reynman
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I decided to go to Sensaphonics and order the 2Xs and get some molds done.
First of all thanks to Julie, Michael and Claudia for their great customer service and patience. I want to state that this was MY experience. YMMV! And boy I hope it does!
I had a 3:00 p.m. appointment today and arrived about 30 minutes early. I completed a short questionaire Claudia handed me. I noticed a banner of all their customers, pretty eclectic list.
After I completed the questionaire Julie stopped by and introduced herself and recommended I try their demo pair with foamies. I've only tried a couple of canalphones at Etymotics (ER6) and at a couple meets (Shures), but I had a good seal. I fired up the iPod and then added the SR71 to the combo. I listened to Patricia Barber's You Don't Know Me. Initial impressions - visceral bass, clarity and presence of the vocals. I heard quite a few plucks of the bass by Michael Arnopol. Very nice. Julie was interested in the SR71 and she listened to the SR71 with her mini-iPod, and her 2Xs. She noticed a bit of a difference, but not enough to run out and buy one.
Well onto the the molds....or so it seemed.
I sat down in Julie's office and she peered into my left ear canal and lo and behold earwax raises its ugly head! I have a narrow and very curved left ear canal (both Julie and Michael concurred). Michael also mentioned I have sticky wax (ewwww!). My choices were wait and have my generalist do it or have Michael Santucci do it. I did not want to bother the boss man himself, but Julie said he was available. I decided to have him give it a whirl. After squirting in some Debrox-esque softener and waiting a few minutes, Michael went to work. About 25 minutes later and a few chunks of earwax removed by irrigation and picking (ack!) I was about 95% clear and Michael said let's do the right ear. The little chunk that did not want to leave my ear, basically attached itself to skin and did not want to come out. More on that later...
Side story - If anyone has ever had an irrigation, its not a pleasant experience due to the pressure, sound, and water. On top of that I've experience bouts of dizziness. Since I've had this done many times, its become more of a discomfort instead of a piercing pain. Mind you Michael and Julie were totally professional and asked me constantly if I wanted to continue. Glutton that I am, I told him to go ahead. All this for some IEMs??? These better be freakin good!
I digress...
Onto to the right ear! More of the softener and its irrigation time. One squirt and Holy S***!!! a rush of pain that I couldn't bear...but one chunk of reynman's sticky wax lay floating in the tray. The immense pain was do the wax being ripped off my skin!!! Michael likened it to a bandage being ripped off. Last check of the right side and everything looked clear.
Onto to the molds...Mind you, this was the part I was most apprehensive about. After going through the last 30-40 minutes anything else was a piece of cake. First came the plugs attached to a string. Kinda like small foamies. Julie used this lighted stick to gently insert plug into my left ear canal. I want one of those! Again, she checked to see if I was feeling any discomfort. I appreciated that Julie and Michael made me feel as comfortable as possible, making sure to ask how I was feeling and if it hurt. That went along way with me. (I want my Mommy!) Then came the gel. Strange sensation of having a blob of silicon in one's ear. She asked me to open and close my jaw and move my head in different positions. Same situation with the right ear. Even stranger to have 2 blobs of silicon in one's ear Total isolation, but I could hear people's muted foosteps, eerie!
A few minutes pass and Julie attempts to pull the silicon out of my ear. A few tugs and twists later, no go. She tries the right ear and whoosh out comes the mold. More tugs and twists on the left and finally whoosh out comes the mold. Wait there's more! The right ear which caused me so much pain had a nice smooth mold. The left ear which took so long to irrigate was not so smooth because of...you guessed it...The friggin piece of earwax that refused to leave my ear canal! Michael and Julie said we could try to irrigate one more time to get the little person out. I politely declined (my little voice and ears said Hell No!). Besides, I wanted to get back to my sedate life in the 'burbs after all this action. They put the order through and suggested that I Debrox for about a week and when the 2Xs were ready we could do a fitting and if things didn't work out we'd irrigate and remold the left ear. Oh joy!
To make a long story even longer I want to reiterate that Michael, Julie, and Claudia were very professional and caring even though I took up a quite a bit of their afternoon. The discomfort I felt was due to my narrow and curved ear canal and the lovely composition of my earwax. For that I got the bonus package of an irrigation and picking.
Most of you who have gone the IEM route or are thinking about it, my situation was different and not the norm. Julie, Michael, and I agreed that I had to get irrigated to make sure the molds were done correctly. Seriously, I'd highly recommend going to Sensaphonics and look forward to getting my 2Xs.
BTW, I'm getting the natural color and basic breakaway cable, but the cable will drop down from the driver (similar to earbuds) instead of wrapping above and behind the ear.
Whew! Thanks for reading. Time to treat my ears to some Jeff Buckley on the home rig.
Regards - reynman
First of all thanks to Julie, Michael and Claudia for their great customer service and patience. I want to state that this was MY experience. YMMV! And boy I hope it does!
I had a 3:00 p.m. appointment today and arrived about 30 minutes early. I completed a short questionaire Claudia handed me. I noticed a banner of all their customers, pretty eclectic list.
After I completed the questionaire Julie stopped by and introduced herself and recommended I try their demo pair with foamies. I've only tried a couple of canalphones at Etymotics (ER6) and at a couple meets (Shures), but I had a good seal. I fired up the iPod and then added the SR71 to the combo. I listened to Patricia Barber's You Don't Know Me. Initial impressions - visceral bass, clarity and presence of the vocals. I heard quite a few plucks of the bass by Michael Arnopol. Very nice. Julie was interested in the SR71 and she listened to the SR71 with her mini-iPod, and her 2Xs. She noticed a bit of a difference, but not enough to run out and buy one.
Well onto the the molds....or so it seemed.
I sat down in Julie's office and she peered into my left ear canal and lo and behold earwax raises its ugly head! I have a narrow and very curved left ear canal (both Julie and Michael concurred). Michael also mentioned I have sticky wax (ewwww!). My choices were wait and have my generalist do it or have Michael Santucci do it. I did not want to bother the boss man himself, but Julie said he was available. I decided to have him give it a whirl. After squirting in some Debrox-esque softener and waiting a few minutes, Michael went to work. About 25 minutes later and a few chunks of earwax removed by irrigation and picking (ack!) I was about 95% clear and Michael said let's do the right ear. The little chunk that did not want to leave my ear, basically attached itself to skin and did not want to come out. More on that later...
Side story - If anyone has ever had an irrigation, its not a pleasant experience due to the pressure, sound, and water. On top of that I've experience bouts of dizziness. Since I've had this done many times, its become more of a discomfort instead of a piercing pain. Mind you Michael and Julie were totally professional and asked me constantly if I wanted to continue. Glutton that I am, I told him to go ahead. All this for some IEMs??? These better be freakin good!
I digress...
Onto to the right ear! More of the softener and its irrigation time. One squirt and Holy S***!!! a rush of pain that I couldn't bear...but one chunk of reynman's sticky wax lay floating in the tray. The immense pain was do the wax being ripped off my skin!!! Michael likened it to a bandage being ripped off. Last check of the right side and everything looked clear.
Onto to the molds...Mind you, this was the part I was most apprehensive about. After going through the last 30-40 minutes anything else was a piece of cake. First came the plugs attached to a string. Kinda like small foamies. Julie used this lighted stick to gently insert plug into my left ear canal. I want one of those! Again, she checked to see if I was feeling any discomfort. I appreciated that Julie and Michael made me feel as comfortable as possible, making sure to ask how I was feeling and if it hurt. That went along way with me. (I want my Mommy!) Then came the gel. Strange sensation of having a blob of silicon in one's ear. She asked me to open and close my jaw and move my head in different positions. Same situation with the right ear. Even stranger to have 2 blobs of silicon in one's ear Total isolation, but I could hear people's muted foosteps, eerie!
A few minutes pass and Julie attempts to pull the silicon out of my ear. A few tugs and twists later, no go. She tries the right ear and whoosh out comes the mold. More tugs and twists on the left and finally whoosh out comes the mold. Wait there's more! The right ear which caused me so much pain had a nice smooth mold. The left ear which took so long to irrigate was not so smooth because of...you guessed it...The friggin piece of earwax that refused to leave my ear canal! Michael and Julie said we could try to irrigate one more time to get the little person out. I politely declined (my little voice and ears said Hell No!). Besides, I wanted to get back to my sedate life in the 'burbs after all this action. They put the order through and suggested that I Debrox for about a week and when the 2Xs were ready we could do a fitting and if things didn't work out we'd irrigate and remold the left ear. Oh joy!
To make a long story even longer I want to reiterate that Michael, Julie, and Claudia were very professional and caring even though I took up a quite a bit of their afternoon. The discomfort I felt was due to my narrow and curved ear canal and the lovely composition of my earwax. For that I got the bonus package of an irrigation and picking.
Most of you who have gone the IEM route or are thinking about it, my situation was different and not the norm. Julie, Michael, and I agreed that I had to get irrigated to make sure the molds were done correctly. Seriously, I'd highly recommend going to Sensaphonics and look forward to getting my 2Xs.
BTW, I'm getting the natural color and basic breakaway cable, but the cable will drop down from the driver (similar to earbuds) instead of wrapping above and behind the ear.
Whew! Thanks for reading. Time to treat my ears to some Jeff Buckley on the home rig.
Regards - reynman
