[FYI] ER20 Cleaning Guide + Reverse Filter mod

Aug 26, 2008 at 4:40 PM Thread Starter Post #1 of 2

ClieOS

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Yes, ER20 are cheap and disposable, but there is no reason why they can't be cleaned and maintained from time to time as any other piece of gear.
ER01.jpg



[1] First, flip the largest of the three flanges upward.
ER02.jpg


[2] Hold the larger part of the out clear plastic cap with two fingers (blue). Feel the inner tube under the silicone eartips and hold it with two of you finger tips (red). Beware that your long finger nail can damage the silicone so be careful here.
ER02-1.jpg


[3] Using your figure tips (red), carefully rock the inner tube front and back slightly in a circular path and pull outward occasionally. For those who played w/ tubes before, it is a very similar process like pulling out tubes. Keep repeating until the inner tube is pulled out from the clear plastic cap.
ER02-2.jpg


[4] You can pull the tri-flanges out from the inner tube.
ER03.jpg


[5] The cap and the tri-flanges can be washed with water (or a bit of mild soap), but the filter on the inner tube is glued on with double side tape so washing is not recommended. If the tri-flanges has became yellowy and oily, now is the time to replace it. Untrimmed tri-flanges from Etymotic or Shure will both do the job. Remember, the stem of the tri-flanges must never be trimmed or it will not be long enough to fit the inner tube.
ER04.jpg


Enjoy!
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Oct 8, 2008 at 5:22 PM Post #2 of 2
This is a mod to increase the noise isolation of ER20.

What I used for the mod: a pair ER20 and a pair of ER6i's filter. I choose to use ER6i's filter because 1) The filter paper/mesh seem to be the same material on ER20. 2) The shape helps on holding its place in the tri-flanges. 3) I have a lot of unused ER6i's filters
tongue.gif


Take the ER20 apart (as shown on above post), insert the ER6i's filter into the end of tri-flanges (in 'reverse'), push the whole filter in, than insert the inner tube back and push the filter further inward. Reassemble the whole plug.
ER05-1.jpg


Since I don't have any equipment to test the plug, I can really tell you how much the isolation has been improved, but my guess is at least another -3~6 dB on the original NNR rating. Of course, you can try other filter as well, but you need to make sure filter can be secured by the tri-flanges so it won't fall out during use.
 

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