[FullCircle]

  I just got my impressions done today. Before I think about sending them in, I want to ask you all for your approval. Will these work?  There's a slight gap in one. I don't know how much that'd affect the making of the CIEM. What do you guys think?
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Fail
 

 

 

 

[SilverEars]

Hi, my audiologist was pretty bad with making impressions and they turned out like the above.  Is there something different that other audiologists are doing to make better impressions?  Different types of material, etc..?

 

[bangkokkid]

   
Would you not be able to work with these at all? They definitely look better than mine.

 
We could certainly try to work with them, but would not guarantee anything. They would be a lot better if they extended further out from the ear and the outside wasn't pressed in.

 

[FullCircle]

  Hi, my audiologist was pretty bad with making impressions and they turned out like the above.  Is there something different that other audiologists are doing to make better impressions?  Different types of material, etc..?

 
I despise the "modern" impression syringe gun which for the most part yields horrible ear mold impressions.
 
1) The viscosity is usually low with such guns, so the audiologist/hearing aid dealer, as the lower viscosity requires less hand strength to squeeze out the material
2) due to the design of the gun, hand control is very poor as you have to keep the gun fairly far away from the ear
 


 
 
 
 
 
Imagine drawing with a long pencil, but only hold the very far end of the pencil....  you don't have much control, and the result is a poor drawing
 
 
The tool I prefer is, the old tried and proven
 

 
 

 
 
 
This type of tool allows for more control.
 
 
Why is the "modern" gun popular? 
 
Answer:  Hand Strength & less mess
 
 
The Gun syringe requires less hand strength, and you don't need to mix impression material as it spews out of the gun pre-mixed.

 

[Binge]

Try to get them to make them as best they can.
 
I provided these pictures to Noble and they were not 100% certain with mine, and in the next couple weeks I'll hear about their progress.  Where I live there aren't a lot of options and definitely got the best in my area, but as you can see they are not perfect.
 
Fingers crossed,
 

 

[FullCircle]

   
Would you not be able to work with these at all? They definitely look better than mine.

 
 
In a situation like thise, we contact the customer, inform them that under our standards they "fail" but if they want us to "attempt" to work with them we will.  We would rather warn the customer that the ear mold impressions are less than optimal, before they get caught up in the "circle of re-fits."   As this leads to frustrated customers, wasted time, wasted money due to shipping fees, and longer waiting periods.
 
No one wins when poor ear molds are accepted.

 

[minhminh93]

 
The tool I prefer is, the old tried and proven
 

 

Yeap, this is what the store rep used to make my impression

 

[Travis9]

Could you guys give me an example of a "perfect" ear mold? 

 

[minhminh93]

http://www.head-fi.org/t/578855/things-to-consider-before-getting-your-custom-iem-impressions-done-the-perfect-fit

http://www.head-fi.org/t/684787/noble-audio-the-wizard-returns/1530#post_10176492

There ya go, credit to Mython

 

[Hawaiiancerveza]

These are mine.  I won't say they are perfect but you can see that there isn't much fiddling around with the mold after it went in.  They just waited until it was hard and than pulled them out gently.  

 

[tranhieu]

 
Why is the "modern" gun popular? 
 
Answer:  Hand Strength & less mess
 
 
The Gun syringe requires less hand strength, and you don't need to mix impression material as it spews out of the gun pre-mixed.

I also don't like the gun thing either, but for the opposite reason that they require a lot more strength to just pull the trigger, making it nigh impossible to control the mixing nozzle accurately, not to mention those nozzles are always very long. I went back to the syringe after finishing my first 8 cartridges.
 
I have to admit those cartridges are a lot more convenient, but they also have their own share of shortcomings. Personally I prefer the traditional hand mix technique where you can easily control the viscosity. Some ears might want it hard but some want it gentle, and I couldn't do that with the premixed cartridges.

 

[tranhieu]

  Could you guys give me an example of a "perfect" ear mold? 

These might not be your so called 'perfect' example, but they can give you a good idea of the standard your impressions should meet. The most critical factor here is that the canals need to be as good as possible, you would want them to be long enough, with no voids, cracks, chips whatsoever. Of course the technicians are able to fix them later but having defects means that your are raising the possibility of having a refit. 
 
You also need to have enough base thickness for installing the sockets later, as well as having the impression material filled in all the crooks and nannies. Some people often forget the helix part and that's not good.
 
I made the ones below for a guy just last week, he had very small ears and thus I had to increase the vicosity of the material by mixing in less catalyst, something you cannot do with the modern impression guns.
 

 

[kh600rr]

Hey Noble, how long do you guys hold onto impressions, after the order is fulfilled?

 

[FullCircle]

Hey Noble, how long do you guys hold onto impressions, after the order is fulfilled?

Not long, impression material shrinks so it is pretty much useless

 

[SilverEars]

How long does it take for the impressions to be useless?  Other words, how long does it take for it to shrink significantly enough for it to be useless?  Also, I heard sometimes the impressions are 3d scanned, is that true?