Which foams are currently most recommended these days? Please share your experience and current preference.
I am finding myself using black and the thinner whites as the reds tend to be too thick for my ears and muffled sounding (thinking on donut'ing them so see if there is an audible improvement though the fit will still be an issue).
I'd also like to know which foams people are using! I love the foams that come with the Faaeal earbuds I've ordered, much better than the VE Monk Plus foams, and I prefer full foams over donuts. Anyone have recommendations?
Like pads on headphones, there's no universally best foam for all earbuds.
I find each earbud responds best to different foams depending on the sound signature and fit.
With that in mind, I tend to use these as my go-to when testing new foams:
- Full black foams (specifically the ones that look more pourous/transparent than the other full foams)
- Hiegi Full foams (fairly dense and consistent in quality)
- Aliexpress thin foam (very pourous, tames treble slightly. Great transparency of sound.)
- VE or Hiegi thick donuts (VE are slightly thicker and warmer sounding. Great for adding soundstage (driver further from ear) and works well for smaller shell earbuds that are very bright.
- Aliexpress assortment of full foams in various colours (this pack has some unique foams including thick but transparent full foams and some extra thin but dense full foams)
Some notes:
I rarely buy or use regular donuts. I find the opening is usually too small and if I need donuts I can make them out if full foams easily and decide on how big the opening is myself. On ocasion I will use them with some earbuds but usually I look for other alternatives.
The original VE thin foams are the most transparent sounding and barely touch the sound sig of the earbud so it's almost like listening without foams. The new ve thins however... They are thicker and I find no matter which earbud I use them on they destroy the precision of the imaging. I don't know why this happens and it seems illogical. My only guess is that the foam matieral is more reflective of sound somehow. I really dislike the new VE thin foams for that reason. But I do like how they are very pourous but medium-thick so it adds some bass over most other thin foams.
I usually mod my foams to adjust the sound sig to my liking. So I'm not usually using just one foam or stock foams on any of my earbuds. But I always test all the basic stock foams first to see where I should start and which the earbud works best with.
