Homemade tips for IE's?
Dec 27, 2007 at 2:47 AM Thread Starter Post #1 of 11
acegazda

acegazda

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Hey guys,
I got a set of bose triport ie's for xmas and I was planning on respectfully exchanging them, but realized the gift giver works for bose and got them from work. No go on the exchange. So, I decided to make the best of it, they are after all, SLIGHTLY superior to my creative ep-630s... but to my horror
eek.gif
the silicon tips are a terrible fit and provide no sound isolation. So, as a preliminary step, I switched the bose tips with the smallest size creative tips I have from my ep-630. I was quite pleased with the results, a big improvement, but still not a ton of sound isolation because the creative tips aren't a perfect fit for the buds. So, my question is thus: is there any way to make at home a set of foam (or whatever material) tips for the headphones that would provide some sound isolation? I'm looking for something like the foam tips found on ety's and such. If anyone has any thoughts, that would be great.
 
Dec 27, 2007 at 2:53 AM Post #2 of 11
Earplugs with holes through them? That's the DIY Marshamallow tip. People have had great success with them, and being earplugs, they boast great isolation.
 
Dec 27, 2007 at 2:58 AM Post #3 of 11
Quote:

Originally Posted by espire /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Earplugs with holes through them? That's the DIY Marshamallow tip. People have had great success with them, and being earplugs, they boast great isolation.


that crossed my mind actually, if I search DIY marshmallow tip on the forums, will a guide come up?
 
Dec 27, 2007 at 3:24 AM Post #4 of 11
Bose have an open design - you'd need to plug the driver and that would make them sound terrible.

Using foam is probably as good as you'll get.

If you find the best post for you can you link it back here? This place needs a wiki badly.
 
Dec 27, 2007 at 3:32 AM Post #5 of 11
Quote:

Originally Posted by Leland /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Bose have an open design - you'd need to plug the driver and that would make them sound terrible.

Using foam is probably as good as you'll get.

If you find the best post for you can you link it back here? This place needs a wiki badly.


as of yet, haven't found a good one. A lot of the mentions of marshmallow tip DIY are in threads with 1000+ posts. I've gone through the first few pages of a couple, but I'm not going to look through the whole thing. I will keep looking, however, but in the meantime could you explain what you mean by the open design... is the grill on the outward facing exterior the driver opening?
 
Dec 27, 2007 at 7:27 PM Post #6 of 11
I can't seem to find any other posts concerning the DIY marshmallow tips, so what if I just went ahead and poked a hole in some earplugs and stuck them on the headphones and see what happens?
 
Dec 28, 2007 at 4:34 AM Post #7 of 11
They'd probably close up again - I've tried it. It depends on what you poke a hole through it with, really. I found that if I got a needle (or something similar) red-hot I could poke a hole in the earplug that would stay open - especially if I used something that was a few millimetres wide. The problem that I then found was sticking them on the the ends of my Sony EX51s (which are actually very big), and getting them to stay there. But give it a go, and report back.
 
Dec 28, 2007 at 4:58 AM Post #8 of 11
Here's two threads on DIY tips:

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f4/cho...oamies-247542/
http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f4/hom...s-iems-169789/

I have made tips for my Westone UM1 from Hearos foam plugs. I soaked them in water, squeezed the water out, then put them in the freezer. I then used a small drill (I think it was 1/8") to put a hole all the way through and inserted some stems from an old pair of OEM tips. Then I simply let them defrost and dry. They work fine - although I think they are a little large for my ears. The hardest part was drilling a straight hole in the center of the plug - I was free-handing with a dremel tool, and I think a drill press would have been much easier. For a huge selection of earplugs, including sample packs of different brands: White noise ear plugs and ear phones!
 
Dec 28, 2007 at 7:23 AM Post #9 of 11
Quote:

Originally Posted by acegazda /img/forum/go_quote.gif
as of yet, haven't found a good one. A lot of the mentions of marshmallow tip DIY are in threads with 1000+ posts. I've gone through the first few pages of a couple, but I'm not going to look through the whole thing. I will keep looking, however, but in the meantime could you explain what you mean by the open design... is the grill on the outward facing exterior the driver opening?


Exactly. The Bose IEM are meant to be open, that is let other sounds in. This has some nice benefits to sound -- for lack of a better word (it's late, so sue me) it can be a lot richer/fuller with an open design compared to closed.

However, it's hard to take an open design and close it. You cover up the driver and you'll isolate the phones, but the sound will suffer a lot.

I say that you can gift these on to a family member, use them in open areas (they probably don't sound half bad, even if you wouldn't personally pay $100 for them), and get a closed IEM for plane/isolation use. You can do that for $20-$50 with better results, imho.
 
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