Keeping this latex tip canal clean reduces the dirt that goes in past the canal to the filter. I also clean the complete flange at times, taking them off and soaking in liquid dishwasher soap (one part) in water (50 parts), for hours, and then rinsing under the faucet, squeezing out the water from the canal, and air drying.
If you keep the latex tips clean per the above, filter problems will be infrequent.
The filters are expensive but can be cleaned and resused.
Use the filter tool supplied by Etymotic to remove the filter (first remove the tip). This tool is a tiny screw which you screw in slightly to grab the lip of the metal filter end. If you are careful, and don't screw this tool in too much, you can pull the metal filter out without damaging the green screen inside. Use a pin tip, to angle in and grab the inner lip of the filter to slowly work it out, if you need to.
Now soak for a few hours in a grease removing liquid dishwasher soap solution like Dawn (one part to 50 parts water) - all you need is tiny amount in small container (soft drink bottle cap is plenty big). Swish the filter around to work the soap inside the metal case.
Now, give a thorough water rinsing, holding the filter in its metal housing with tweezers. Let the tap water run through it, but be careful not to lose it down the drain. Then repeat this process (wash and rinse), for a thorough cleaning if you wish (though once is likely enough).
Conclude with an air drying with a gentle syringe blow aimed in the filter held by tweezers, or use a hair dryer on the cold air setting. This is to remove as much water as possible. Don't blow through it as debris in your breath will lodge in the filter. Now follow up by letting dry in the open air for a day - standing up pon a flat surface with green filter side up.
Then use the tweezer to carefully insert the filter back into the driver tube, making sure the end with the curved lip edge, and green filter material is, on the outside. Allow the cylinder edge to extend perhaps about .75 mm outside the driver tube. Leaving it slightly out will facilitate its subsequent removal by grasping it by its edge with tweezers (avoiding the use of the screw tool that could damage the green filter mesh material).
As soon as your center tone shifts slightly off center, clean the filter causing this and you will restore a wider soundstage, volume, and clearer sound.
Recently I have used speaker grill cloth pieces as filters, in both the Etymotic and the Altec Lansing iM716. I only use the latex tri-flanged ear inserts. When I lose some sound in one channel, or notice some dullness in the treble, that is time for action.
I remove the latex inserts and soak them in a grease cutting dishwasher soap solution as decribed above. When they are dry, I take two square pieces of speaker grill cloth and place them (centered) over the inner hole of the latex insert hole and push them inside this hole with a small tipped object like a small pair of scissors. Now, I have taken the regular filters out of the IEMs so they are filterless. In the case of the AL iM716, I took out the filter material in the center of the red plastic holder and left the holder in place (it has small hole in it that may influence the sound so I left this inserted). Then it is matter of replacing the latex inserts on the era phone tips. The filter material I put in is now in the latex insert canal to serve to block wax from entering the era phone canal.
I replace the home made filters every time I clean the latex inserts. For the ER 4S I use a piece of grill cloth that is about 3.25 to 3.5 MM square, and for the iM 716, 3.75 to 3.9 MM square (it has a slightly larger diameter insert canal than the Etymotic). PM me for my address, then send me a dollar bill with a self addressed and stamped envelope, and I will send you a 3 by 4 inch swatch of grill cloth to make many filters. The price will go up to $20 when I patent my idea. That is for my legal defense fund when Etymotic sues me.
I don't know how the sound is affected by not using factory filters engineered to produce a correct frequency response. My filters may be overly bright and detailed for instance. You could enlarge the size of the filter square if this is a problem - would absorb more high frequencies. It works OK for me as I only use my IEMs for casual listening.
With the proper care this can be managed. The Etymotic has replaceable green filters in the tube leading to the internal driver. This is a mesh screen filter placed inside a tiny metal cylinder that is inserted at the end of the tube leading into the driver. When this filter gets dirty, the sound level will drop and the music center will shift to one side instead of being centered. Time to act when this happens.
You don't know a filter is dirty until the sound level drops in one ear - they get clogged one ear at a time instead of both ears at the same time.
I have greatly reduced filter clogging by regularly cleaning the latex tri-flange's inner canal leading to the filter. I ream this canal out (leaving the tip in place on the Etymotic driver) with a small jeweler's screwdriver tip inserted no more than 1/8 inch (3 mm) inside the tip of the flange, twisting it around to scrape any debris inside the canal. Keeping this latex tip canal clean reduces the dirt that goes in past the canal to the filter. I also clean the complete flange at times, taking them off and soaking in liquid dishwasher soap (one part) in water (50 parts), for hours, and then rinsing under the faucet, squeezing out the water from the canal, and air drying.
If you keep the latex tips clean per the above, filter problems will be infrequent.
The filters are expensive but can be cleaned and resused.
Use the filter tool supplied by Etymotic to remove the filter (first remove the tip). This tool is a tiny screw which you screw in slightly to grab the lip of the metal filter end. If you are careful, and don't screw this tool in too much, you can pull the metal filter out without damaging the green screen inside. Use a pin tip, to angle in and grab the inner lip of the filter to slowly work it out, if you need to.
Now soak for a few hours in a grease removing liquid dishwasher soap solution like Dawn (one part to 50 parts water) - all you need is tiny amount in small container (soft drink bottle cap is plenty big). Swish the filter around to work the soap inside the metal case.
Now, give a thorough water rinsing, holding the filter in its metal housing with tweezers. Let the tap water run through it, but be careful not to lose it down the drain. Then repeat this process (wash and rinse), for a thorough cleaning if you wish (though once is likely enough).
Conclude with an air drying with a gentle syringe blow aimed in the filter held by tweezers, or use a hair dryer on the cold air setting. This is to remove as much water as possible. Don't blow through it as debris in your breath will lodge in the filter. Now follow up by letting dry in the open air for a day - standing up pon a flat surface with green filter side up.
Then use the tweezer to carefully insert the filter back into the driver tube, making sure the end with the curved lip edge, and green filter material is, on the outside. Allow the cylinder edge to extend perhaps about .75 mm outside the driver tube. Leaving it slightly out will facilitate its subsequent removal by grasping it by its edge with tweezers (avoiding the use of the screw tool that could damage the green filter mesh material).
As soon as your center tone shifts slightly off center, clean the filter causing this and you will restore a wider soundstage, volume, and clearer sound.
Recently I have used speaker grill cloth pieces as filters, in both the Etymotic and the Altec Lansing iM716. I only use the latex tri-flanged ear inserts. When I lose some sound in one channel, or notice some dullness in the treble, that is time for action.
I remove the latex inserts and soak them in a grease cutting dishwasher soap solution as decribed above. When they are dry, I take two square pieces of speaker grill cloth and place them (centered) over the inner hole of the latex insert hole and push them inside this hole with a small tipped object like a small pair of scissors. Now, I have taken the regular filters out of the IEMs so they are filterless. In the case of the AL iM716, I took out the filter material in the center of the red plastic holder and left the holder in place (it has small hole in it that may influence the sound so I left this inserted). Then it is matter of replacing the latex inserts on the era phone tips. The filter material I put in is now in the latex insert canal to serve to block wax from entering the era phone canal.
I replace the home made filters every time I clean the latex inserts. For the ER 4S I use a piece of grill cloth that is about 3.25 to 3.5 MM square, and for the iM 716, 3.75 to 3.9 MM square (it has a slightly larger diameter insert canal than the Etymotic). PM me for my address, then send me a dollar bill with a self addressed and stamped envelope, and I will send you a 3 by 4 inch swatch of grill cloth to make many filters. The price will go up to $20 when I patent my idea. That is for my legal defense fund when Etymotic sues me.
I don't know how the sound is affected by not using factory filters engineered to produce a correct frequency response. My filters may be overly bright and detailed for instance. You could enlarge the size of the filter square if this is a problem - would absorb more high frequencies. It works OK for me as I only use my IEMs for casual listening.
