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Just NO!
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Your Wife or GF would have to be pretty tasteless to fall for that garish monstrosity!
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I've given a range of IEMs to female friends from CRA to Starsea, they all went down well.
When I entered into the hobby about 3 to 4 years back TFZ was highly active with their "My Love" series of hybrid IEMs. Messy tuning, but good build, and fun sound.
After swapping back and forth between the Westone red star tips, grey star tips and Ety XL dual flanges for the better part of the late afternoon/evening, I’m convinced that for the sort of fit that the EVOs require, the dual flange is the way to go.
Reds are on the left; greys are on the right. The diameter of both tips are the same, but they differ in height. The nomenclature refers to the colour of the bores.
Now why would anyone claim that shoving that double mushroom contraption into one’s plugs is better than a conventional tip?
Now, the EVO are a fairly heavy pair of IEMs that require a deep fit. The Ety dual flange has two features that aid in this regard:
They’re sticky. No, it’s not because I’ve been listening to my EVOs too much. The material used for the dual flange is grippier than a typical eartip and that, as it turns out, is fairly important for having the EVO sit securely in the concha.
The flange. Like duh. But I think what the dual flange does that a standard tip (like the Westones) cannot is basically conform to the curvature in your ear canal since the section between the two “mushrooms” can be as narrow as the bore itself.
In short, grippy surface + pliable bendy form = secure deep-fit vacuum seal.
So, although the Westone tips may be compatible with the EVO, they are smoother (less grippy) and firmer (less pliable) than the dual flange. That’s not to say that a good seal cannot be achieved with the Westone tips. I thought the Westone reds came pretty close in terms of being an acceptable substitute for the XL dual flange. However, the EVO fits noticeably less securely and the seal is more prone to being disrupted by head and jaw movements etc. Between the Westone reds and greys, I found the greys to provide the least secure fit. With the greys, the EVO felt like it could fall out of my ears at any moment under its own weight.
There may be advantages to putting Westone tips on an EVO. The Westone greys are the most noob-friendly choice. With those, the experience of inserting the EVO into one’s ears is no different from any other IEM. The Westone reds have a noticeably wider bore than the Ety dual flange, and in my experience I think that helps temper the bass and bring out the treble a bit more. Perhaps the sound field is also slightly wider with the Westone reds versus the dual flange. However, these advantages do not outweigh the comfort and fit concerns for me.
I’m feeling a bit bummed because the Westone fit kit wasn’t exactly cheap, but as they say: nothing ventured, nothing gained. So I’m putting all this here in case it might be relevant to someone This might also be relevant for anyone looking at the ERX, since a lot of the promo shots feature the ERX with what look like Westone greys on them:
Yeah, the most noob friendly choice. But not exactly the best choice
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This might also be relevant for anyone looking at the ERX, since a lot of the promo shots feature the ERX with what look like Westone greys on them:
