[TwinQY]

Anyone play around with making their own foamy hybrids? i.e. stuffing some foamies inside of silicone tips. Many tip manufacturers already make these but sometimes I don't like the density of the foam so I put in my own. If the IEM warrants some real dense foam I plug in a small Shure Olive and it's fantastic. You lose out on the seal with the foamies as the ear only contacts the silicone, but the tips stay a particular size and no longer holds that vaccum inside so depending on the ear it makes for extremely easy insertion with none of that air pressure you get out of popping a seal.
 
This is probably the epitome of a poor seal but as you can imagine very slow and muddy sets could stand to lose a bit of seal. Usually the net result is a very punchy sound.

 

[ZapX629]

I used to do this on my Brainwavz M4. I loved the feel and isolation of Comply T400s, but it muffled the spectrum too much, so I de-cored them and stuffed them into some Auvio hybrid tips. I actually really dug that sound. Also removed the annoying driver flex from those IEMs.

 

[davidcotton]

  Ah micro coaxial aka MMCX. Shure has been using them for quite sometime, so has Westone and UE. Earphones seem to be moving there (probably because they're so cheap) and I'm not sure that's the right thing considering some of the woes I've been having with those connectors recently. They also wear out far too fast so a nice locking mechanism should have been a must for all of these. The Senn two-pins seem pretty robust though. I believe FitEar uses them but they wire them oppositely so flipped polarity.
 

Sensorcom biflanges seem to also be an exception to the rule for me as well. Typicall tri-flanges will be a bust.​

But those tubes aren't even tapered at the entry point...

You are not the only one.  The only iem that I had any issue with was a shure se215 which had the infamous sound cutting out issue, particularly in the first batch or so.  Cosmic Ears have also stated that they don't much like mmcx and come up with another solution for them.
 
For some reason though the industry seems to be moving to mmcx.

 

[TwinQY]

  I used to do this on my Brainwavz M4. I loved the feel and isolation of Comply T400s, but it muffled the spectrum too much, so I de-cored them and stuffed them into some Auvio hybrid tips. I actually really dug that sound. Also removed the annoying driver flex from those IEMs.

Likely due to the loss of the vacuum since the foams are occupying the space.
 
Having Comply cores around can be a godsend since some IEMs desperately need some solid acoustic tubing to sound good. Not to mention for fitting on tips with large stem diameters. Nothing fancy but a great method for fitting Sony Hybrids, cheap biflanges onto things.
 

  You are not the only one.  The only iem that I had any issue with was a shure se215 which had the infamous sound cutting out issue, particularly in the first batch or so.  Cosmic Ears have also stated that they don't much like mmcx and come up with another solution for them.
 
For some reason though the industry seems to be moving to mmcx.

Hutnicks probably hit the mark with what he had said before - they are cheap and readily accessible since they are very commonly used for applications beyond earphones. Prior to this my SE425 and SE215s did not have the infamous issues so I did not have much to complain about. I had a couple of spare cables from those units ordered just in case years back and tried them out just recently. Two had become loose from extended contact, and one did not produce sound entirely.
 
I have been looking at the T2 connections that the Linum cables on the CEs use and they are intriguing.

 

[sithjedi333]

I see the following tips mentioned a lot. Could someone fill us in on why they're so good?
 
Spinfit
 
Spiral from JVC
 
Heir
 
Orotofon
 
Monster Gel and foam supertips
 
Any others I've missed?
 
Also is there a good source for the Dunu DN1000 dark grey spiral tips?

 

[TwinQY]

1) No experience with the first two, although I have read about them a lot on the Discovery and the FX850 thread. According to the marketing spiel the dots on the Spiral dots are meant to "diffuse" sound but they look way too shallow to have any tangible acoustic effects so I call cowdung on that. It's likely that people are simply enjoying the comfort that particular composition of silicone provides. The nozzle shape of the SpinFits seem quite interesting but I don't know enough about acoustics to know if the design is substantiated.


 
They look mighty fun.
 
2) People seem to graviate to the Heirs because of the bore size. They were not very noteworthy on the 3.Ais IMO. But they might prove useful on other IEMs. I'll dig them out again.
 
3) The Ortofons have really narrow bores so if you're looking for that it makes sense. The demand seems unwarranted to me. Though the eQ-5s are fantastic so if it gets people interested in Ortofon as a whole I guess I can't complain.
 
I'm not very in tune with the FOTM tips so take those opinions with a grain of salt. Perhaps the Spirals truly are the best tips ever made and makes this thread entirely obsolete. Stranger things have happened.

---

Anyone ever DIY gel tips? Now we're moving out of the foams. I really enjoyed the Supertips but I can't seem to find them anymore. Rather than getting some more I reckon it'd be quite fun to make a couple of sets.

 

[Hutnicks]

  Right. Did you give out any pics? I think we might need some overall dimensions. If the stem is wider than 3mm....
 
And you're sure they're not MH1C tips? I've got enough of those....

Ok Here you go.
 

 
Way to go Huddler. Inverted the frigging pic.

So Bottom Left The MH750 Tips 6.5mm bore
 
Bottom Right The Ever Loathed MH1 tips in around 4mm bore size
 
For Comparison Upper Left the Infamous Silicone tubing a hair under 6mm
 
Upper right B&W C5 at 5.5mm with a tapered bore and bugle type opening.
 

 
The non inverted version

 

[Hutnicks]

 

---

Anyone ever DIY gel tips? Now we're moving out of the foams. I really enjoyed the Supertips but I can't seem to find them anymore. Rather than getting some more I reckon it'd be quite fun to make a couple of sets.

 
Dare I ask what type of gel you are thinking of using?

 

[TwinQY]

I don't know. Of course I have so many tubes of this stuff that the possibilities are endless.

 
Perhaps they should invent ribbed tips. For nobody's pleasure.
 
See I could never find those Sonys which seems unfortunate since I imagine that bore size would be quite handy. Are they olived shaped or more tubey?
 
Forgetting to mention on the Ortofons before that they are olive-shaped so that's another reason why people take to them so much. Whenever I have stock tips I dig out the ones that are olive-shaped and try those out first.

 

[Hutnicks]

  I don't know. Of course I have so many tubes of this stuff that the possibilities are endless.

 
Perhaps they should invent ribbed tips. For nobody's pleasure.
 
See I could never find those Sonys which seems unfortunate since I imagine that bore size would be quite handy. Are they olived shaped or more tubey?
 
Forgetting to mention on the Ortofons before that they are olive-shaped so that's another reason why people take to them so much. Whenever I have stock tips I dig out the ones that are olive-shaped and try those out first.

Teac did with the Z1000 and unless you have cardboard ears they are a Torqemadian experience to use.
 
Mushrooms and supple ones at that..

 

[ElephantAudio]

http://www.instructables.com/id/Improve-Your-In-Ear-Monitors/

 

[ElephantAudio]

http://www.instructables.com/id/Improve-In-Ear-Headphones-Ear-Buds/

 

[CoiL]

Used similar trick with my ED9 tips as mentioned in above link but with leftover foam tips (I don`t like and use foam tips):

It gives kind of "mushroom" shape to silicones.
 
Now I use smallest KZ "whirlwind" tips which I find very good for ppl with small ears/ear-canals. They have very large bore and good fit for thick nozzle IEM`s.

Best silicones for my KZ ATE so far and probably will be unbeaten in case of ATE for me. 
 
Here is my small ear/ear-canals silicone tips collection that I personally find very good:

From left to right:
1. Ultra soft gel-silicones. Bought from here (white small): http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Compatible-With-MDR-EX-Series-Ear-Bud-Gel-Tips-Various-Colours-x-6-Pieces-/391207005098?
2. KZ "whirlwind": Bought from here: http://www.aliexpress.com/item/KZ-3-Pairs-L-M-S-In-Ear-Tips-Earbuds-Headphones-Eartips/32333783387.html
3. Piston2 smallest tips that come with original Piston2.
4. KZ ED9 smallest tips that come with black plastic boxed ED9.
5 & 6. Soft triple-flange silicones. Bought from here (clear): http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/281672238091?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&var=580677706162&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
 
 
For KZ ANV, I find so far best fit and SQ with silicones from another KZ IEM - ED9 medium grey ones.

 
Triple and double flanes are also ok but by SQ little less good. Medium triple-flanges go littlebit too deep (little irritation), have small bore and too long/wide/low "skirt" that covers breathing hole, which affects ANV sound too much. Double flanges are actually cut out of small triple-flanges, have medium size bore and elevated lowest flange which doesn`t cover breathing hole, resulting better sound than medium triple flanges. Those triple and double flanges are still very soft and good for other similar nozzle shape/length type IEM`s but just not so good match for ANV sound.
 
For KZ ED9 I found best solution with #1 white gel-silicones because they are ultra-soft and ED9 with its small body and quite long nozzle requires deep insertion.
I used little spacers cut from sony hybrid and ED9 tips necks to keep those small tips more on top of nozzle to leave nozzle breathing hole totally free. And being ultra-soft, lets them "contract" deep in ear-channel.

 
 
What I still want to try some day are Spinfits. Also, I have interesting tips incoming soon with this IEM (bought only because of tips): http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Huawei-3-5mm-earbuds-dj-earphone-Bass-with-Mic-noise-isolating-Headset-earphones-earbuds-For-Huawei/32378986602.html

 

[Shawn71]

@CoiL you might have to giv a shot with brainwavz bi-flanges to hear what ED9 is capable of.....with brass nozzle indeed.

 

[CoiL]

Don`t they cover breathing hole too much? Share a pic? Where to buy them?