[ayn]

Little bit of background; I got my 2X-S about 2 years ago, they were flawless for about a year and a half. About 6 months ago I started cleaning them with baby wipes, which turned out to be a very bad idea as moisture got inside the IEMs and pretty much destroyed them. Basically, moisture got into drivers... I could see bubbles on the tubes and would lose the bass driver in the right IEM and the high-freq one in the left IEM, so as you could probably imagine, they sounded horrible...

I called Sensaphonics and they recommended trying out this Dry Aid thing they sell for $10. I got that and it's pretty much a plastic box with a huge pack of desiccant inside. The dry aid actually made the problems worse because it drew out moisture from the drivers into the tubes, so the sound was pretty much completely blocked. After a week or so they didn't get any better, so I decided to send them in for repair. Since they were out of warranty, they charge $150 per can for repair. $300 is not certainly not cheap, but they pretty much made brand new cans for me. I sent in the impressions and the IEMs, and 2 weeks later I got a brand new pair of IEMs. Even the cords and plug are new. Considering they cost around $800 the first time, $300 is not bad. This time, obvioulsy, I would be VERY careful about not getting them wet, and they will be stored in the dry aid box overnight every day... and I'll probably use my OE Apple cans in the gyms...

The new 2X-S' look a little different actually, they are more transluscent than the ones I had before. My original 2X-S' had a pink tint to it, these are completely transparent. Also, the tubes on the right IEM are twisted, I guess they were twisted when they made the molds. The memory wires on these new ones are not set to the shapes of anyone's ears, so I will have to heat them up with a hairdryer and get them into place, now they kindda hurt after using them for an hour or so.

SQ-wise, they are great. For some odd reasons I am not as impressed with them as when I tried on my first pair. But this is probably because I've lived with them for almost 2 years and got used to the sound quality. The fit is perfect, my ear impressions haven't shrunk yet, thankfully. With the exception of the messed up memory wires they are as comfortable as my last pair.

Well, just thought I'd share my experience with Sensaphonics 2X-S repair, I remember when I first bought them a few here got theirs at around the same time, so some of you probably need repair pretty soon... heh... so feel free to hit me up if you have questions over PMs and stuff...

BTW, for those in the States, the best way to contact Sensaphonics is to call their toll-free number. They are still a very small company so it takes a few days to get a reply for an email inquiry. But if you call during their business hours they always answer their phone and they're always very helpful. I sent my cans in via insured Priority Mail and they received them in 2 days. They inspected them and called, told me I pretty much needed a full blown repair at $300, got my CC info, and I got them back in about 2 weeks. I upgraded my shipping to 3-day Air as UPS Ground from the mid-west to norcal takes forever. I also bought a box of Audio Wipes from them. Overall I am very pleased with their customer service.

--Andrew

 

[iamdone]

Yeah, mine are still dead because I didn't want to pay the fee and I also have the ue10. I do miss the bouncy sound of the sensas. The ue10 are a little dry.

I think instead of getting the sensas fixed, I'd rather spend the money on the new shure e500 (which I heard in Jan). They seemed to capture the sensas fun bouncy sound but had even better highs.

I also wasn't a big fan of the sensas fit. It was just too grippy for me. I always had trouble getting them in. The ue10 fits great and the e500 was surprisingly comfortable.

 

[ayn]

I'm very curious on the E500's as well, I've been rocking my OE apple cans so I can't wait for them to become available... I'll find somewhere to audition them when they're out. I'll probably still prefer custom fit over universal ones though... I'm definitely gonna get the PTH acc though, that would be VERY useful...

 

[BushGuy]

Ayn - I've been sitting on the fence if I should or shoudn't make the jump up to Sensas. Your post is the first I've ever read in this vein - and interesting. I'd have thought applying some mild suction to the interior vacuum situation (evinced by the bubbles) would have solved the problem....and then a couple of days wait for eventual drying. No-one suggested anything like that? If you wet the screens of a universal pair the same sort of thing happens, but you only remove the screens, blow on them and it's problem solved - the same principle.......the dessicant box seems totally pointless and would only seem to make some sense in a place like...London?

 

[ayn]

Quote:

Originally Posted by BushGuy Ayn - I've been sitting on the fence if I should or shoudn't make the jump up to Sensas. Your post is the first I've ever read in this vein - and interesting. I'd have thought applying some mild suction to the interior vacuum situation (evinced by the bubbles) would have solved the problem....and then a couple of days wait for eventual drying. No-one suggested anything like that? If you wet the screens of a universal pair the same sort of thing happens, but you only remove the screens, blow on them and it's problem solved - the same principle.......the dessicant box seems totally pointless and would only seem to make some sense in a place like...London?

The moisture got deep enough to the drivers for a while before I noticed anything, so the damage was done already. You can't really suck out the moisture coz the whole thing is sealed. I tried, but it was just too much moisture.

The dessicant box definitely would help too, I was told some of the musicians who had moisture problems found it very helpful...

 

[ayn]

btw, I mentioned that for some odd reasons I didn't think they sounded that good initially, well, now they do! I totally forgot about burn-in!! after 4 days they certainly sound awesome, and now I'm burning them in overnight with my ipod... I guess I've been away from this board too long and totally forgot about these things... hehe...

 

[wolfen68]

I clean my UE5c's regularly with unscent baby wipes with no problems. It's just important not to use wipes from the bottom of the container as they tend to be "wetter".

As a precaution, you should be unable to wring any drops of liquid from any wipe you use.

The "tech wipes" that UE sells are basically the same product...

 

[wolfen68]

I clean my UE5c's regularly with unscent baby wipes with no problems. It's just important not to use wipes from the bottom of the container as they tend to be "wetter".

As a precaution, you should be unable to wring any drops of liquid from any wipe you use.

The "tech wipes" that UE sells are basically the same product...

 

[ayn]

Baby wipes are much wetter than the Audio Wipes you get from an audiologist. They should work as long as you let them dry out before you store them in an air tight container. It never crossed my mind that moisture would be a problem so I used to wipe them and put them back in the box right away when they were still not completely dry. I also didn't have a desiccant pack in the case back then. So after a while moisture got in and it's hard to draw it back out.

The Audio Wipes aren't that expensive so I would recommend using those instead of baby wipes.