[Piotr Michalak]

You already defined quality as in conforming to specs (which is classic quality management definition), instead of quality in sound or build material or craftmanship. In this forum, most people would automatically assume quality being the SQ or craftmanship.

There's also this classic definition of quality as "the degree to which customer needs are fulfilled", so quality is only what delivers value to the customer. That could be SQ, craftmanship, but also conforming to the specs, unpackaging experience, price level and discount strategy, etc.

If we define the consumer as a wider market, they are not so focused on SQ as audiophiles and can even bear listening to Bang&Olufsen ANC headphones (which suck) because they look nice and wear a well-known brand. But still consumer-level earphones are getting better and better in this departme, as we often find out with recent TWS updates.

If we define the consumer as Watercooler bros, I guess they are focused on SQ more than craftmanship (thus they can bear a Chinese-style eye-catching yellow Aroma Fei Wan purchase at $5k) and mostly expect agressive V-shape tunings with a great bass response FiR Audio nailed it since inception which is beautifully illustrated by the history of M5 development gathering feedback across several CanJams: https://crinacle.com/graphs/iems/fir-m5/ (newest at the top).

From a business perspective, another important aspect for small volume production is due to the trade-offs between the fixed cost (overhead) and the veriable cost (direct labor and direct material). If you just talk about most bang for the buck, there is simply no advantage for most of the high-end IEMs we talked about in this thread.

If one wants to enter the audio business without pumping in millions of €, he opens a workshop and wants to get profitable asap. And you can't scale this workshop much further than your 100-200m2 and 5-15 people maybe - the leap to a huge factory and 150 people is too great to bear. Thus the pressure to create more and more expensive IEMs as this is the easiest way to grow (unfortunately). You get the most earnings per employee and per square meter.

OR you enter into agreements with subcontractors from China and other Asian countries mostly to develop a new gaming earset or TWS and you become effectively a trade company managing your own brand... but the lack of control over manufacturing process kind of hurts.

 

[GiullianSN]

FATfreq Maestro SE

My journey to customs.


Customs MSE (left) and Universals MSE (right)

Why you may ask did I switch to customs on the MSE? I have always wondered what the fuss was all about and why some people swear by it. I was also curious how a form fitting iem would feel like in my ears and ultimately how this would impact the sound.

TL;DR: Customs, if they fit, or once you are accustomed to it (pun intended), disappear into your ears. It becomes a part of you. They do not require tips to provide a seal and are more comfortable. Sound wise, I perceive an improvement in the sound both in-terms of note weight and resolution. Yes, it is not night and day, but once you hear it, it is difficult to go back to universals. Having said that, the mind is a wonderous thing and once you let them adjust, you get used to the "different" sound. I have heard people complain that the MSE is mid-bass light and muddy, treble was grating and that it generally "sucked ass". If anything, I find that customs MSE addresses these issues. I am not surprised at this since MSE was designed first as a customs iem. People also forget that the iem was designed to be a head-thumping iem. A bass cannon. With this much colour added into the mix, it is bound to be both fun as well as controversial. I am not saying I agree with those views. In fact I do love universals MSE precisely because it has such a unique tuning. Would it be a desert island iem for me? No. But it is a guilty pleasure and if I could bring two iems to the desert island, it would be the one I bring. With the custom MSE on the other hand, it would be in the mix to be considered as my desert island iem!

Why did I choose the MSE over all my other iems to go customs? No particular reason. In early of August this year, I happened to be chatting with Yeo from FF over WhatsApp. I had initially met Yeo at the last Singapore CanJam (2023). I had wanted to chat with him as he had just joined FF and wanted to see how he was doing. The conversation soon veered towards my love for the universals MSE and whether customs would sound different. I had recalled that Bobby (@aaf evo) had said that his customs MSE sounded fuller and he preferred it over universals and this got me curious. He also said that universals to customs MSE conversion was a positive upgrade as there was no sibilance in the customs which he would occasionally get on the universals. One thing led to another and Yeo suggested that if I was interested, I could visit him at FF HQ and he would take my impressions. I always felt the process of making a custom iem was too complicated. Yeo's offer made it within easy reach. He said it would only take about an hour to complete the process and I could have my universals converted to customs. The added bonus was he would give me a tour of FF! I thought to myself, why not and took the plunge.


Yeo and myself at FF HQ.

In the end it took more than an hour as He had to make two impressions as the first one did not make the cut. Errrr, too much earwax! Apologies for the details! It was weird at first as you have a large syringe stuck into your ear canals and then have something gooey injected in. You also have to bite on something to prevent your mouth /jaws from moving too much which could negatively impact the accuracy of the impressions. I can't remember how long I had to sit still but I was given a selection of faceplates to browse so the time passed fairly quickly.


Profile picture of me wating for the impressions to set (left) and picture of the failed first impressions (right).

I mentioned previously that this would be a conversion of my universal MSE to customs. About a month after FF took my impressions, Yeo contacted me to say that FF had discussed internally and preferred instead of a conversion from universals to customs, that they would build me a new customs instead. There would be no extra cost from what I already paid for the conversion. In exchange, they asked if I would write my impressions about the process and if I would do a comparison between the universal and customs and also give my impressions about the sound differences if any. I thought that this would be a great opportunity and agreed to this and hence this post! All in it took about two months to complete the build and I could not be happier. At first, I felt some pressure in my right ear but my ears have since adjusted to the fit and it is painless.

Sound wise I could not be happier. I love MSE and with the universals, I was already addicted, especially with the bass. Yes, the highlight is with the sub-bass but it is evident only when the music calls for it. Otherwise, it gets out of the way and does not have any impact on the overall sound. But when the music calls for it, it springs into action and it just envelopes you! It is very addicting! An example of this is the final movement of St-Saens Symphony No. 3. When the pipe organ plays the low notes, you can feel the rumble and it is so satisfying. No other iem that I have gives this level of impact and when I hear this piece on any other iem, it feels like something is missing.

How does the customs differ from the universals? More note weight across the frequencies but especially in the mids. There is more resolution. You feel like the music is enveloping you and you are front and centre of the musicians. Whereas with universals, it felt like you were observing from a distance. Whatever shortcomings the universals had in my view is addressed in the customs. I am in love! If you love your MSE and were wondering if customs could improve the sound, I would confirm that it does. In my view, It improves an already good iem and makes it great! I struggle to find any shortcomings but they may be one. It is the case of too much of a good thing and this is the case with customs MSE. For me this is ok as I have other iems that I can use to "cleanse the palate" so to speak.

In terms of the chain, I am using both iems single ended with stock cable and stock tips on the universals. Both have been burnt in for over 400hrs. I am listening to a variety of music (pop, jazz, classical) through Roon into Chord TT2 as my DAC in pre-amp mode into McIntosh MHA200 tube amplifier.


Close up of the universals MSE (left) and close up of my customs MSE (right).

Hope you found this useful! Thanks for reading!

Amazing design Yap! Great write up as well. Welcome to the Custom world

 

[yaps66]

Amazing design Yap! Great write up as well. Welcome to the Custom world

Thanks Giullian! Glad to have joined!

 

[Neweymatt]

A man wonders how do they feel during long listening sessions.

If the CIEM is made from a good mould or scan, then you won’t feel it at all during a long listening session. This is the most important benefit of going CIEM, imho.

I don’t miss tip-rolling with either of my customs at all, happy to leave it behind tbh. Because you’re getting a perfect fit with a custom, you’ve got the nozzle at just the perfect spot in your ear canal to hear the IEM as it’s meant to be heard by the manufacturer. When listening to either my A12t or Xe6 CIEM, I’ve never once thought something needed ‘fixing‘ by swapping tips.

And one other intangible about using a CIEM is the uniqueness factor, that the IEM is literally for your ears only. That makes it extra special, and each listening session therefore that bit more special.

 

[deep2285]

There's also this classic definition of quality as "the degree to which customer needs are fulfilled", so quality is only what delivers value to the customer. That could be SQ, craftmanship, but also conforming to the specs, unpackaging experience, price level and discount strategy, etc.

If we define the consumer as a wider market, they are not so focused on SQ as audiophiles and can even bear listening to Bang&Olufsen ANC headphones (which suck) because they look nice and wear a well-known brand. But still consumer-level earphones are getting better and better in this departme, as we often find out with recent TWS updates.

If we define the consumer as Watercooler bros, I guess they are focused on SQ more than craftmanship (thus they can bear a Chinese-style eye-catching yellow Aroma Fei Wan purchase at $5k) and mostly expect agressive V-shape tunings with a great bass response FiR Audio nailed it since inception which is beautifully illustrated by the history of M5 development gathering feedback across several CanJams: https://crinacle.com/graphs/iems/fir-m5/ (newest at the top).



If one wants to enter the audio business without pumping in millions of €, he opens a workshop and wants to get profitable asap. And you can't scale this workshop much further than your 100-200m2 and 5-15 people maybe - the leap to a huge factory and 150 people is too great to bear. Thus the pressure to create more and more expensive IEMs as this is the easiest way to grow (unfortunately). You get the most earnings per employee and per square meter.

OR you enter into agreements with subcontractors from China and other Asian countries mostly to develop a new gaming earset or TWS and you become effectively a trade company managing your own brand... but the lack of control over manufacturing process kind of hurts.

I think scale is the enemy of high end IEMs. People who are buying them are mostly used to that price and have that desire to own something unique.

I also feel that a lot of boutique manufacturers prefer to stay that way despite the demand because it could have to do with control over the product. It is not easy to trust someone else with the process.

 

[Scubadevils]

A man could fall asleep with CIEM that is fitted properly.

Or woman

Sorry - a Monty Python reference which may not resonate with everyone!

 

[Piotr Michalak]

I think scale is the enemy of high end IEMs. People who are buying them are mostly used to that price and have that desire to own something unique.

I also feel that a lot of boutique manufacturers prefer to stay that way despite the demand because it could have to do with control over the product. It is not easy to trust someone else with the process.

Nooo,
1. Sony IER-Z1R
2. As I was trying to explain, there is practically completely no way to jump from a workshop to a large-scale production setting. Both from perspective of physical contraints, as well as mental contraints of the management. A completely different skillset.

 

[solstice15]

Nooo,
1. Sony IER-Z1R
2. As I was trying to explain, there is practically completely no way to jump from a workshop to a large-scale production setting. Both from perspective of physical contraints, as well as mental contraints of the management. A completely different skillset.

On the headphone side, Audeze appears to have managed that balance and transition until their recent acquisition

 

[mgsu]

I think scale is the enemy of high end IEMs. People who are buying them are mostly used to that price and have that desire to own something unique.

I also feel that a lot of boutique manufacturers prefer to stay that way despite the demand because it could have to do with control over the product. It is not easy to trust someone else with the process.

There's also this classic definition of quality as "the degree to which customer needs are fulfilled", so quality is only what delivers value to the customer. That could be SQ, craftmanship, but also conforming to the specs, unpackaging experience, price level and discount strategy, etc.

If we define the consumer as a wider market, they are not so focused on SQ as audiophiles and can even bear listening to Bang&Olufsen ANC headphones (which suck) because they look nice and wear a well-known brand. But still consumer-level earphones are getting better and better in this departme, as we often find out with recent TWS updates.

If we define the consumer as Watercooler bros, I guess they are focused on SQ more than craftmanship (thus they can bear a Chinese-style eye-catching yellow Aroma Fei Wan purchase at $5k) and mostly expect agressive V-shape tunings with a great bass response FiR Audio nailed it since inception which is beautifully illustrated by the history of M5 development gathering feedback across several CanJams: https://crinacle.com/graphs/iems/fir-m5/ (newest at the top).



If one wants to enter the audio business without pumping in millions of €, he opens a workshop and wants to get profitable asap. And you can't scale this workshop much further than your 100-200m2 and 5-15 people maybe - the leap to a huge factory and 150 people is too great to bear. Thus the pressure to create more and more expensive IEMs as this is the easiest way to grow (unfortunately). You get the most earnings per employee and per square meter.

OR you enter into agreements with subcontractors from China and other Asian countries mostly to develop a new gaming earset or TWS and you become effectively a trade company managing your own brand... but the lack of control over manufacturing process kind of hurts.

Conversely you pay kilo bucks for boutique IEMs because of the lack of scale. Because boutique manufacturers had to charge more for a limited production run to stay in the business.

Braking this thesis down for us consumers, it means that your 3-5 K boutique IEM is not always much better than a $500 mass produced IEM.

Diminishing returns kicks in very hard with boutique IEMs and cables.

I dont judge people for paying 5k for an IEM or cable but when i read impressions about such IEMs and cables i take them with a big chunk of salt.
The hustle for getting the most expensive IEM, cable and DAP is real and we as a consumer fall under the train of the boutique manufacturer because of influencers, hype and marketing tactics.

For me the perfect example is my RN6+Fussion1 against FH9+stock cable. While RN6 has some party tricks going on with the bone conduction driver that were impressive on the first listening, after the dust settles and after AB-ing both IEMs, i wouldn't call RN6 a much better IEM than FH9. RN6 has better soundstage and separation, but keeping it mind that the RN6+Fussion1 combo costs 10x more than FH9, the differences in price does not represent the performance gain of RN6.

A harsh statement would be, while not always true: With boutique IEM you pay kilo bucks for a certain party trick or for a different music presentation, nothing more.

I understand the hype around when you get new gear and you hear it for the first time. It is a very biased impression based on the fact that the new IEM provides a different presentation and because it is unexpected from your well known daily drivers and therefore it has a much bigger impact on your mind, because bias and imaginations kicks in which colors the first impression.

The same is true for neutral or bad first impressions. I had an IEM in the past that had a different tuning, it was quite neutral with lack of base, but because i was poor, i sticked to this IEM and after i experienced it more and more, it had grown on me, day after day.

So yeah, take all impressions with a grain of salt because we are humans after all and as much as objective we want to be, we cant eliminate bias and subjectiveness out of the equation.

 

[aaf evo]

FATfreq Maestro SE

My journey to customs.


Customs MSE (left) and Universals MSE (right)

Why you may ask did I switch to customs on the MSE? I have always wondered what the fuss was all about and why some people swear by it. I was also curious how a form fitting iem would feel like in my ears and ultimately how this would impact the sound.

TL;DR: Customs, if they fit, or once you are accustomed to it (pun intended), disappear into your ears. It becomes a part of you. They do not require tips to provide a seal and are more comfortable. Sound wise, I perceive an improvement in the sound both in-terms of note weight and resolution. Yes, it is not night and day, but once you hear it, it is difficult to go back to universals. Having said that, the mind is a wonderous thing and once you let them adjust, you get used to the "different" sound. I have heard people complain that the MSE is mid-bass light and muddy, treble was grating and that it generally "sucked ass". If anything, I find that customs MSE addresses these issues. I am not surprised at this since MSE was designed first as a customs iem. People also forget that the iem was designed to be a head-thumping iem. A bass cannon. With this much colour added into the mix, it is bound to be both fun as well as controversial. I am not saying I agree with those views. In fact I do love universals MSE precisely because it has such a unique tuning. Would it be a desert island iem for me? No. But it is a guilty pleasure and if I could bring two iems to the desert island, it would be the one I bring. With the custom MSE on the other hand, it would be in the mix to be considered as my desert island iem!

Why did I choose the MSE over all my other iems to go customs? No particular reason. In early of August this year, I happened to be chatting with Yeo from FF over WhatsApp. I had initially met Yeo at the last Singapore CanJam (2023). I had wanted to chat with him as he had just joined FF and wanted to see how he was doing. The conversation soon veered towards my love for the universals MSE and whether customs would sound different. I had recalled that Bobby (@aaf evo) had said that his customs MSE sounded fuller and he preferred it over universals and this got me curious. He also said that universals to customs MSE conversion was a positive upgrade as there was no sibilance in the customs which he would occasionally get on the universals. One thing led to another and Yeo suggested that if I was interested, I could visit him at FF HQ and he would take my impressions. I always felt the process of making a custom iem was too complicated. Yeo's offer made it within easy reach. He said it would only take about an hour to complete the process and I could have my universals converted to customs. The added bonus was he would give me a tour of FF! I thought to myself, why not and took the plunge.


Yeo and myself at FF HQ.

In the end it took more than an hour as He had to make two impressions as the first one did not make the cut. Errrr, too much earwax! Apologies for the details! It was weird at first as you have a large syringe stuck into your ear canals and then have something gooey injected in. You also have to bite on something to prevent your mouth /jaws from moving too much which could negatively impact the accuracy of the impressions. I can't remember how long I had to sit still but I was given a selection of faceplates to browse so the time passed fairly quickly.


Profile picture of me wating for the impressions to set (left) and picture of the failed first impressions (right).

I mentioned previously that this would be a conversion of my universal MSE to customs. About a month after FF took my impressions, Yeo contacted me to say that FF had discussed internally and preferred instead of a conversion from universals to customs, that they would build me a new customs instead. There would be no extra cost from what I already paid for the conversion. In exchange, they asked if I would write my impressions about the process and if I would do a comparison between the universal and customs and also give my impressions about the sound differences if any. I thought that this would be a great opportunity and agreed to this and hence this post! All in it took about two months to complete the build and I could not be happier. At first, I felt some pressure in my right ear but my ears have since adjusted to the fit and it is painless.

Sound wise I could not be happier. I love MSE and with the universals, I was already addicted, especially with the bass. Yes, the highlight is with the sub-bass but it is evident only when the music calls for it. Otherwise, it gets out of the way and does not have any impact on the overall sound. But when the music calls for it, it springs into action and it just envelopes you! It is very addicting! An example of this is the final movement of St-Saens Symphony No. 3. When the pipe organ plays the low notes, you can feel the rumble and it is so satisfying. No other iem that I have gives this level of impact and when I hear this piece on any other iem, it feels like something is missing.

How does the customs differ from the universals? More note weight across the frequencies but especially in the mids. There is more resolution. You feel like the music is enveloping you and you are front and centre of the musicians. Whereas with universals, it felt like you were observing from a distance. Whatever shortcomings the universals had in my view is addressed in the customs. I am in love! If you love your MSE and were wondering if customs could improve the sound, I would confirm that it does. In my view, It improves an already good iem and makes it great! I struggle to find any shortcomings but they may be one. It is the case of too much of a good thing and this is the case with customs MSE. For me this is ok as I have other iems that I can use to "cleanse the palate" so to speak.

In terms of the chain, I am using both iems single ended with stock cable and stock tips on the universals. Both have been burnt in for over 400hrs. I am listening to a variety of music (pop, jazz, classical) through Roon into Chord TT2 as my DAC in pre-amp mode into McIntosh MHA200 tube amplifier.


Close up of the universals MSE (left) and close up of my customs MSE (right).

Hope you found this useful! Thanks for reading!

#CIEMgang I’m glad the MSE customs are treating you well. Mine get a tremendous amount of use every week and are one of the best buys have made in this hobby as far as ROI goes.

I’ll be getting fresh impressions today at 1pm for the Fei Wan

 

[Damz87]

#CIEMgang I’m glad the MSE customs are treating you well. Mine get a tremendous amount of use every week and are one of the best buys have made in this hobby as far as ROI goes.

I’ll be getting fresh impressions today at 1pm for the Fei Wan

Excited to join the FF #CIEMgang soon

 

[deep2285]

Conversely you pay kilo bucks for boutique IEMs because of the lack of scale. Because boutique manufacturers had to charge more for a limited production run to stay in the business.

Braking this thesis down for us consumers, it means that your 3-5 K boutique IEM is not always much better than a $500 mass produced IEM.

Diminishing returns kicks in very hard with boutique IEMs and cables.

I dont judge people for paying 5k for an IEM or cable but when i read impressions about such IEMs and cables i take them with a big chunk of salt.
The hustle for getting the most expensive IEM, cable and DAP is real and we as a consumer fall under the train of the boutique manufacturer because of influencers, hype and marketing tactics.

For me the perfect example is my RN6+Fussion1 against FH9+stock cable. While RN6 has some party tricks going on with the bone conduction driver that were impressive on the first listening, after the dust settles and after AB-ing both IEMs, i wouldn't call RN6 a much better IEM than FH9. RN6 has better soundstage and separation, but keeping it mind that the RN6+Fussion1 combo costs 10x more than FH9, the differences in price does not represent the performance gain of RN6.

A harsh statement would be, while not always true: With boutique IEM you pay kilo bucks for a certain party trick or for a different music presentation, nothing more.

I understand the hype around when you get new gear and you hear it for the first time. It is a very biased impression based on the fact that the new IEM provides a different presentation and because it is unexpected from your well known daily drivers and therefore it has a much bigger impact on your mind, because bias and imaginations kicks in which colors the first impression.

The same is true for neutral or bad first impressions. I had an IEM in the past that had a different tuning, it was quite neutral with lack of base, but because i was poor, i sticked to this IEM and after i experienced it more and more, it had grown on me, day after day.

So yeah, take all impressions with a grain of salt because we are humans after all and as much as objective we want to be, we cant eliminate bias and subjectiveness out of the equation.

I enjoy the $500 - $2000 bracket quite a bit.

I keep my mind open for $3 K - $8 K range but I have learnt that this is a range where money is no object starts to kick in a bit.

Whatever I venture into that range, I hope that I won't be comparing the IEM to anything else and rather buy it for as a unique experience.

I also feel that we as a society are hard wired to compare and it can sometimes act as a barrier than a gateway.

 

[Piotr Michalak]

On the headphone side, Audeze appears to have managed that balance and transition until their recent acquisition

Starting with (if some of you remember) many technical problems and famous for the drivers in early version to break down and die too often

Braking this thesis down for us consumers, it means that your 3-5 K boutique IEM is not always much better than a $500 mass produced IEM.

Many Chinese brands on one hand tend to prove this thesis, especially Moondrop comes to my mind:

- Consider the new Darksaber 2DD+8BA at just 800$ -- versus 64audio Volur at 2500$ with very similar configuration -- and both measure similarly great, +1 for Moondrop for openly sharing their measurements, +1 for 64audio for apex modules.

- Consider their "Beautiful World" limited edition at just $777 with silver 3d printed shell AND 7 diamonds compared to Vision Ears Erlkonig at $4500. All right, Erlkonig was fully closed (+1 for me), had 4 tuning settings (albeit the bassy ones were useless and 3-4 were very similar), and 13 BA drivers cost more than a single DD. It had no diamonds though



Also consider TruthEar Zero... when I saw the measurement I thought it was Oriolus Trailii ($6000 new). This one costs just $50 for a dual DD. I'm about to test this.



On the other hand do note that many uber-expensive IEMs somehow proved their validity of existence over the long term.

First, I don't consider the FiR IEMs (cited by you) truly remarkable flagships technically. For example, even the Xe6 reviewed by me alongside the old A18t here recently is easily trampled by the latter on the technical level of resolution, imaging and such. There's just no way for these 6 drivers to reproduce as much information as 18 drivers can (maybe unless they would truly be tubeless?).

That's not always true, as it's sibling A18s also proved. And some Chinese "driver wars" attempts also proved. But it's also often true. Ambient Acoustics MAD24 2023 proved that too (I will shill this no matter what) that the more drivers we have, the more information we can possibly portray. Yes, I hear it took them a few years to get to this level. Still Xe6 is very fun to listen, ofc, and something special, and we may even have 1DD flagships as in headphones.

Second, many of my favorite IEMs actually are the summit-fi flagships after all.

UM LeJardin and Amber Pearl proved to be heavy weight champions not only price-wise. As did Aroma Jewel and Tralucent Ref Gen3, and we're even still in China.

Outside of that Erlkonig (Germany) remains the benchmark of neutral mids alongside the Trailii (Japan) and they hold up their value.

I have not heard every Moondrop but from these that I have heard none entered my Tier 1. I was also unhappy with my CIEM, to say the least.

I hated my Thieaudio Monarch mk2 CIEM too, another pretender to the throne of value-for-money contest. Thieaudio Voyager V14 was also good, but destroyed technically even by the EE Zeus (14BA also).

To sum this up my goal was not to prove that a $500 IEM may be as good as a $8k one. It possibly may, but I've yet to find that one!

My goal was to portray different types of actors in this industry for us to understand how it works and how it affects the way they operate.

 

[darveniza]

I can listen to customs all day. That said, I can listen to good-fitting universals all day too. The trick with customs is a) getting excellent moulds, and b) getting excellent fit. If either of those two aren't 100%, you'll be going back and forth to adjust the fit which, if you factor in shipping costs and time, can be very costly and protracted.

To balance the scales consider this when it comes to customs:

1. Resale is more difficult. Even if the company reshells, it will cost you (or the buyer) and you'll generally lose more money on a custom reshell. Personally, if I'm getting a custom, it's a commitment for life (or the long term), unless the monetary loss is irrelevant.

2. Comfort depends on a perfect fit (see above).

3. You lose the sound tweaking ability of tip swaps. This can be a pro or a con, but once you go custom, the sound is the sound. You can still cable swap of course.

4. Maintenance is important. There's no tip and usually no mesh covering the nozzle, so you need to be careful to maintain the customs and clean them regularly.

All that said, a good pair of customs that fit perfectly and sound great become and extension of your ear, and feel effortless to use. Just know that it's not always sunshine and rainbows.

Have always looked at getting customs as getting married , with questions like is this really the one??, will I remain faithful?, Is this the honeymoon phase?. Will it make stop spending money??.

Questions remain unanswered and keep working the IEM scene to find the right one .

 

[aaf evo]

Have always looked at getting customs as getting married , with questions like is this really the one??, will I remain faithful?, Is this the honeymoon phase?. Will it make stop spending money??.

Questions remain unanswered and keep working the IEM scene to find the right one .

I prefer viewing CIEM commitment like relationships in my late teen’s to lower 20’s. It may not last forever but I’m gonna hopefully enjoy it while it does, and if it doesn’t last/if something “better” comes along then such is life. This is also why I try to buy CIEMs from companies that have good reshell policies. FiR, Aroma, FF, and UM all have excellent reshell/resale policies. Yes it comes at an extra loss relative to a universal but I find over the length of ownership most CIEMs last me it’s worth it. YMMV.

I’ve definitely gotten far more picky about what I choose to buy now, and even more picky about whether or not I want it as a CIEM, but there will never be a universal fitting IEM that doesn’t bug me one way or another. I just don’t like tips for hours long sessions and the feeling of “feeling nothing” with a CIEM just increases immersion exponentially.