So should I custom mold my Ety ER-4S?

[EFN]

I am on the verge of pulling the trigger on custom molds for ER-4 made by these fellas:
http://hearyourself.com/
* and I have my Ear Impression ready - done at local Audiologist by a specialist to ensure perfect Impressions.

If I am not mistaken, if I go for it, I will be the first Head-Fier to use their ER-4 custom molds.

My dilemma now is, I have read that custom mold for Ety are not as blissful as expected. Some has discovered that they can get better seal with properly inserted foamies and some mentioned the sound become somewhat tiny due to the extra long passage through the molds. Now those are molds made somewhere else and there's a few type of molds available.

This guys from hearyourself.com seems to make something similar to full custom material - plus O get to choose the color.

I would be happy if the custom mold could give me extra comfort and ease of use. Being an expert I am with Ety foamies insertion, I am worn down by the tedious process of rolling, pressing and insertion of each foamies. Triflanges is a no no for me.

So, you guys who had experience with customs, please share your toughts.

Thanks

 

[SONGsanmanwah]

Here in Thailand the ER4 tribe members are waiting for Windows X's custom by the guy who made custom Triple-fi - there's a thread about it somewhere in head-fi. They're expected to come out sometime next week. AFAIK they'll be complete custom with drivers taken out from original housing plus a resister added in each ear piece to make them S.

The C3 in the link looks very interesting too!

 

[episiarch]

I am using customs with both my ER-4's. I own three sets of custom tips for them, in fact, because I experimented a couple times before finding a material/finish combination that I liked.

The earmolds are now my preferred way to listen to my Etys. Isolation is lower than with foams (I use Complys), and microphonics are a bit higher, but neither is a problem in my usual listening environment. There is some volume loss as well, but I always run my ER-4s amped, and my amps have plenty of headroom, so this is a nonissue.

With proper choice of material the sound is extremely good. I have not attempted to do a meticulously volume-matched comparison to determine whether it is exactly as good as with stock tri-flanges or foams, but I can tell you that I have no complaints, and I think I'm at least somewhat picky. (While I can't claim golden ears, I think I must be fairly sensitive to wrong-sounding Etys: from the posts I've read, I think I change my filters a lot more often than it seems most folks on Head-Fi do, because the sound of tired filters bugs me a lot.)

Speaking of filters, my filter-change frequency is either nil or close to it since going to custom earmolds.

All three of mine are Westone molds, and the "right" material turned out to be a firm silicone (theirs is called Otoblast) in a matte finish.

My first attempt was a soft silicone (their "W-1") which robbed the sound of bass weight and realism. I believe the material is soft enough that it flexes significantly in response to the sound waves traveling through the channel, robbing the low frequencies of some energy. I was able to fix this to a large degree by inserting short tubes of stiff teflon into the sound channels, but they tended quickly to work themselves loose because of the channel flexing around them during insertion and removal.

Attempt #2 was the firm Otoblast silicone in the utterly smooth "water clear" finish. It's pretty! But silicone is a very high-friction substance, and overcoming friction during insertion was, you'll pardon my pun, a huge drag. Lubing the eartip up with enough Oto-ease to make insertion quick and painless was just as effortful and time-consuming as rolling and inserting foams - actually I think it was more so. The sound was great, but this eartip didn't make it in the ease-of-use department at all.

(With a material other than silicone, or perhaps even with a different silicone, this might not be a problem. But with this silicone, it was a big problem.)

#3 was the same earmold (all 3 sets came from the same set of impressions) and same material, but a matte finish. It goes in much easier than the gloss-finish mold, and SQ and isolation are just as good. This one is just great.

I hope this helps. Is there anything else about my experience that might be useful for you to know?

 

[Dutchess of York]

Customs sound like a good addition to my akwardly fitting SF 5 pros....

Anybody try aftermarket customs on UE universal fit 3s,5s, or 10s?

 

[EFN]

episiarch:
You answered a lot of my questions. Thanks mate.
So if you look at the website (hearyourself.com), the custom mold material seems to be of colored hard silicone eh? They looked hard to me.

And since I use amp too. Volume is not an issue as well

SONGsanmanwah:
Wow! this is what I am looking as well. Taking out the drivers and all and custom mold them completely. Can you PM me where and who Windows X send his ER-4 to? I may want to send my spare ER-4P for this one.
Thanks buddy

 

[cmirza]

I wonder if anything like this is possible with the ER4*s? It would certainly be the ultimate Etys...

 

[Killercrush]

This could be nice as well :

http://apuresound.com/images/cables/her4.html