So I dont want to use AirPods Pro anymore and have decided to get high end custom fitted (using ear impressions) IEMs. Im thinking either https://www.64audio.com/ A18T or S or Empire Ears | Custom In-Ear Monitors | Odin - was wondering whats your take on that and whether or not you have your own recommendation for wired IEMs to be used primarily gym and outside during walks/jogs.
i wouldn’t get IEMs because IMHO they are mainly just designed to be expensive.
spending a lot of money doesn’t mean you’re going to get great sound.
that would be like expecting a Ferrari to out-accelerate a Plaid just because you spent 3 times more money.
or expecting a Rolex to have more accurate time than a Casio just because you spent 1,000 times more money.
at the very least do not buy anything without listening to it first.
personally i wouldn’t spend more than about $500 on ANY headphones. i don’t believe anybody makes headphones that have sound worth more than that.
buy headphones for convenience and comfort, noise canceling, phone call quality - like my Bose 700. do they sound high-end ? NO THEY DO NOT. but i think ultimately nobody tries to make headphones sound good … why i am not sure, but that seems to be the case.
and i certainly wouldn’t try to get good sound out of headphones used outside the house, because if they got lost, stolen or damaged that would suck.
just get something like flagship Bose, Sennheiser or Sony full-size around-the-ear Active Noise Cancelling ( ANC ) headphones for use in the gym. you can’t really flat bench in them but you can still incline bench.
BestBuy often has Bose and Sony on display where you can try them on and listen and test the noise canceling. You may need to order Sennheisers to try them. You could try to big Apple cans too but apparently they are quite heavy - though everybody in my gym wears them now because of brand recognition.
to me for something used outside the home noise canceling and phone call ability is worth more than any advertised sound quality, which is probably just hype. for gym especially you want something robust that stays on your head and doesn’t get in the way when you raise your hands up and that has good noise canceling and loud bass. the main reason i use Bose over Sennheiser is Bose has a better carrying case. Sennheiser does have better sound, but Bose has good bass which is all i need for gym.
for walks around the park you could use something more delicate / expensive but again, i don’t think the goal of these complex IEMs is to sound good - i think the goal is simply to be expensive jewelry, like a Rolex.
if you feel the urge to buy some expensive audio equipment you can look into getting new monitor speakers like this Genelec:
it’s $5,000 each / $10,000 pair but it’s an industrial tool so to speak whereas an IEM as i said is a piece of Jewelry …
even with the Genelec though, listen before you buy. it may be a technically excellent studio monitor but it may not sound pleasing to your ear. at least with the Genelec you might be able to return it - i don’t think you will be able to return a custom fit IEM.
i would extend that to all audio products in general - listen before you buy. same as how you shouldn’t drive a car without test driving it. you don’t need to be Formula 1 champion to know if you like how a car drives and you don’t need golden ears to know if you like the sound of speakers or headphones.
i once bought fairly expensive ( for me at the time back in college ) Shure IEMs that were like $150 and they sounded HORRIBLE. simple $20 Sony headphones sounded 10 times better. but my GF preferred them to much better sounding DJ headphones because she liked the style …
so the point is - do not form any expectations beforehand. find a way to try it out somehow. do not pay for something custom that can’t be refunded without experiencing what it sounds like first.
good points thank you. To clarify I dont care for high end sound (since IM outside or in the gym) as much as I want them to stay in my ear and be comfortable (hence for custom molded options), and I decided to go with wired instead of wireless (likethe airpods pros that I have) because after listening to them for long periods I get a weird lymph issue around ear so Im trying to reduce EMF exposure (maybe overblown dont know). Re over the ear headphones I cant really walk around in those - I do have a pair of Fostex (wired) that I never use, not to mention its probably not wise to wear overtheear phones walking the streets as you become a target. So thats why I was looking into some IEMs option so they are still somewhat convenient and small in size and since they dont have active NC, at least custom fit will provide enough passive dampening as well as better fit and comfort.
i also get some kind of like inflammation in the ear if i use foam earplugs which seem to be too tight / irritate the ear.
this is also why i switched from “mumba” musicians ear plugs to westone - they are narrower and don’t have such a tight fit and i can wear them for a long time without irritating my ear.
on the other hand when i used a macbook i remember it gave me some kind of tingling sensation in my finger when i used the capacitive touchpad.
so i think your issue could be either one - it could be electrical or mechanical in nature.
and i don’t think you need custom to get comfort. those IEMs are mostly custom just because they have so many drivers that take up a lot of space and are designed to be really flush fitting - i don’t think it is necessarily going to matter that much for comfort.
the comfort or lack thereof is from the eartip and earband.
i was very happy with my Sennheiser IE8 that were i think about $400 back in 2010 or so - they served me well for many years - i used them under helmet while cycling. in fact i still have them i just don’t use them because i don’t cycle anymore.
i just checked Sennheiser still makes the IE line except now it’s IE200, IE600 and IE900. i guess mine would have been IE800 today, except the prices seem to have gone way up.
the difference between these IE series and regular earbuds is that the cable goes over the ear so it doesn’t pull on the earbud and it stays in place better - providing better comfort and also better seal.
you could try something in that line and hopefully be able to return them.
personally i like wireless headphones but i wouldn’t use wireless earbuds because people lose them all the time and they don’t hold charge that long. my preference is full size over the ear wireless ANC but yes you could get attacked if they are fancy like Apple Max or like my Bose.
probably with something like Sennheiser IE900 nobody will suspect they are $1,500 … and frankly i think that’s a ripoff but my IE8 are one of my favorite headphones that have also proven quite reliable whereas none of my ANC headphones seem to last more than about 3 years regardless of whether they are Bose or Sennheiser.
i would maybe order both IE200, IE600 and IE900 and try them all and keep the cheapest ones that are comfortable and sound good ( if any ).
i guess what it comes down to is i simply do not see any reason for an IEM to have more than a single dynamic driver. all those 7-driver IEMs seem to be just for marketing to explain to customer why one model costs more than another.
frankly i have no idea how Sennheiser explains the price difference between IE200, IE600 and IE900 since they seem to be basically identical but that was always the case with Sennheiser - they always had like 50 different models that seemed the same but were all different price and with slightly different sound.
also how Porsche 911 has like 50 different models as well, even though they all use a flat 6 engine.
there are real reasons why speakers ( as opposed to headphones ) need separate woofers and tweeters but this doesn’t really apply to IEMs because even the largest “woofer” in an IEM is smaller than the smallest tweeter in a speaker, and thus it should be possible to make it reproduce all the high frequencies.