BoilermakerFan
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Jan 2, 2008
- Posts
- 2,092
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- 12
Update on the 001 tips.
They were still sounding dark. I went back to the stock tips and headband and confirmed the mids were recessed and the highs were rolled off. Went to my fitting appointment and the audiologist shortened the tips about 1.5mm and flared the ends slightly. That made a huge difference for the sound and improved the comfort even more. But, the mids are still recessed and we think we know why, but I'm going to let my congested ears clear before making my final analysis. However, I'm still going to have them remolded. I paid $170 for two little pieces of plastic to fit the ends of my 001s, might as well get them perfect. My audiologist said he felt there was a misunderstanding or assumptions made that caused the tips to look the way they do when mounted on the driver, with the driver flush to the side of my ear instead of being aimed down the ear canal as they do stock. He felt they did that to hide the tip and make it more stealth. I told him I don't really care if the whole damn tip is visible, I only care about a solid fit, a comfortable fit, and maintaining the stock sound signature when the driver was positioned correctly. I really have no plans to wear these out in public per say. The bend and the reduced ID kill the highs and recess the mids. We're going to manipulate and use clay to reposition the driver where it should be in relation to my tips and have Starkey make the tip ID oval to match the Stax driver. But the great part is that they can rescan my modded tips to get the new length of the inner ear section correct from the factory, so they will be the 1.5mm shorter from the start, and they can also shift the ID opening a bit in the tip as the right side was off by 2mm compared to the left. Then the new tips get scanned again and stored at Starkey, so if I break, wear out, or lose a tip, they can run either one individually or as a set.
So, I'm really glad I decided to pull the trigger and try it. I know we'll get the sound correct on the second attempt since we can mod them slightly in house if the sound is off a little again. The improvement in comfort and the secure fit is just simply awesome. I'll find out the material mine are made from. I can highly recommend it. It's very hard when you first go to insert them and they are cold. This makes it much easier to put them in. When they warm up the are much, much softer and they expand to seal off the ear canal. They do not really add any isolation because the driver is open and the sound comes through, or leaks out, but for me that is a good thing. Too much isolation or more closed sounding cups really compress the sound stage for me and the air is gone. These tips keep that same air and nice soundstage of the stock setup. Now I really can't wait to get the remolds back, upgrade to the new 003s when they are finally hitting the streets, and get my magnum opus 'stat amp built for them.
I guess the best praise I can write is that these tips have shown me enough potential to deliver everything I wanted in the 001s such that I'm ready to mod my little amp and I've decided to hold off on LCD-2s. I don't have the gear lust for the LCD-2s now that I had even two months ago. I still love the sound of the LCD-2s, but the lust to own a set has dwindled significantly now. I just wish the iPhone 4 was a better source for the 001 amp. It runs out of oomph and I have to have the iPhone up to one click off full volume and the 001 amp is easily 70-85% of full rotation for normal enjoyable levels or listening. My Sony DAP does better at 55%-70%, but the Denon CDP straight into the 001 achieved acceptable levels of loud at 30%-50% of the range on the attenuator. So I think a Music Streamer II + or Pro will have to find it's way into my travel bag and I'll just buy a little Pelican case to hold everything in one waterproof, impact resistant box.
They were still sounding dark. I went back to the stock tips and headband and confirmed the mids were recessed and the highs were rolled off. Went to my fitting appointment and the audiologist shortened the tips about 1.5mm and flared the ends slightly. That made a huge difference for the sound and improved the comfort even more. But, the mids are still recessed and we think we know why, but I'm going to let my congested ears clear before making my final analysis. However, I'm still going to have them remolded. I paid $170 for two little pieces of plastic to fit the ends of my 001s, might as well get them perfect. My audiologist said he felt there was a misunderstanding or assumptions made that caused the tips to look the way they do when mounted on the driver, with the driver flush to the side of my ear instead of being aimed down the ear canal as they do stock. He felt they did that to hide the tip and make it more stealth. I told him I don't really care if the whole damn tip is visible, I only care about a solid fit, a comfortable fit, and maintaining the stock sound signature when the driver was positioned correctly. I really have no plans to wear these out in public per say. The bend and the reduced ID kill the highs and recess the mids. We're going to manipulate and use clay to reposition the driver where it should be in relation to my tips and have Starkey make the tip ID oval to match the Stax driver. But the great part is that they can rescan my modded tips to get the new length of the inner ear section correct from the factory, so they will be the 1.5mm shorter from the start, and they can also shift the ID opening a bit in the tip as the right side was off by 2mm compared to the left. Then the new tips get scanned again and stored at Starkey, so if I break, wear out, or lose a tip, they can run either one individually or as a set.
So, I'm really glad I decided to pull the trigger and try it. I know we'll get the sound correct on the second attempt since we can mod them slightly in house if the sound is off a little again. The improvement in comfort and the secure fit is just simply awesome. I'll find out the material mine are made from. I can highly recommend it. It's very hard when you first go to insert them and they are cold. This makes it much easier to put them in. When they warm up the are much, much softer and they expand to seal off the ear canal. They do not really add any isolation because the driver is open and the sound comes through, or leaks out, but for me that is a good thing. Too much isolation or more closed sounding cups really compress the sound stage for me and the air is gone. These tips keep that same air and nice soundstage of the stock setup. Now I really can't wait to get the remolds back, upgrade to the new 003s when they are finally hitting the streets, and get my magnum opus 'stat amp built for them.
I guess the best praise I can write is that these tips have shown me enough potential to deliver everything I wanted in the 001s such that I'm ready to mod my little amp and I've decided to hold off on LCD-2s. I don't have the gear lust for the LCD-2s now that I had even two months ago. I still love the sound of the LCD-2s, but the lust to own a set has dwindled significantly now. I just wish the iPhone 4 was a better source for the 001 amp. It runs out of oomph and I have to have the iPhone up to one click off full volume and the 001 amp is easily 70-85% of full rotation for normal enjoyable levels or listening. My Sony DAP does better at 55%-70%, but the Denon CDP straight into the 001 achieved acceptable levels of loud at 30%-50% of the range on the attenuator. So I think a Music Streamer II + or Pro will have to find it's way into my travel bag and I'll just buy a little Pelican case to hold everything in one waterproof, impact resistant box.
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