Best IEM tips?

[jonas808]

two different sized tips in the left and right ear due to this anatomical variance!

Maybe I should try this

 

[Surf Monkey]

Maybe I should try this

I prefer to use single size pairs but it’s true that I can sometimes get a better overall fit with an L in my left ear and an M in my right.

 

[Jaysound]

two different sized tips in the left and right ear due to this anatomical variance!

Maybe I should try this

Just do it!

This is much a more common need than one might guess.

AZLA sells a size assortment pack and says on the Amazon page it helps to accommodate differently sized L-R ears:

--- Begin quote ---

Detail adjustment
This makes it easier to adjust detail when the size is different between the left and right.

--- End quote ---

I'm using L in the left ear and ML in the right. Otherwise, one fits and one doesn't. This way, both fit perfectly well. It's the same situation regardless of which brand of tips I'm using.

I'm pretty OCD about things like having them "match" but my OCD about having them fit well to sound as good as possible (and be comfortable) has totally overridden that. Now I'm very happy.

 

[jonas808]

I prefer to use single size pairs but it’s true that I can sometimes get a better overall fit with an L in my left ear and an M in my right.

Just do it!

I tried with the Final E's but they sounded mismatched I think maybe because of insertion depth?

 

[Jaysound]

The verdict is in. To use AZLA SednaEarfit Light (or I guess any other AZLA) with Shure SE IEMs (or I guess any others with the same narrow nozzle as the SEs), buy a set of AZLA SendaEarfit Crystal Standard and use the adapters that came with it. I did that and that's the way to go. (Added perk is getting to try the Crystals.)

Thank you to sm0rf for pointing out that the Shure adapters come with the Crystals.

Not sure which I like more yet, Crystal or Light. Loving both -- more than SpinFit CP100+ because SpinFit loses low end too much, which is a shame because at mids and hights SpinFit is great, and I think I'm getting a more consistently reliable fit with the AZLAs than the SpinFits.

Either way, I've resigned myself to using a bit of EQ to keep any of these tip choices optimized since all have a bit of tradeoff. Found Flat Equalizer for Android and it's superb! (Waiting get my Shure TW2 back from repair to see whether that works with them since the Shure Play app has EQ in it -- I don't like the EQ in the Shure as much as Flat EQ.)

 

[darmanastartes]

I realized in the last week or so that the TPE-ish eartips Moondrop has been including with some of their recent sets (Stellaris, Alice) are in fact Softears UC tips. I've been using them with the Moondrop S8 for the last few months and they're probably my favorite eartips right now. As someone who developed an irritating allergy to silicone eartips halfway through their audiophile journey, the UC tips have been a lifesaver. I can listen to the S8 for hours without losing upper treble extension, and I swear that the UC help mitigate the S8's slight BA timbre.
I've included graphs of the S8 with a variety of different eartips below. Let me know if you have any requests for measurements, I'm happy to measure any eartips I have on hand.

 

[phiemon]

Can anyone tell me what these tips are? Unfortunately I do not remember where I got them. Maybe from the Campfire Andromeda 2018? So are these Campfire silicone eartips - probably an older model of them? Anyway, they are extremely comfortable…

 

[phiemon]

I have another question and hopefully someone can help me with it: I am looking for an alternative to the Final Type E with a little less bass and a little more treble. According to this reference https://www.audioreviews.org/guide-to-iem-silicone-eartips/ the SpinFit CP100+ and SpinFit W1 would be ideal. Does anyone have experience with these - perhaps with a comparison to the Final Type E? I have the oldest version of CP100 here, but I find the bass is just missing. Is the new one actually different?

 

[jonas808]

I have another question and hopefully someone can help me with it: I am looking for an alternative to the Final Type E with a little less bass and a little more treble. According to this reference https://www.audioreviews.org/guide-to-iem-silicone-eartips/ the SpinFit CP100+ and SpinFit W1 would be ideal. Does anyone have experience with these - perhaps with a comparison to the Final Type E? I have the oldest version of CP100 here, but I find the bass is just missing. Is the new one actually different?

Try the Radius Deep Mount

 

[ChrisOc]

I have another question and hopefully someone can help me with it: I am looking for an alternative to the Final Type E with a little less bass and a little more treble. According to this reference https://www.audioreviews.org/guide-to-iem-silicone-eartips/ the SpinFit CP100+ and SpinFit W1 would be ideal. Does anyone have experience with these - perhaps with a comparison to the Final Type E? I have the oldest version of CP100 here, but I find the bass is just missing. Is the new one actually different?

The TRI Clarion might be the solution for you. They available on AliExpress.

 

[Jaysound]

I have another question and hopefully someone can help me with it: I am looking for an alternative to the Final Type E with a little less bass and a little more treble. According to this reference https://www.audioreviews.org/guide-to-iem-silicone-eartips/ the SpinFit CP100+ and SpinFit W1 would be ideal. Does anyone have experience with these - perhaps with a comparison to the Final Type E? I have the oldest version of CP100 here, but I find the bass is just missing. Is the new one actually different?

SpinFit CP100+ blew me away with the clarity of the mids and highs but I agree they have almost no bass. I tried the AZLA SednaEarfit Light and Crystal Standard and am very happy with both, though I do sometimes want to boost treble with EQ a bit using those after hearing what's there in my music that I never knew was there until I tried the SpinFit CP100+. I decided to go with AZLA rather than boost bass with EQ with the SpinFits, which didn't seem like the best way to get an uncompromised bass since they just aren't great at reproducing bass. I guess either way would work: use AZLA and boost treble in EQ, or use SpinFit and boost bass in EQ. All in all, I'm staying with the AZLAs.

I rarely used EQ before, and now with the AZLAs I'm not so sure it's needed since they're great with no EQ.

Then again, other factors also matter: which IEMs, cable or BT and if so what kind. I'm using Shure SE425, which are very neutral and known to not have much bass to them. I'm also using either the Shure TW2 or the Fiio BTR5, the latter being better because it's a high-end DAC/amp and has LDAC, but either way the nuances of the tips are consistent.

 

[Ryoidenshi]

Why is it that the less the air in the front the more the bass? In a 2 channel system, the relationship between amount of bass and the room size is probably non-linear. It also has to do with the frequency of bass, I suppose. See, for example, this discussion. The effect of end correction, on the other hand, is linear: the wider the bore, the lower the resonance frequency.

Anyway, look forward to what you think of T300T vs T300B. There are spinfit models that are identical-up-to-bore-width too, fwiw.

Maybe I have a very bad wide bore eartips, but for me none of them can give more bass than narrow bore gives, especially in a physical feeling of bass. I'll try T300T and T300B in the future, but for now, I can't hear the same thing, and even Spiral Dot can't outbass the typical bassy narrow bore tips - like KBEar 08, for example.

 

[Carpet]

Why is it that the less the air in the front the more the bass? In a 2 channel system, the relationship between amount of bass and the room size is probably non-linear. It also has to do with the frequency of bass, I suppose. See, for example, this discussion. The effect of end correction, on the other hand, is linear: the wider the bore, the lower the resonance frequency.

Anyway, look forward to what you think of T300T vs T300B. There are spinfit models that are identical-up-to-bore-width too, fwiw.

Well if the bass hit is compression of air in the air canal, then the smaller the volume, the greater the compressive effect of air being pushed out by the transducer. Presumably more so for dynamic drivers than BAs. Dynamic driver is more akin to using a plunger to unblock a sink, BA placing a speaker next to it.

 

[Carpet]

Yes physics play a large part, but one factor often overlooked is that eartips are as personal as shoes, due to our different ear anatomy - this affects seal and fit, and hence the sound. So what someone finds tames the treble may not necessarily work for others. It is also not uncommon to find consumers needing two different sized tips in the left and right ear due to this anatomical variance!


But as a general rule of thumb, foam tips mostly will tame the treble.
Narrow bore tips or longer stem tips/deeper insertion generally tame the treble more. Exceptions exist of course. YMMV.

Try eartips that come in a greater range of sizes S,M-,M,M+,L. That gives you a bit more room to fine tune for size variance. Remember if you do find a match that way you will have 2 sets from a mixed set (plus a few pairs in other sizes for friends)*

*apparently it is possible for audiophiles to have friends, but you will have to get off the forums, stop listening to music, refrain from ordering stuff off the net, then go out and meet people#

#okay, it is "theoretically" possible for audiophiles to have friends!

 

[Edric Li]

Maybe I have a very bad wide bore eartips, but for me none of them can give more bass than narrow bore gives, especially in a physical feeling of bass. I'll try T300T and T300B in the future, but for now, I can't hear the same thing, and even Spiral Dot can't outbass the typical bassy narrow bore tips - like KBEar 08, for example.

Spiral dot vs 08 is wide+matte vs narrow+glossy. Gotta control for the variables and find a wide+glossy (like T300T) or narrow+matte (like Sedna original). 08 has great bass, and overall is incredibly loud, but a wide+glossy tip would have less uppermids, and hence more (relative) bass volume.