Well, this week I finally received the
biflange tips that gnarlsagan recommended. They definitely give me a better and more stable seal than the stock frosted tips (the grey triflanges are too big for my ears). But one thing I noticed was that the rear edges of the flanges felt quite sharp in my ears (when properly inserted the entire tip is inside my ear canal). I managed to fix this by melting them very slightly. I mounted the tip on a stick (I used a wooden kebab skewer) and twirled it above a flame for a couple of seconds, then patted the edges with the flat of a blade, the watchphrase being
Just a Tiny Amount. After doing this a few times I got to point where it no longer felt as if the edges were cutting into my skin and lubricated them with some olive oil*.
The one thing that was a little worrying is they have a wider opening (3+mm) compared to the 2mm of the stock tips. This will raise the Helmholtz frequency of the neck and might affect bass tuning, but I haven't noticed any significant change.
*Obviously I used Extra Virgin olive oil, but a proper audiophile would compare the sonic properties of Greek, Spanish and Italian cultivars.
