timmyGCSE
500+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Jun 30, 2009
- Posts
- 987
- Likes
- 14
on Friday 30th October I went to London Hearing on Harley Street in London to get ear impressions taken for custom ACS tips for my Shure SE530's. A little over 2 weeks later, Tuesday 17th November to be exact, I received them. I've had a few days with them now so here are my thoughts.
Having the impressions done
I was taken into a room with a nice comfortable leather arm chair, sat down and the process was explained to me. Now it seems what I had done was a bit different to what others described on here..I didn't have my ears squirted with a gun. My ears were checked, no problems, then I had the usual foam inserted into my ears, the depth checked, adjusted, all good to go. Then The audiologist got two different compunds, one light purple, one dark purple, both looked like putty or playdough, and squidged them together. He explained that they are like araldite, as soon as they come into contact with ear other they start hardening. He then made a shape with the resulting material and pushed it into my ear, then the other, the silence was amazing. He waited a bit for it to harden then broke the seal by pulling up my ears and pulling the string attached to foam. Out comes perfect impressions of my ears.
Overall the experience was very pleasant and at no time did I feel uncomfortable, I actually rather enjoyed it. The audiologist was very nice and well informed, very professional and efficient. I would say anyone in the London area who is looking to get impressions done, seriously consider London Hearing:
London Hearing Aids
ACS recommended them to me also. I paid and then left
a little over two weeks later my tips arrive
Pictures
Please excuse these very poor shots..I only have a camera phone and mixed with bad light = fail. But you get the idea
as you can see I got them done with black and white swirl. ACS can mix up to 3 solid colours in a swirl
Design and accessories
They come in a small zip case, and included is a cleaning tool and some insertion lubricant (oh please..for inserting IEM's into ears!). The tips themselves feel very soft and almost sticky, not like the silicone used for the Shure flex sleeves which is alot harder and smoother. The right tip has a red ACS logo and the left a blue one..easy to remember, red for right.
The part where you insert the IEM is shaped to house the SE530's specifically, and it fits in there great. The whole IEM shell isn't covered so they can move a bit but this isn't a problem, the audiologist explained to me this would be the case. Craftmanship is good, there's nothing that looks flawed to my eyes. Overall I'm pleased and impressed.
Fit, comfort and isolation
This is the main reason I went for custom tips. Normal sleeves fit poorly, hurt after a while, and only isolate sufficiently if I really jam them in my ears, which only exacerbate the pain. The audiologist after taking a look explained my canals are anything but straight, hence these problems.
So after putting the IEM's into the tips, I attempted putting them in my ears. This seems easier than it is..its not. I learnt that inserting these into my ears will take practice since it is akward, and at first I thought I had a fitment issue with my right ear because it wouldn't seal. Turns out that I just had to get the technique down, the easiest way to start with was to remove the IEM's, insert the tips by pulling the top of my ear up and back, then inserting by twisting anti-clockwise, then once the fit was correct, putting the IEM's back in. This took me two days to achieve, so I had a couple of days of constantly adjusting etc. but after that I then got a perfect fit..I have no complaints at all, the impressions were great and they were translated into the tips perfectly.
Comfort..an odd one. They are comfortable, extremely comfortable infact, no pain at all. But you can feel they are there, its a feeling that takes getting used to. But unlike the Ety triflanges it doesn't distract from the music, they feel good in my ears, comfortable, but there, so don't expect invisible comfort. Top marks for comfort once fitted correctly.
Isolation is, by all accounts, outstanding. Perhaps this is because I've rarely had a perfect fit, but I don't think so..I've used the ety brain probes aka triflanges and they isolated damn good, but these are better..much better. With the Shure flex sleeves I would have to have the volume up 3/4 on my fuze to get rid of all but the noisiest of noises, with these, half volume and I can hear nothing but the music, at all. The train and especially the london underground are very noisy places, but these tips manage to cut out pretty much all ambient noise..I would say at 2/3 volume I can hear nothing but the loudest of outside noise. A train pulling into the tube station - a rather noisy event, doesn't even register. Even clicking my fingers next to my ears isn't heard. 10/10 for isolation
Sound
During the first couple of days before I managed to get the technique right for insertion, I didn't really notice much. Once I had them inserted properly..its a revelation. The bass is noticibly stronger, it now sounds very full and just fantastic. I'm hearing so much more detail, even when I listened to these phones in a dead quiet environment with flex sleeves, I heard less detail than listening to these with the ACS tips in a very noisy environment. The sound is much more full, wide and rich, the soundstaging is definately better. Its also less sibilant, very noticibly so. What impressed me the most and actually blew me away, was the 'ease' of the sound - without the bends of my ear canal in the way the music is directed straight at my eardrums and it just feels so incredibly effortless. I can't quite describe that feeling but it just feels like there is nothing standing inbetween the armatures and my eardrums. It sounds incredible. There is a definate improvement to the sound, these feel like a new pair of IEM's. Forgetting the wonderful comfort and isolation, the change in sound alone is well worth it.
Other notes
If you have some Ety HF5's and some SE530's and are thinking about some custom tips, get them done for the SE530's. Why? due to the shape of the HF5's they will also fit into the SE530 tips. Yea it may look a bit silly but so what, it works perfectly and gives a decent improvement to the sound. I only tried it for a couple of minutes but I just wanted to say that it works, so its almost like BOGOF.
ACS themselves were a pleasure to deal with. They told me two weeks and from when they received my impressions at their office (Tuesday 3rd Nov), I got them back in exactly two weeks. I called for a couple of questions and always got a fast informative answer. I also asked them to send my impressions back, just for the hell of it, and they obliged happily.
Conclusion
If you are considering ACS tips, do it. I was worried I would find them a waste of money and the cost would outweigh the benefits. Wrong..its the best £100 I've probably spent. The increase in isolation, comfort and sound improvents has transformed my SE530's from meh I'll use them but use my other IEM's too into wow forget everything else I wanna listen to these and nothing else. I now actually love these IEM's all because of the custom tips. I highly recommend them
Having the impressions done
I was taken into a room with a nice comfortable leather arm chair, sat down and the process was explained to me. Now it seems what I had done was a bit different to what others described on here..I didn't have my ears squirted with a gun. My ears were checked, no problems, then I had the usual foam inserted into my ears, the depth checked, adjusted, all good to go. Then The audiologist got two different compunds, one light purple, one dark purple, both looked like putty or playdough, and squidged them together. He explained that they are like araldite, as soon as they come into contact with ear other they start hardening. He then made a shape with the resulting material and pushed it into my ear, then the other, the silence was amazing. He waited a bit for it to harden then broke the seal by pulling up my ears and pulling the string attached to foam. Out comes perfect impressions of my ears.
Overall the experience was very pleasant and at no time did I feel uncomfortable, I actually rather enjoyed it. The audiologist was very nice and well informed, very professional and efficient. I would say anyone in the London area who is looking to get impressions done, seriously consider London Hearing:
London Hearing Aids
ACS recommended them to me also. I paid and then left
a little over two weeks later my tips arrive
Pictures
Please excuse these very poor shots..I only have a camera phone and mixed with bad light = fail. But you get the idea
as you can see I got them done with black and white swirl. ACS can mix up to 3 solid colours in a swirl
Design and accessories
They come in a small zip case, and included is a cleaning tool and some insertion lubricant (oh please..for inserting IEM's into ears!). The tips themselves feel very soft and almost sticky, not like the silicone used for the Shure flex sleeves which is alot harder and smoother. The right tip has a red ACS logo and the left a blue one..easy to remember, red for right.
The part where you insert the IEM is shaped to house the SE530's specifically, and it fits in there great. The whole IEM shell isn't covered so they can move a bit but this isn't a problem, the audiologist explained to me this would be the case. Craftmanship is good, there's nothing that looks flawed to my eyes. Overall I'm pleased and impressed.
Fit, comfort and isolation
This is the main reason I went for custom tips. Normal sleeves fit poorly, hurt after a while, and only isolate sufficiently if I really jam them in my ears, which only exacerbate the pain. The audiologist after taking a look explained my canals are anything but straight, hence these problems.
So after putting the IEM's into the tips, I attempted putting them in my ears. This seems easier than it is..its not. I learnt that inserting these into my ears will take practice since it is akward, and at first I thought I had a fitment issue with my right ear because it wouldn't seal. Turns out that I just had to get the technique down, the easiest way to start with was to remove the IEM's, insert the tips by pulling the top of my ear up and back, then inserting by twisting anti-clockwise, then once the fit was correct, putting the IEM's back in. This took me two days to achieve, so I had a couple of days of constantly adjusting etc. but after that I then got a perfect fit..I have no complaints at all, the impressions were great and they were translated into the tips perfectly.
Comfort..an odd one. They are comfortable, extremely comfortable infact, no pain at all. But you can feel they are there, its a feeling that takes getting used to. But unlike the Ety triflanges it doesn't distract from the music, they feel good in my ears, comfortable, but there, so don't expect invisible comfort. Top marks for comfort once fitted correctly.
Isolation is, by all accounts, outstanding. Perhaps this is because I've rarely had a perfect fit, but I don't think so..I've used the ety brain probes aka triflanges and they isolated damn good, but these are better..much better. With the Shure flex sleeves I would have to have the volume up 3/4 on my fuze to get rid of all but the noisiest of noises, with these, half volume and I can hear nothing but the music, at all. The train and especially the london underground are very noisy places, but these tips manage to cut out pretty much all ambient noise..I would say at 2/3 volume I can hear nothing but the loudest of outside noise. A train pulling into the tube station - a rather noisy event, doesn't even register. Even clicking my fingers next to my ears isn't heard. 10/10 for isolation
Sound
During the first couple of days before I managed to get the technique right for insertion, I didn't really notice much. Once I had them inserted properly..its a revelation. The bass is noticibly stronger, it now sounds very full and just fantastic. I'm hearing so much more detail, even when I listened to these phones in a dead quiet environment with flex sleeves, I heard less detail than listening to these with the ACS tips in a very noisy environment. The sound is much more full, wide and rich, the soundstaging is definately better. Its also less sibilant, very noticibly so. What impressed me the most and actually blew me away, was the 'ease' of the sound - without the bends of my ear canal in the way the music is directed straight at my eardrums and it just feels so incredibly effortless. I can't quite describe that feeling but it just feels like there is nothing standing inbetween the armatures and my eardrums. It sounds incredible. There is a definate improvement to the sound, these feel like a new pair of IEM's. Forgetting the wonderful comfort and isolation, the change in sound alone is well worth it.
Other notes
If you have some Ety HF5's and some SE530's and are thinking about some custom tips, get them done for the SE530's. Why? due to the shape of the HF5's they will also fit into the SE530 tips. Yea it may look a bit silly but so what, it works perfectly and gives a decent improvement to the sound. I only tried it for a couple of minutes but I just wanted to say that it works, so its almost like BOGOF.
ACS themselves were a pleasure to deal with. They told me two weeks and from when they received my impressions at their office (Tuesday 3rd Nov), I got them back in exactly two weeks. I called for a couple of questions and always got a fast informative answer. I also asked them to send my impressions back, just for the hell of it, and they obliged happily.
Conclusion
If you are considering ACS tips, do it. I was worried I would find them a waste of money and the cost would outweigh the benefits. Wrong..its the best £100 I've probably spent. The increase in isolation, comfort and sound improvents has transformed my SE530's from meh I'll use them but use my other IEM's too into wow forget everything else I wanna listen to these and nothing else. I now actually love these IEM's all because of the custom tips. I highly recommend them
