my experience is the same as Gnarl and Luis even the "suck at making tips part" ^_^. I've spent so much time making tips out of ear plugs of all brands and shapes. but I've given up on that, just too hard to get perfect symmetry doing stuff by hand(the reason I'm not so big on modding stuff and prefer EQ when it's enough). I like having the entire ear canal well pressed like with the grey foam but the deepest part would need to be a tiny bit shorter, or thinner(IDK how that would work TBH, only a guess). I've kind of thought about putting the last flange of the triflange at the end of some foam, but I failed to do something usable.
I tried to be clever by cutting only a the tinny part of the tube extruding at the other end of the grey Ety foam, that way I go very slightly deeper, but I have to force on the tip to push it deeper as you obviously have made them with a thinner opening on the side that points toward the eardrum. still I seem to get maybe a millimeter deeper before the tip gets deformed and decides to bend one way or another. not sure it changes a lot but it feels like it does in my head
I love comply on IEMs,no doubt that's what I use the most. but not as much on Ety. the extra foam in front is always an adventure when going deep, not pushing it backward often ends up in obstructing the sound path and changing the signature. and pushing the foam back before compression/insertion leads to the IEM moving a little back out once the foam has expended. at least in my ears. also they really don't last long for the price. shure olive or ety foam can take a lot of punishment before I have to throw them away. for ety foam I usually get away with one or 2 clean up in H2O2 before the foam starts to feel like it's hardening.
those are non audio preoccupations, but most of my choices in audio are based on non audio reasons.
comply P are too long for Ety IMO, but they're a great solution for IEMs that do not allow deep insertion. I'm really glad they do exist.
I kind of like the smallest shure olive inserted very deep, but I don't feel like I get the same isolation or signature(or is it only a subjective feeling from having less isolation? IDK. I've measured plenty of configurations, but all it showed me is that my little coupler does not react exactly like my ears do when changing depth and tips. so I don't rely on this too much and more on what I feel (OMG am I a subjectivist now????? ^_^). anyway the shure olive or comply olive have good things going for them but those good things aren't without problem. not having a little pressure on the entire ear canal can feel less comfy, my ear canal really goes up as it goes deeper, so when wearing the cable over the ear (the only way I can hope to stand the cable noise), I get a logical vertical pull and with the olive kind or even the shorter comply, there is nothing stopping the IEM from changing it's axis until something hard touches the entering part of the ear canal. given enough time, I always end up with pain. worn down almost everything is fine, but I can't move around or I go crazy with cable noises. the devil really is in the detail. ^_^
so as a result, I stick to grey ety foam mostly.
