[speakerhead]

A few years ago I only knew of one custom IEM maker UE.

Now by my count we have at least three

UE
FreQ
Livewires

Are UE's still worth the 4x price premium the command over the top of the line FreQ's?

Are there other custom IEM makers I should look into before making a decision?

 

[Pete7]

Yes. Westone also makes top quality custom IEM's. The ES1 (single driver), ES2 (dual driver), and ES3 (triple driver). The ES3 isn't recommended as it's made primarily for vocalists and the midrange is very bumped up. From what I've seen here on Head-Fi, Westone has a much lower re-fit rate than UE; though I'm not sure how they would compare to LiveWires and FreQ. I've had my ES2's going on 2 years and never had a problem.

 

[G-man]

im sure there are more. only recently, there was a thread on here about some from uk. but, although i believe that the ue 11 will be better than the freq, i dont think it would justify the 4 times the price. but then thats just me, and i haven't heard any of them.

 

[majikstreet]

Freq's seem cheap to me.. Livewires are in the middle.. UEs tend to look professional..

I've always wanted a custom set but UE is expensive! I'm probably going to try livewires sometime unless I discover that freq's are actually good

 

[G-man]

well, look in the freq thread, im sure they compare them to the others.

 

[G-man]

Also, how the livewires more expensive, freq are 350, livewires 250.

 

[majikstreet]

I'm not saying they're actually more expensive I'm saying they don't look as cheap. the Freqs (ANY of their line) just look "cheap" in quality to me

 

[speakerhead]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gautam /img/forum/go_quote.gif Also, how the livewires more expensive, freq are 350, livewires 250.

what is livewires website btw?

 

[majikstreet]

http://www.livewiresforyou.com/

 

[G-man]

hmm, how can you say that they look cheap quality. the customs look the same to me, and freq's website is much better. if anything, i would say that the freq look better.

 

[Milner]

Quote:

Originally Posted by majikstreet /img/forum/go_quote.gif Freq's seem cheap to me.. Livewires are in the middle.. UEs tend to look professional.. I've always wanted a custom set but UE is expensive! I'm probably going to try livewires sometime unless I discover that freq's are actually good

Check out some of the updated pics and reviews, you may be surprised....

 

[majikstreet]

I would like to, but the freqs thread is almost 300 pages... i'll go back a few pages and see if I can find any new pix

 

[powertoold]

Quote:

Originally Posted by majikstreet /img/forum/go_quote.gif I would like to, but the freqs thread is almost 300 pages... i'll go back a few pages and see if I can find any new pix

You can try the front page of the FreQ Impressions Thread or Custom Fit Earbuds - In Ear Monitors - Custom Fit Headphones - Running Headphones - The FreQ

There are plenty images of the new build quality!

 

[speakerhead]

It seems that the consensus here is that the UE11's might not be wroth the premium price they command anymore?

 

[Hayduke]

Sensaphonics makes customs, and there is one other that the name is escaping me

The one I can't recall has a new model coming out that everyone is waiting for?