Snugs: Custom Silicone tips in the UK!

[ostewart]

I would like to introduce you to the new company Snugs, who make custom silicone tips for IEM's and are based in the UK.

I recently met up with Paul from Snugs when he visited hifiheadphones, and he kindly took my ear impressions and made me a pair of Snugs for my Final Audio Design Heaven II. They make custom tips for most good quality IEM's.

Paul explained everything to me, Snugs offer different services to tailor for everyone, they offer a normal package where you get your ear impressions from a local recommended audiologist and send them to Snugs, they also offer a VIP package which involves an audiologist coming to a location of your choice at a convenient time for you and they take the impressions and sort it all out, they also offer packages with IEM's included (SoundMAGIC E10, Etymotic HF3, Final Audio Design FI-BA-SS)

The typical turn around time is 3-5 working days, they offer lots of colours and also you can swirl two or 3 colours of your choice. They try and make the experience an enjoyable one and care a lot about their customers. They use the same company as ACS to manufacture the silicone tips.

http://www.snugsearphones.co.uk

The snugs tips are very well made with no physical flaws to be found, silicone custom tips are a great accessory if you are looking for better isolation and comfort, they really are very comfortable when inserted and you forget you have them in. Isolation is much improved over standard stock tips, the Snugs come in a white box and included is a very soft, faux leather carry pouch and some lubrification, also included is a manual to show you how to insert them.
Inserting them takes some time to get the hang of but doesnt take long once you've mastered it.

The Snugs really brought out some body in my Heaven II's because of the perfect fit, I could never get a proper fit with normal tips and the Heaven II. So you know you'll have a proper fit, you'll always get the best sound from your IEMs.

Turn over time is about 2 weeks at the most,

Very good service from Snugs, Paul is a great guy to talk with and he knows what he's doing, I wish Snugs all the luck in making Custom Sleeves more readily available to the general public.

Video Review:

[VIDEO]http://youtu.be/y52YQR8LsoE[/VIDEO]

 

[Takeanidea]

ACS do the same thing and you can get it for a third less

 

[ostewart]

They use the same company to make the sleeves as ACS. From what I understand ACS will not come to you and take your impression.
ACS offer it from £120
Snugs from £127

Not a big price difference.

 

[ostewart]

updated with a brief video review

 

[ostewart]

MOAR PICTURES:
 

 

 

 

[Subject27]

sorry to poke an old thread anyone else tried these?
how do they compare to the likes of sensaphonics?

 

[ostewart]

Snugs have grown massively in the UK since I first spoke to them, they now use 3D scanning to take impressions and the quality has gone up.
 
I wouldn't personally look anywhere else if you are looking at getting custom tips in the UK.

 

[Takeanidea]

Hiya , I did a lot of work with Snugs last year. The quality of the digital impressions was poor. The impressions weren't deep enough. The fit around the ear can be absolutely wonderful but you won't get sound quality approaching your tips unless there is a depth to the nozzles. Despite lots and lots of work , including Paul taking a very very deep manual impression of my ears , from 4 pairs I ordered , I don't use any of them at all . They are not deep enough to come close to what the tips are. The only ones I got a decent fit for were for a tiny pair of Flare R2 Pro Titaniums that had been lent to me to develop the quality of the sleeves for them.
So for any tiny IEM ;  Flare or Etymotic perhaps , the Snugs are good. For everything else , they didn't meet my expectations after months and months of persevering

 

[ostewart]

  Hiya , I did a lot of work with Snugs last year. The quality of the digital impressions was poor. The impressions weren't deep enough. The fit around the ear can be absolutely wonderful but you won't get sound quality approaching your tips unless there is a depth to the nozzles. Despite lots and lots of work , including Paul taking a very very deep manual impression of my ears , from 4 pairs I ordered , I don't use any of them at all . They are not deep enough to come close to what the tips are. The only ones I got a decent fit for were for a tiny pair of Flare R2 Pro Titaniums that had been lent to me to develop the quality of the sleeves for them.
So for any tiny IEM ;  Flare or Etymotic perhaps , the Snugs are good. For everything else , they didn't meet my expectations after months and months of persevering

 
Very interesting, both my pairs fit perfectly, the first were done manually, 2nd taken at their 3D launch event in London, and I have very narrow canals, not everything is going to work for everyone.

 

[Takeanidea]

Hi Oscar,
am glad you did well with Snugs, but having worked with them so closely I just don't think the quality controls are there to recommend them. You can of course take a chance and you will get your money back if you're not satisfied but there is an awful lot of time you invest in this to try and get decent earsleeves. It is a real pain when it doesn't achieve what you're looking for. I would like for others that got their ears scanned to come forward and tell us what they thought of the earsleeves when they got them , because until then I would have to say the reliability for headfiers is unproven.
Snugs are definitely getting the shape of the earsleeves right and the connection to the IEMs is pretty good they just have to show that they can do deep enough impressions to achieve a decent sound otherwise the thing is a waste of time. And a 50% success rate is not a good rate - so the more people come forward the better we will know how well they are doing.

 

[Subject27]

I would like for others that got their ears scanned to come forward and tell us what they thought of the earsleeves when they got them , because until then I would have to say the reliability for headfiers is unproven. 

definitely think this is needed.
Im thinking to get some done for my shures because sensaphonics is in the US. it will be far more expensive and take a longer time if i went with them.
  slightly off topic but my third option is to do what I've been wanting to do for 4 or 5 years and just get a pair of kaisers. ill wait and see what they do on black Friday untill I make my decision because i'm so so close to getting them.

 

[BartSimpson1976]

I was considering to try Snugs and had a question. Submitted through the form on their webiste: no reply. Asked via facebook: They say please drop an email. Dropped an email: No reply.

 

[Takeanidea]

They've probably just come back after Christmas. In the meantime , since Christmas, I've ordered and received 4 sets of moldable ear plug kits and made and remade them probably a dozen times, all of which cost me $50, and I got bass from making them myself. Don't expect bass from Snugs unless you have a  set of IEMs that are the size of Etymotics

 

[Neil Hewitt]

Long time lurker, first time poster here...
 
I ordered a pair of Snugs for RHA T20s before Christmas. Had the digital scan rather than a traditional impression. Because of earwax problems it's difficult for me to have a deep scan or impression done and I asked the audiologist to back off a bit, and sure enough when my Snugs turned up I could not achieve a good seal. The fit in the outer ear was fine, but the canal portion was the problem. Too small, and probably too short.
 
I reported this back to Snugs and sent them some pictures of the set in my ears, and told them where I thought the problem was. They passed this info on to the lab and had them make up a pair with some thickness and length added to the canal section, which is easy enough to do because there's a 3D model that can be manipulated directly. They even adjusted the vent hole size for me as I felt it might be affecting the sound quality. 
 
Got the new set this morning and I've got them in now, three hours and counting and they're perfectly comfortable. One side is still a little tricky to fit, but once it's in the seal is fine, and the other side fitted perfectly from the start. Great isolation - or as great as you'll get with a vented IEM - and I'm pretty happy. Happy enough that I'm going to order another set for my IE80s.
 
I can't fault their customer service, either. Email response was always same-day, and there was absolutely no argument about making me a new pair. 
 
Snugs isn't ACS, but I think that's the point. ACS told me point-blank that they don't do ear scanning for IEMs - which I know is not entirely true because a friend of mine got a pair of customs made from a scan done at their offices last November - and TBH their take-it-or-leave-it approach kind of put me off. I'd been putting off getting custom tips for years because of my worries about getting impressions made and Snugs has enabled me to do it with little fuss or hassle.
 
Just my £0.02...
 
NH

 

[Takeanidea]

Great to hear from you Neil and really glad you're happy. Even happier that Snugs listened to you