[HAMS]

oh, I want to see how you enlarge the nozzle. so you don't put foam anymore once the nozzle enlarge for treble extension?

 

[Tom22]

Pardon predictive text errors my phone stinks! These babies will sing with.a little extra effort. They are clobbering my re 400's right now and they are still breaking in. Triple flanges really bring out the best of what they do. Foamed improves the triple flange even more. You also need to remove stock filter and get a soft handkercheif...cut new filters from it. You can also warm and sweeten the sound with a 2mm by 4mm by 1mm block of foam placed directly into the nozzle just beneath the filter. Burn them 50 hours with jlab burn app. They are truelly fine. Neutral slightly warm, slightly sweet...slamming sub bass...excellent detail, huge soundstage if its in the recording and plenty of Prat...absolutely involving. Working on getting highs just right. The trick without wide bore mod and needle poked hole in diaphragm seems to be locking them in the ears. You will have to tinker with the foam cores in the triples to match your canals. Also if you can glue the bottom foam in place to prevent it moving and try to completely fill the flanges. I couldn't find a suitable glue that would stick so I made a nozzle shim from a silicone tip core shaft. Its cut to be the same height as.the nozzle groove. It allows jamming them in without tips sliding down nozzle and it keeps the bottom foamie in place for Max seal. It seems like a custom shell with how well it works. FWIW...worthwhile every moment of tinkering.

Magic....every little thing she does is magic!

 
it sounds fantastic! i'm more in favour of some reversible mods.. even though their cheap... each screw up can really get expensive in the long run (i'm rather clumsy). i took your advice on the handkerchief as the filter ( i took a cleaning cloth from fake monster pro). the mid treble is really showing more now, its not as rolled off as before, and the bass is less bloated...bit tighter. the upper mids seem less harsh now.  but i think it does depend on the actual handkerchief
 
good idea i'm still using single flange.. i can't do triple flange it sticks out too much and get uncomfortable. but i'm confused on the foam thing you put in there, do you happen to have a picture? what kind of foam did you get?
 
 i did the radian custom mold, it looks nasty, with the blue goo and the metallic shell. Radian sells the same goo but in pink. ( tan looks nasty) thinking about getting the pink 8320s to match it! dunno why the grill/faceplate is still metallic same with the whites... it should be entirely pink/white
 
rockin' em pink 8320s!!  but if anyone can figure out some reversible mods that would be fantastic
 
gets rid of the resonance or as much as it can! thats the biggest thing, wish someone can take this driver and put in something better. love that tis cheap though

 

[Tom22]

so i pulled another stupid moment... i thought i could try to get rid of the mid bass hump by poking a whole in the bass port near the nozzle
 
now listening to it, i think i killed the sound stage
 
the magic is gone... or maybe it just in my head. it just doesn't seem as vast as before

 

[jgwtriode]

oh, I want to see how you enlarge the nozzle. so you don't put foam anymore once the nozzle enlarge for treble extension?

I will post picture tommorrow if internet is back up. After you damp the diaphragm with cyanoacrylate and utilize rin choi's filters you don't really need foam in the nozzles unless you want a warmer softer sound. The nozzles.are made from ball point pen top caps bored out slowly. With a drill bit manually. I don't use a drill since it would shred these. Rin uses plastic tubing. The pen caps just were available. They are about 1/4" inch outer diameter. I bore them with a 3/16" drill bit. I slice old nozzles.of with a safety razor blade then bore the hole.with a 1/4 inch dremel Burr. There is flashing left a round the.hole that has to be carefully cutoff with either a razor or exactly knife. I then dope the drivers. You can use two or three drops.of glue...read run choi's monoprice mod blog for more details.

I mount the.pen caps with crazy glue. You can use regular or gel then put an outer ring of fast set locktite epoxy around the.base. When the are dry I take a 1/4 inch half ball Burr to the top of the tip to create a channel for filters to sit in. After that I cut the core of wider bore silcone tip off to make spacer to seat and properly space the nozzles from the base. Their also is pin hole port that needs a hint of space to breathe. The double flanges will cover that up if not shimmed and spaced. I jam my tips so they would otherwise tend to slide all the way down. Hifiman double flanges work the best for these. They have a 3/16" bore width and are thus ideal. I'm waiting for some Really 400 filters arrived...going to try a composite of them on top of rin Choi filters. Break I may obivate the need. They are hint bright right now but they have no appreciable break in. I also usually wait for at least 100 hours before really running things. I like running random noise to fully burn them. The jlabs burn in app online is perfect t for this and it free. I'm going to start another pair and go ahead and build it with a pin hole punched into the diaphragm at the air gap of the magnet. Decided I need to hear it both ways. You can find all this and graphs on Run choi's blog. I hear less coloration off the sound but it can be a hint bright but everything sounds correct to me. So I'm thinking burning will flesh it out and open it up which is what happened with the stock monoprice I burned in and destroyed learning how to do this mod.

Happy listening and modding!

 

[Nintendo Maniac]

I just typed up a relatively long first post and of course the forum logged me out when I tried to post it, and clicking "back" in my browser just took me to the previous page of this thread (251), so it's all gone... *sigh*
 
So here's my attempt at a tl;dr version:

1. Got 9927 on Friday, first ever IEM, which means I've no other tips
2. Of the stock tips, the small tips are the most comfortable over an extended period of time
3. When only used for a short period of time, the medium stock tips feel better than the small tips since they don't have to be inserted as deep
4. The largest stock tips don't even fit, they're large enough for my ears to even work as earbuds.
5. I've sensitive ear canals, so stock tips are obviously no good comfort-wise
6. Looking at Comply Ts-400 foam tips
7. According to Head-Fi, Complys last a month at worst and with washing a year at best
8. Bought 9927 largely because of price, so REALLY don't want to constantly be buying new tips
9. Sample pack only has 1 set per size, making it very money-inefficient
10. Foam tips "shmoosh" in-ear, making me think you'd want larger foam tips compared to stock tips
11. According to Comply's website, the small size is considerably larger than the small stock tips

 
So the question is, how does the in-ear size of the Comply Ts-400 tips compare to the stock tips?
 
Considering that I found the smallest stock tips to be the most comfortable long-term, I figured I'd be safe with the supposedly-larger small Comply tips, but the fact that foam is supposed to "shmoosh" has me worried if that supposedly-larger size is really large enough... but then at the same time maybe the "shmooshing" would allow the diameter to stay small while having a longer tip height...
 
 
EDIT: Totally random suggestion on how to measure ear canal size for comparing of tip sizes - how many q-tips/cotton swaps can you fit in your ear at the same time?
 
 
EDIT 2: If anyone cares I can only fit 2 q-tips/cotton swabs in the entrance of my ear canal at the same time.  No idea how that compares and if that's small or large or what not.

 

[Tom22]

  I just typed up a relatively long first post and of course the forum logged me out when I tried to post it, and clicking "back" in my browser just took me to the previous page of this thread (251), so it's all gone... *sigh*
 
So here's my attempt at a tl;dr version:

1. Got 9927 on Friday, first ever IEM, which means I've no other tips
2. Of the stock tips, the small tips are the most comfortable over an extended period of time
3. When only used for a short period of time, the medium stock tips feel better than the small tips since they don't have to be inserted as deep
4. The largest stock tips don't even fit, they're large enough for my ears to even work as earbuds.
5. I've sensitive ear canals, so stock tips are obviously no good comfort-wise
6. Looking at Comply Ts-400 foam tips
7. According to Head-Fi, Complys last a month at worst and with washing a year at best
8. Bought 9927 largely because of price, so REALLY don't want to constantly be buying new tips
9. Sample pack only has 1 set per size, making it very money-inefficient
10. Foam tips "shmoosh" in-ear, making me think you'd want larger foam tips compared to stock tips
11. According to Comply's website, the small size is considerably larger than the small stock tips

 
So the question is, how does the in-ear size of the Comply Ts-400 tips compare to the stock tips?
 
Considering that I found the smallest stock tips to be the most comfortable, I figured I'd be safe with the supposedly-larger small Comply tips, but the fact that foam is supposed to "shmoosh" has me worried if that supposedly-larger size is really large enough... but then I'm paranoid about going too large and the tips "shmooshing" too much and making more in-ear contact than would be comfortable (fyi, I cannot sleep with earplugs due to the feeling of them in my ears essentially overriding all other senses)

 
not sure where you heard that complys in general can last a year... my set lasted me at longest 2-3 months. and they were pretty ripped by the end of it.
 
personally i think complys reduce the treble a lot ( good for really siblant or harsh iems) but the 8320s or the 9927's treble rolls off quiet quickly
 
personally i like the sony hybrids tips, their silcone (they can last basically forever) their 9.99  for 4 different sizes ( from xs all the way to large )or you can find some fake versions of them on ebay for like $5 with a whole lot once you figure out your sizing. 
 
 
sony hybrids bring out some more treble and bass but i think its okay for them they can use more treble for sure, bass i think it depends on how much of bass head you are. If you still don't think its enough bass, tape the nozzle (more isolation, more midbass) but as for sub bass extention, i havent figured out a way to do it.
 
 
I've moved on to the re400s as my main neutral iems (their 99$ mine you though) but oh so worth it

 

[jgwtriode]

I just typed up a relatively long first post and of course the forum logged me out when I tried to post it, and clicking "back" in my browser just took me to the previous page of this thread (251), so it's all gone... *sigh*

So here's my attempt at a tl;dr version:

• Got 9927 on Friday, first ever IEM, which means I've no other tips
• Of the stock tips, the small tips are the most comfortable over an extended period of time, and the largest tips practically don't even fit
• When only used for a short period of time, the medium stock tips feel better than the small tips since they don't have to be inserted as deep
• I've sensitive ear canals, so stock ti
  ps are obviously no good
• Looking at Comply Ts-400 foam tips
• According to Head-Fi, Complys last a month at worst and with washing a year at best
• Bought 9927 largely because of price, so REALLY don't gwant to constantly be buying new tips
• Sample pack only has 1 set per size, making it very money-inefficient
• Foam tips "shmoosh" in-ear, making me think you'd want larger foam tips compared to stock tips
• According to Comply's website, the small size is considerably larger than the small stock tips

So the question is, how does the in-ear size of the Comply Ts-400 tips compare to the stock tips?

Considering that I found the smallest stock tips to be the most comfortable, I figured I'd be safe with the supposedly-larger small Comply tips, but the fact that foam is supposed to "shmoosh" has me worried if that supposedly-larger size is really large enough... but then I'm paranoid about going too large and the tips "shmooshing" too much and making more in-ear contact than would be comfortable (fyi, I cannot sleep with earplugs due to the feeling of them in my ears essentially overriding all other senses)
[/quote

Simple recommendation here...Get melec triple flanges or lostearbuds triple flanges. The postwar are a hair softer which I like but the melec clear are more tanslucnt to look at. Either way price is about the same. 2.99 + shipping or 5.99 + shipping form 3 pair. They warm up the sound nicely which is hat the compote will do. But you wont have to replace them. If you want a brighter more detailed sound cut off the last flange and you have a perfect double flange. So you listen if its.a bit to lugluwarm you just make it a double flange. Comply are fine but overpriced. Personally I punch holes in earplug foam and either make a sleeve that goes over the core of the silicone tip. I just cut the flange flare off. Or I put an earplug foam core under the flange on doubles or triples I tend to leave the last flange cut off and the core covered with the foam. I leave just the very tip to hold the sleeve in place. The other flanges I put the foam under the flange to use to maintain a better seal than straight silicone. This is a matter of tinkering and fiddling tontune your tips. I gave up on complys after the first go round. Comfy yes but earplug foam sounds and seals better but you do have to hole punch it and make your own core for it. Comply does that for you at a stiff premium....no thank you!

Anyhow good luck and happy listening. PM if you want a tip that will really make em sing!

 

[Nintendo Maniac]

tl;dr: I'm purely concerned about comfort and size, the only thing about sound quality I'd really care about in this case would be minimizing "coloration".  I'm perfectly happy with the sound quality of the stock tips, it just the comfort that bothers me (and quite a bit).  Also extra paranoia regarding ear-canal size and sensitivity.  I'm neutral on isolation - just as long as it doesn't get in the way of comfort (theoretically a larger tip would have a better seal, but the extra in-ear pressure would be less comfortable).
 
 
And if anyone cares I can only fit 2 q-tips/cotton swabs in the entrance of my ear canal at the same time (no idea how that compares).
 
 
 
Oh, part of the post that got lost was that I've already read over 100 pages of this thread, so I know about the tape mod and stuff.
 
As for tips lasting a year:
http://www.anythingbutipod.com/forum/showpost.php?s=e314ab20ee6a5ad164990e8cecde7e35&p=584326&postcount=6
 
And as for sound quality of tips, I don't really care too much since the sound I'm already getting with the stock tips is better than I've ever had, and TBH if the tips aren't comfortable then what good are they?
 
FYI, I'm not a bass-head at all, nor do I care much for noise isolation.
 
Also, I'm quite paranoid about tips not being comfortable enough.  For reference, my ears itch quite a bit even without any ear wax, and they're in fact itching right now when all I did was stick the IEMs with medium stock tips in my ears about 10 minutes ago for maybe 30 seconds max, and just before that they were a little bit itchy from when I was wearing them for about two hours - except that two hours was like five hours ago.
 
In other words, I feel "side effects" of said stock tips for a longer period of time than said tips were in my ears for.  Heck on Sunday my left ear was swollen partially shut for pretty much the entire day and hurt quite a bit, and I had only worn my IEMs for maybe 8 hours total between the Friday and Saturday before it.
 
 
And somewhat relevant, I cannot even sleep with earplugs due to the feeling of them in my ears being intense enough to pretty much single-handedly prevent me from relaxing and sleeping; the feeling of said earplugs in my ears is intense enough that it's basically the only thing my mind can focus on.
 
 
EDIT: Didn't realize there was a 2nd poster.  If the Comply tips aren't much more than "punched earplugs", then wouldn't it be possible that they'll irritate my ears much like actual foam earplugs do?  If that's the case then I really don't know where to look...
 
And again, regarding the sound, I don't care that much, though i would prefer there to be minimal "coloration" of said sound since I'm a bit OCD when it comes to lossy/lossless stuff.
 
 
EDIT 2: Err... is it just me or do the two responses I've already gotten just feel like the typical of people just recommending what they find to work well for them without actually analyzing and answering my questions?  Or is it my fault for not giving an accurate enough impression of myself, and so for all people know I'm just some 13 year old kid that's been using Ipod ear buds all his life?  Sorry, it's just that those two responses remind me a lot of when people ask for a graphics card recommendation and they're pretty much just recommended what the other user is using or has previously used.
 
If it'll help, I'll gladly answer any direct questions towards me and you guys are welcome to investigate my posting history on other forums (same user name, though most have a 64 at the end while others have no spaces and some have both a 64 and no spaces)
 
 
EDIT 3: Or maybe Head-Fi is just the wrong type of audience I'm looking to ask for help?  From the opening post of this thread, the two responses I've gotten, and the seemingly large amount of bass-heads in this thread, perhaps the Head-Fi audience leans more on the musically-artistic side of things while I'm used to a more technical and scientific crowd.  Perhaps Hydrogenaudio would have been a better place to seek help... I don't mean it as an insult, it's just that I'm really not looking for, to quote, "a tip that will really make em sing".  It reminds me of pro vs consumer displays where the pro stuff is supposed to display as accurate to the source as possible while the consumer stuff will take the source and, to quote some tech company exec, "make it beautiful".  I don't want the beautiful, and I would prefer the accurate, but in the end I just really want the comfortable.
 
Is that too blasphemous to ask?

 

[disillusion]

  tl;dr: 

 
Keep your questions short and to the point. If I understand you right, your question is just "what tips would be the best for sensitive, small-to-medium ear canals regardless of SQ?"
 
Since its your first pair of IEMs, maybe you will just have to get used to the feeling of sticking something in your ear. If you want foam tips, get the comply small ones or DIY your own with earplugs. If the stock silicone tips irritate you, then most aftermarket silicone/hybrid tips would probably do the same.

 

[Nintendo Maniac]

So you're telling me that the itchiness I get after removing the stock tips isn't just a side effect of a not-so-comfortable fit but is actual irritation?
 
EDIT: And technically it's not regardless of sound quality, since that would imply that I'd be OK with a noticeable reduction in quality compared to even the stock tips.  I mean, I could live, but it'd probably annoy the crap out of me just from knowing about it.
 
EDIT 2: Then maybe foam tips ARE the way, since I don't think even the above-mentioned foam earplugs cause itchiness after being removed...or at least not for a noticeably extended period of time.  I'll test that tomorrow since I think I'll need to sleep in order to "reset" my ears' "irritation level".
 
Nevertheless, it still would have been nice to know how the small Comply tips compare size-wise in-ear to the stock tips since that would give me a good reference point.

 

[disillusion]

Probably not irritation, but just your ears not being used to having something stuck inside them. Use the stock tips for a few more days and see if you can get used to it. 
If silicone is okay for you, there are many aftermarket options for you to explore. But if you really cannot stand both foam or silicone/rubber, then IEMs are probably not for you.

 

[Nintendo Maniac]

Well, I'll admit, I do have an extra pair of tips, but I didn't mention them because they're no-names that came with some no-name IEMs that my father got on a flight for a business trip, and therefore I've absolutely no information on them, other than they're white and plasticy-rubbery. I've actually been using them since they seem to be as long as the large stock tips with a diameter of the medium tips but are thinner and less rigid, so can collapse down to a smaller diameter-size with less pressure.

Though, one thing I've actually been doing is using one white no-name tip for the left ear and using one stock small tip for the right ear. I'm one of those people "blessed" with differently shaped ears - my left ear has a bit of cartilage above my ear canal that sticks out somewhat noticeably farther than it does on my right ear, so the extra length of the white no-name tips help considerably with that, otherwise the small tips require the left IEM to be inserted farther in which exerts too much pressure on said cartilage and therefore will ache after a moderate amount of time (30 minutes to an hour if I remember correctly).

EDIT: Also according to my q-tip/cotton swap test, my left ear canal entrance is a teeny bit bigger than my right. In particular, while I couldn't fit a third q-tip/cotton swap, I was able to insert it a teeny bit and make it stay in place if I kept my head still. By comparison I couldn't get a third one to fit in my right ear canal entrance at all.

 

[disillusion]

If that combo is comfortable for you, just stick with it and enjoy your music. Worrying too much about gear will take away that enjoyment. 
And I don't think putting Q-tips in your ear is a good idea (AFAIK audiologists don't recommend it), you might hurt yourself.

 

[Nintendo Maniac]

That combo is what I used for the previously-mentioned 2-hour span of time that I used them for, so they aren't exactly that comfortable for long-term use.
 
Interestingly enough, however, I did just discover a few minutes ago that if my jaw is even just slightly open, it seems to reduce the pressure on/in my ear canal, making the tip combo I'm using be less uncomfortable.
 
And regarding the q-tips, that's why I've been saying the entrance to my ear canals, I didn't really stick them down the ear canal in the traditional sense since I was only measuring the width of the canal, not the depth; heck I think these IEM tips go in deeper.

 

[rolavine]

I did some more comparison listening last night using an old Pentangle CD (acoustic jazzy folk music), and a good CD of tango music (Mi Buenos Aires Querido) with the Monoprice cheapies. The harshness I found in them initially has vanished, maybe they do need a long burn in, or maybe my psycho-acoustic filters just needed more time to fit any strangeness into a perceived reality. I'm remembering now how long it took me to like the Denon's, the Grado's and even my HD-580's when I first got them.  Ok, I get it, these are more than just good and cheap, they are really good and still just as cheap.
 
I remember the first time I heard a live performance of Beethoven's 9th and then going home and playing my Berlin Philharmonic LP, it sounded so flat, compressed, and miserable that it seemed no more real than a picture of the Washington Monument is to the real thing, I didn't throw out my stereo, I just made the sad facsimile even more real by filling in the chinks with an even better idea of reality. After all, over 90% of our present reality is nothing wider than the space between our two ears, we are well experienced masters of this process, so good at it that we even fool ourselves most of the time. I really want to listen to the music and not the playback equipment, so we do, even though we can't.