Custom Headphones and Putting Stuff in Your Ears
Originally published on: 2/2/2006 6:49:04 AM
I bought them because they completely block out sound around you, allowing lower volumes and keeping my hearing in better condition while still enjoying my tunes. Personally, I love these things. However, you'll find mixed reviews of these headphones and I think I know why.
These are accurate headphones. What you hear with these things is whatever is involved in making the sound. If your headphone jack is faulty, you'll hear it. If your MP3's are crappily encoded, you'll hear it. If the album wasn't mastered particularly well, you'll hear it. And, because a lot of people are listening to music on cheap MP3 players with 128kbps MP3's, often from poorly produced albums, they don't hear what they want.
These things also have much higher needs than cheap headphones and lots of portable devices don't have enough power to drive them. If you are using an iPod or other portable device, you might want to get their ER-6i, which is adjusted for the lower power of those devices and has a bit more bass.
I just adjusted my EQ and it all sounds great. I can use them to completely block out my surroundings and get into the zone.
OK, so what's worth posting about something I've had for months? Well, I've been using the foam tips (instead of the plastic tips which make my ears itch). They compress to go in your ear and expand to fit snugly once inside. However, they eventually lose their elasticity. As a result, when I spend some days with these things in my ears for hours on end, the tips wear out quickly. They're not terribly expensive, but I quickly saw how, over time, it would add up.
Then, I saw a link to get custom molded plugs for these things, just like hearing aids and musician's onstage ear plugs. The promise of completely comfortable, perfectly fitting headphones that sounded great was too much to bear, so I ordered a kit.
Now, I grew up molding and casting objects in my dad's taxidermy shop (which was also on a turkey farm for a few years), so I wasn't exactly naive about what it was going to take to get these made. The kit arrived back at the end of October and I still haven't used it. Somehow I never thought through the fact that I'd need to ask someone else to pour the molding gunk into my ears as doing so via a mirror was pretty much a fool's errand.
And, I haven't been willing to ask Shelly or anyone else around me to go digging in my ears. It just seems weird somehow. Am I just being too uptight?
I did, however, look up the number of an audiologist and have it sitting on my desk to call and have a professional do it. I'm going to call one of these days. Really. Quit laughing.
Comments
commented on 2/2/2006 I used to work for a place called Hearing Components that was concerned with making foam pieces for hearing aids. I know lots about making Cerumen Guards! As part of the research, I had warm gunk poured into my ears for molds many times. (Mind you, I never performed this task, so I would be unqualified to do it to you) We even took the molds to a hearing aid manufacturer where we had rented time on equipment that took 3D models of the shape of the ear canal. Anyway, they mess around with a lot of foamy materials and know a lot about ear canals and it might be worth checking them out. Perhaps you could walk in and score a free ear pour!
commented on 2/2/2006 Have you ever tried just plain ol' noise cancelling headphones? I have a set, and they're not always the most comfortable (I imagine if you're going to all this trouble comfort is a big issue for you) but they do the job. I use them for cutting the grass, etc, and they came with an airplane jack adapter.
commented on 2/2/2006 Tim, I swear, you've worked on some of the strangest and oddly interesting projects. I'll check them out and see if they'll turn my head into a container.
Beth, I have used the noise cancelling headphones in the past. Due the the number of hours I wear them every day, I don't like over the ear headphones as my "main" ones. I do have a pair of over the ear Beyerdynamics that I use quite a bit as well and they let in just the right amount of noise if I need to hear the phone, etc. However, after about an hour, my ears are all sweaty and hot. This goes double when I'm mowing the lawn.
I'm actually pretty happy with the ones I'm using, I'm just a chronic tinkerer who's always looking to push it just a little further.
commented on 2/27/2006 Hey! I get that cos I own a pair of er6 myself. But for me to get the custom tips cost just as much as the phones themselves. But I need them!! Cos I really love the sound quality but hate the pain that comes with it! Sigh....