I’m afraid that this post will be somewhat off topic, but I would like to take the opportunity to counter some of Jude’s arguments about custom in-ear monitors, as I hope it will be beneficial to the community in general and to inexperienced Head-Fi’ers in particular. I hope I’ll be excused!
Quote from Jude’s video:
“For the last several years the popularity of custom fit in ear monitors in the Head-Fi community has grown substantially and it continues to grow. Why are they so popular on Head-Fi? I think first and foremost because of performance, sound quality. To my ears some of the top custom in-ears are some of the best headphones I’ve heard, independent of form factor. Now of course the comfort advantage is that come with custom fit in-ear monitors also play a huge role in their popularity. Now in my opinion, universal fit in-ear monitors, the kind that’ll fit almost anyone, the kind that you’re used to using foam or silicone ear tips have gotten better and better over the years. And two of my favourite universal fit in-ear monitors - the Shure SE846 and the Sennheiser IE800 - these are phenomenal performers, and no question, to my ears these top universal fit in-ear monitors are starting to knock on the doors of the best customs in terms of their sound quality. Still though, in comparison to my very best custom in-ear monitors - namely the FitEar MH334 customs, ahh, the Westone ES50s, the JH Audio Roxanne, and the In-Ear Reference Monitors - even the best of the universal fit ear phones I’ve heard, don’t quite reach the best customs in terms of fidelity.
Musicians have been wearing custom in-ears for years and we audio enthusiasts have since discovered the fidelity they can offer. So with the sound quality advantages, with the comfort advantages, why isn’t everyone buying custom in-ear monitors? Well, there are some key disadvantages too. To start there’s price. The top of the line custom in-ear monitors you see on this table range in price from around 900 dollars to over 2000 dollars. So going for bust with a top of the line in-ear monitor can get expensive. Also, buying custom in-ears is a more involved process. To buy them you can’t just go into a store, bunk down your money and walk out of the store with them. It’s a much more involved purchase process than that. For custom in-ears you have to first go to a qualified audiologist to get silicone impressions made of your ears and ear canals, which by the way averages around 50 bucks and then you send those silicone impressions to the manufacturer, and then several weeks or several months later you receive the final product. If you’re the type who absolutely must have instant gratification you may find that buying custom in-ears is a bit agonising because of the wait.”
Jude is careful to point out that the opinions he presents aren’t undeniable objective facts but personal. He uses expressions such as “I think”, “to my ears”, “in my opinion”, and so on. Still I would expect that inexperienced Head-Fi’ers perceive Jude’s personal opinions as more or less objective facts; that CIEMs (custom in-ear monitors) in general have better sound quality and are more comfortable than UIEMs (universal in-ear monitors). So why do I think that? Well, Jude is – for many good reasons - an authority, the founder of Head-Fi, an Administrator and has large number of followers and supporters. If the president of the United States says he will combat the terrorists of the Islamic State it has a completely different meaning than if a five year old with a toy gun says the same. Hence, I believe those with no experience of CIEMs will take for granted that CIEMs in general will sound better and are more comfortable than UIEMs. However, this is not my experience at all, and I know that I’m far from alone.
Being the authority he is, it really wouldn’t hurt for Jude to point out that there are other authorities on Head-Fi that do not share his opinions about CIEMs at all, and challenge the viewers of his video to do some research. BTW, I do not consider myself to be one of those authorities.
From my experience of CIEMs the only potential advantage that CIEMs can offer is better isolation than UIEMs. However, not even once does Jude mention isolation in his video. In all other respects I find CIEMs to be either equivalent to, or inferior to UIEMs.
Unlike the acrylic artificial ear canals of CIEMs, biological ear canals are very intelligently designed when it comes to transporting sound waves in the most favourable and natural way to the ear drums. However, for deformed ear canals I guess CIEMs could function as a hearing aid and thereby improve sound quality. So, with the somewhat shallow fit provided by UIEMs – not unlike over ear and on ear headphones – UIEMs are able to provide a more natural flow of sound waves to the ear drums than CIEMs. Actually, I’ve never heard any clinical arguments as to why CIEMs in general should be superior in sound quality to UIEMs, and I believe the simply reason is that there aren’t any.
Comfort, sound and isolation of CIEMs (at least in my experience) depend on the position of the facial muscles and the body as a whole. I see a possibility that people with no previous experience of CIEMs may be lead to believe that CIEMs are the be‑all and end‑all in IEM design. For those I think it may be of value to know that acrylic CIEMs are rigid, very rigid (think glass), while ear canals are very flexible. This, at least for me, limits the use of CIEMs. As soon as I move my facial muscles (like when smiling) or deviate too much from the position of the body as it were when the impressions were made, like when laying down on my back in bed (my preferred position when listening to music), the shape of the ear canals changes and consequently affects the isolation, sound and comfort. I would say that (at least for me) CIEMs are ruled out whenever I’m not keeping my head in the upright position it was when the impressions were made. In this respect I find the flexibility of UIEMs to be a major advantage. So, these days I always go for UIEMs.
Based on my own experience I would guess UIEMs would be the best solution for most people, also considering a substantially higher resale value. Conversely, for those having trouble with UIEMs for one or another reason or suspect they don’t get the best possible sound because of their anatomy, then by all means do try CIEMs. However, don’t expect certain success or some implicit magic CIEM superiority, because there just isn’t any.