[moedawg140]

Custom sleeves take care of that handily... I've got a long overdue review of the Westone ones in the pipeline I'm just awaiting for the long overdue arrival of my ak240 1st (eBay seller screwed me over and it's taking forever to get it straightened out). Spoiler alert: custom sleeves are (to me, for SQ alone) the next best thng to a custom IEM

Looking forward to seeing your pictures of the Ref. 1 with Westone Custom Adapters in your ears - once and for all. :bigsmile_face:

 

[warrior1975]

Looking forward to seeing your pictures of the Ref. 1 with Westone Custom Adapters in your ears - once and for all. :bigsmile_face:

+1

I thought this was a dead issue... Now I'm excited. If this works, I'm definitely doing it.

 

[moedawg140]

+1

I thought this was a dead issue... Now I'm excited. If this works, I'm definitely doing it.

Glad to see ChrisSC back to review it/show pictures at last! Or at least after the AK240 arrives. The more custom sleeves reviews, the better, regardless of what IEMs they are attached to in my honest opinion.

Which ones are you going to get first?

 

[warrior1975]

I'll probably do both at the same time since I'm lazy and have no motivation to take 1 trip to the audiologist, let alone 2!!

 

[ChrisSC]

I'll take pics when I can and give them the review they deserve, but long story short, it's a very happy purchase for me.

It's sort of like silver/copper hybrid cables - they provides the best of both worlds, but also have their disadvantages.

They fit like customs- super comfortable, and I don't get the five minute itch to rip the monitors out of my ears to readjust. They also mean that you can let your friends listen to your iems with their own tips and you still get to keep your resale value.

The negative and elephant in the room is the aesthetics. They pop out of yours ears and don't look right. For reference until I post pics, everything after the ridge that tips attach to on the ref 1s will stick out of your ear. Whether or not the aesthetics matter to you is personal of course.

What I can say is that they've reawakened my love for the gym! Listening to top class sound with ridiculous bass reverb that the ref 1s provide gets me sweating at the gym and makes it something I now look forward to. The benefit of sleeves is that it's nearly impossible to damage the iems via sweat. The iems are so far out of my ears and the ears actually serve as a shield to protect against any incoming sweat. Further, it would be damn near impossible for sweat to enter th long tubes of the sleeves and actually travel into the IEM. You can also clean the sleaves with pipe cleaners, so they're low maintenance.

I'll cover more about sleeve comparisons etc with a review, but that should give you a couple things to think about

I think they're a really nice thing to have in your head-fi'er arsenal if you listen to IEMs because they should fit most, and are something you'll actually get years of use from. Absolutely no regrets with this purchase.

 

[moedawg140]

I'll probably do both at the same time since I'm lazy and have no motivation to take 1 trip to the audiologist, let alone 2!!

That was a great answer! Make sure to get the impressions the way Sensaphonics and Westone's individual instructions say to; for example Sensaphonics doesn't use a bite block when getting the goo inserted in your ears.

 

[moedawg140]

Nice concise review, ChrisSC. Still looking forward to the pictures though.

 

[warrior1975]

Will do Moe, thanks for your advice as always!!

Chris, thank you again for being the guinea pig on this... Couldn't agree more about using them in the gym... That bass really gets my blood flowing. Although I've been using mostly my Shure Se846 at the gym, they are better built for it.

 

[ChrisSC]

@ Moe: pics are on their way, probably will have time to futz around head-if with a computer this weekend! (I'm on an iPhone right now, and misspellings come courtesy of it)

@ Warrior: gym bliss for me has been my rwak120b + zo3. If your cool with a gym stack...
It's absolutely disgusting how much bass the zo3 + ref 1s can produce

 

[warrior1975]

Damn... I just sold my Rwak120b... You enjoying the zo3? I was going to get one but all the problems with charging and batteries put me off... I've used my Rwak120b and Intruder stack in the gym. Now I'm using my 240. I've been looking for another amp, I sold my Intruder unfortunately.

 

[ChrisSC]

I'm really loving the zo3 so far, it's like s perfect equalizer, and luckily I haven't had any probs with the battery. It's too thick a grip to like bringing to the gym tho so I'm looking to consolidste, hence ak240. I'll still keep the zo3 tho- it's just too much fun to get speaker stack levels of bass out of tiny lil iems

 

[warrior1975]

The 240 is great for the gym, but I like the 120ii a bit better. It feels better in your hand, plus if you put your dap in your pocket, the buttons are exposed on the 120ii with the case included, but covered on the 240... But the 240 is "better" so I choose the 240 too. There is enough power for the Ref 1 on them... But it would be a little better with a tad more... Rwak should satisfy that itch. I still may grab a z03...

 

[awry]

Samsung s5

Haha.

I should change my phone. Haha.

 

[Wyd4]

I'll take pics when I can and give them the review they deserve, but long story short, it's a very happy purchase for me.

It's sort of like silver/copper hybrid cables - they provides the best of both worlds, but also have their disadvantages.

They fit like customs- super comfortable, and I don't get the five minute itch to rip the monitors out of my ears to readjust. They also mean that you can let your friends listen to your iems with their own tips and you still get to keep your resale value.

The negative and elephant in the room is the aesthetics. They pop out of yours ears and don't look right. For reference until I post pics, everything after the ridge that tips attach to on the ref 1s will stick out of your ear. Whether or not the aesthetics matter to you is personal of course.

What I can say is that they've reawakened my love for the gym! Listening to top class sound with ridiculous bass reverb that the ref 1s provide gets me sweating at the gym and makes it something I now look forward to. The benefit of sleeves is that it's nearly impossible to damage the iems via sweat. The iems are so far out of my ears and the ears actually serve as a shield to protect against any incoming sweat. Further, it would be damn near impossible for sweat to enter th long tubes of the sleeves and actually travel into the IEM. You can also clean the sleaves with pipe cleaners, so they're low maintenance.

I'll cover more about sleeve comparisons etc with a review, but that should give you a couple things to think about

I think they're a really nice thing to have in your head-fi'er arsenal if you listen to IEMs because they should fit most, and are something you'll actually get years of use from. Absolutely no regrets with this purchase.

 
Fantastic, I am leaning towards these, mainly just to ensure I get that same seal every time.
Due to my stupid ear canals, the Ref's sit a little oddly in my ears anyway, so aesthetically I already look stupid, so whats the harm haha.
 
Looking forward to the pics and some further thoughts

 

[ChrisSC]

Happy to share and I'll drop some pics and a review hopefully this weekend (should have time on Sunday)