[daulagiri]

I love my Encore.. need 3x refit but its finally there. I like how they sound: warm, analog, effortless. I like how they finallt fit: low profile, unnoticable.

But I got better sIlicone CIEM: Custom Art FIBAE2. If you into silicone, go with CA.

 

[Takeanidea]

Custom Art have a great reputation, but remember ACS were the first (well maybe Westone were there at the beginning) and the guy responsible for bringing the ciem experience is still there.
There are however, other ways to make ciems from Universal's without the heartache.....

 

[Takeanidea]

I would never go for customs again, only those I make myself.....

 

[Dumbleroar]

Well this is the last time I will be paying to repair them. So when they go out of warranty that's it. Might as well get some foam tips. Though I might eventually get some custom earplugs. Not much can go wrong with them unless my ears change and need to be refitted.

 

[Takeanidea]

Do them yourself then you can adjust them as many times as you want

 

[Dumbleroar]

Do them yourself then you can adjust them as many times as you want

How would I do that? With a kit?

 

[Takeanidea]

I can do an ear impression, on any ears, without any chance of the solution going into the ear canal and with near perfect results in under 10 minutes the results of which can be refined an infinite number of times until the cosmetic appearance is perfect. All earsleeves are locked onto the drivers of the iems. Yet all earsleeves can be taken off the iems. They can be remodelled and used for another iem. This can happen over and over. As you can imagine I'm reluctant to give to much more away. No one else I'm aware of can do this. I'm in the UK. I'm toying with the following idea. You could come to me, with your iems. I could do them on the spot, with the customer in front of me so I can see they fit properly and the customer can hear they fit properly. No waiting, no stress, using the tips you like and the iems you like. Now that would give some of you guys hope for the future

 

[doctorjazz]

Doesn't help me much, in the US/NY area, but seems like a good idea for those considering going custom.
Really hesitant to ever do it again after my acs Encore experience.

 

[khatch]

I send back mine twice for internal broke and/or the T2 connector was dysfunctional. Unlike doctorjazz and yoghurtlidlicker, I loved the tube sound they made, that's why I asked Custom Art to remold them in acrylic filled with silicon (+ 2 pins connectors). I just sold them to try out the AAW500 HMorph, but after the remold my ACS Encore worked fine during a year, something that never happens before the remold.

ACS has solid foundation in sound tuning, but that's not the case for the quality of their manufacturing...

Really gun shy as far as going for a ciem as well...

I started with ACS custom sleeves and have had great luck using them with 3 different Etymotic models.

Eventually I took the leap and had them build me a set of CIEMs - the Encore model. The fit was perfect, but the bass overemphasis (designed for stage performance use with musicians) was simply not to my liking. ACS was good enough to take them back and rebuild them into the Evolve model for me and I've been happy as a clam ever since. 3 years of steady use - not a single problem. I don't baby them at all and I don't user the dryer/cleaner unit nearly as much as I should, but I don't live in a humid climate and I don't have oily type ear wax.

Customs are customs - each set will end up with driver units positioned in different ways to best reduce the mass of the shell that sits inside the concha. It only stands to reason that some of those positioning combinations lead to durability issues, as the shell can flex during insertion and extraction, depending on the shape of each person's concha. That's one of the trade offs with using silicone - better isolation and comfort, but harder to work the shell material and flex. This all seemed obvious to me from the start, but reading all these posts about problems really leaves me wondering if that's not so much the case for most people.

I'm eagerly awaiting production to start on the 5 driver Emotion CIEM. I wish they were still going to be using the linum cable material I have on my Evolves, but maybe they've got something better up their sleeves...

 

[doctorjazz]

Glad it worked out to your satisfaction...I went to the Manhattan office, got fit, didn't work out, went back, got fit again, sent my Encore back multiple times, sometimes for fit, sometimes because it didn't work. Fit was never perfect. Even when the sound was optimized, I found it rolled off in the highs, maybe that's what musicians need, I didn't know it was not for music listeners, and never given the option to change to a more "audiophile" model. At some point, went out of warranty, and 1 side stopped working again. Just don't have the energy to send it in, and it would cost me at this point. And, as mentioned, even if it is brought back to life, didn't like it when it was functioning as it is supposed to.
Hard (and expensive) way to learn a lesson; felt burned.

 

[yoghurtlidlicker]

I seriously don't know what to do...

 

[doctorjazz]

I seriously don't know what to do...

About upgrading?

 

[yoghurtlidlicker]

About upgrading?

I hate them so much. I can't sell them.
I can't even look at them.

That's all. ooph.
The worst purchase to date!

I will give them one more try with Hugo 2 but I got a feeling it won't be good...

 

[doctorjazz]

Sorry to hear it, I feel your pain. I just gave up on them a while ago, expensive mistake. (not the only one I've made).

 

[Takeanidea]

I seriously don't know what to do...

Get in touch with ACS. Tell them.
Andy Shiach is the managing director and founder of ACS
He is a legend of the Audio Industry and is perhaps the inventor of the Custom IEM. He will not be satisfied until you are happy with a Custom from them. I'm sure of it.
Here's what I would do :
Send an email to info@acscustom.com
Mark it for the attention of Andy Shiach
I would put something like this :
Dear Andy,
I am known as yoghurtlidlicker on headfi.org. My fellow headfier Takeanidea , visited your HQ 2 years ago and told me I must get in touch with you and tell you about how I feel about ACS Encore Studio CIEMs.
I'm sorry to tell you they are not to my personal taste in sound signature. The mids and highs are too rolled off and the bass is too pronounced for the type of listening that I do.
My order number was (.......) my name and address is (.......). At the moment I have lost all faith in the CIEM market. The problem is that I am now left with a Custom product that is all but impossible for me to sell and that I didn't get the opportunity to listen to before I bought it. This has left me with a considerable investment and commitment to your product but without something that I can live with.
I was hoping that I had reached the endgame when I bought the Encore Studio's and had something that I could cherish for the rest of my life. Is there anything you could possibly do to perhaps swap these over for a different model that gave me perhaps a more linear presentation musically? I would be forever grateful. Please take pity on a poor headfier!
Yours Sincerely
(insert name)