[Dn2292]

I need the best sound isolation I can get and I know CIEM’s are the way to go. I am not an educated audiophile like you guys and gals (yet). While I do appreciate music, sound of any kind actually causes me great pain. Before I got sick I liked Boston Acoustic Speakers back in the day but I know any monitor maker at this perhaps custom(??) level will sound amazing to me.

Because of TBI my brain takes in ANY visual and audible stimulation and translates that into pain. So I can’t go out into the loud world(leaving the controlled environment of my house) without protection, heck I can’t even watch tv with my wife without protection!!!!

I am disabled and have always had custom earplugs but nothing beyond that for protection that was custom to me. Just always had butt loads of ears plugs everywhere, drives wife nuts! And have ear muffs as well and also have special sunglasses I wear 24/7. I mention being DA for the reason of throwing $$$ around is not easy, I can’t afford the convenience of buying 3 or 4 expensive (for me) CIEM’s to see which will work best, to fit my needs.

So what do I do?

I was going to keep it around $500 on Shure monitors with custom sleeves done by Sensaphonics but then an expert in the field I was chatting with mentioned I should really think about the Sensaphonics D2 or the 2max custom models cuz the isolation would be considerably better.

So now if I’m going to shell out that much freakin money how do you know that company is the one to go with? I mean should I shop around or just go with Sensaphonics? I have only owned 1 IEM ever,(hey sound causes me pain ok! Not much music lately) and I still have it Shure 215.

The sole reason I went with Shure years ago is I liked their sound and their isolation was crazy good and I’m super picky about earplugs I mean this is coming from a guy that can hear better than a Bat & an Elephant put together!!!

So my initial thought was if their off the shelf IEM with comply tips seal and isolate so well than custom sleeves will be the bomb!!! But now people saying pony up for full custom.

And Sensaphonics website says you can get up to 45dB sound isolation with their CIEM’s, HOLY SMOKES!!!! Is that about average performance for other companies?

Ok so what say you? What do you pro’s suggest???? Let’s keep the budget around $800 but for sure under $1k

Oh and if it matters when I do listen to music the volume is very low, so I appreciate good speakers when they can perform full strength but at low volume(did that explain it?). I listen to classical & opera as well as some jazz with some newer stuff for fun too. I prefer tighter highs over booming lows, as you can imagine a hard hitting low can rock my brain too much pain wise! I’m not a thumper

Thanks in advance for the input, I appreciate the advice considering I know nothing about this stuff!

Sorry for long post.

 

[IkSak]

Hi.

Do consider the etymotics. The er4pt provide a lot of isolation. I used them and its isolation is far superior to the Shure se 535 which I have. I've never had a ciem and I'm not sure they improve over the er4pt

 

[Roscoeiii]

I have found that Shure in general has excellent isolation. And the Sensaphonics custom sleeves for Shure up the isolation even more.

In general, I'd look at customs that are silicon instead of acrylic. The flexibility of silicon allows for better, deeper insertion and isolation IME.

 

[Dn2292]

Good point about the Silicone and insertion depth, makes sense it’s more comfortable and to be deeper does a better job.

Just in my custom earplugs a change in silicone types makes me upset because it changes the feel in the canal comfort not to mention performance of the earplugs.