[bosie]

hi,

anybody know of a company that would make custom sleeves for a shure se530 without sending it to them and is located in europe?
so far i have only found ACS in the UK, contacted them, haven't heard back yet though.

thanks
bosie

 

[digivate]

ACS will definately be able to create you custom tips for the se530s without you having to send them your earphones. They have a list of earphones on their website, including shure e530 (which I think is a typo and actually is meant to be the se530).

I've recently had some tips made for my UM3x and after a false start (the first pair I received were a really bad fit but this was due to a bad set of impressions from a poor audiologist) they've turned out to be a brilliant investment. The comfort level is great, and I've also gained tighter mids and deeper bass than from Comply tips which was an unexpected bonus.

ACS bent over backwards to make sure that I was happy with my custom tips ... their customer service was the best I've ever come across. I know this doesn't answer your question of whether there are any alternatives, but (if you hadn't guessed already) I really recommend ACS.

 

[bosie]

digivate, thanks for your answer.
i have absolutely no problem giving ACS my business but i am not sure if they even do business with people outside of the UK/ireland.
what impression did you have to get? anything special or is it a regular (material/shape wise) impression for ACS tips?

thanks

 

[digivate]

I'm sure ACS would welcome your business.

I'm not quite sure where you could go in order to get your impressions taken. My first set of ear impressions were taken by an authorised audiologist in Southampton but didn't turn out very well. ACS bent over backwards to set this right and paid for me to visit an alternative, unauthorised audiologist local to where I live (thus saving me any additional travel costs).

They might be able to organise for you to visit a local audiologist wherever you live, or maybe you'll need to organise that yourself and just send the impressions to ACS to get the custom tips.

I don't know a great deal about what materials were used in making the ear impressions. I'm pretty sure it's a standard practice that all audiologists would know how to do.

Try giving them a call. I dealt with someone called Stacey, and she was incredibly helpful.

The person I dealt with at ACS was called Stacy, and she was incredibly helpful.

 

[qusp]

yeah the ACS ones are good, but will only fit the IEMs you buy them for, the UM56 from westone will fit any IEM with the same stem size, which in the case of the SE530- means the westone IEMs and some UE. you would have to get them through Variphone, which is westone's european arm

 

[bosie]

called ACS, no idea who i talked to but she was very friendly (probably had a hard time understanding my accent

)
they have no problem sending it to austria. so i went to my local audiologist to get the impression and guess what. they make custom sleeves too, cheap-ish too. would work on westone IEMs and some UE too (like qusp said).

what does ACS do to make the sleeve be SE530 only? isn't it just the diameter of the hole that matters?
on another note, the lady on the ACS line told me i have to get "full chonca to the second base", what is second base?

no matter what, i will get impressions and at least the sleepfit from ACS. just have to decide from where i am going to buy the sleeve

thanks guys

 

[qusp]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bosie /img/forum/go_quote.gif what does ACS do to make the sleeve be SE530 only? isn't it just the diameter of the hole that matters?

no, the ACS sleeves are different, that is why they have ones for different models listed on their site. the ACS ones partially enclose the body of the IEM itself, rather than simply going on the stem. this has the advantage of making them somewhat more low-profile, but also means that they will not work well; if at all with other IEMs.

Quote:

on another note, the lady on the ACS line told me i have to get "full chonca to the second base", what is second base?

well second base means something else here in OZ

I dont know if you want to go to 'second base' with your audiologist or not, that is a matter of personal taste

. but seriously, I would just write it down word for word and bring it with you to the audiologist, so they can make sense of it, but a full concha means the impression material must fill the entire space in your ear, the ACS are different to the westoine as I said; the 'second base' is likely the second bend in your canal. when I got my impressions for my UM56 and also others for my JH13, both times I specified a full ear impression (as recommended by westone and Jerry Harvey), past the second bend. as it turned out, with my excellent impressions for JH13, I went just past the third bend. they will not need them quite that far for the ACS or westone sleeves though, I wanted extra deep fitting customs, so I asked my audiologist to go as deep as he thought was safe

Quote:

no matter what, i will get impressions and at least the sleepfit from ACS. just have to decide from where i am going to buy the sleeve

sorry...sleepfit?? are these to block noise so you can sleep next to a partner that snores or something ?? hehe

 

[bosie]

Quote:

the ACS ones partially enclose the body of the IEM itself, rather than simply going on the stem.

interesting, but i guess i am going to risk it. not planing on shelling out another 500 bucks any time soon

Quote:

well second base means something else here in OZ I dont know if you want to go to 'second base' with your audiologist or not, that is a matter of personal taste

Whatever gets the price down. i am a sucker for low prices, literally. kidding

Quote:

but seriously, I would just write it down word for word and bring it with you to the audiologist

problem is. i am not from an english speaking country and we are kinda english-challenged, so i am not too sure they know what i mean by that. google didn't tell me that much more either, so i have no choice

if you went that deep, shouldn't you have perfect isolation too? (even more than the promised -26db)

Quote:

sorry...sleepfit?? are these to block noise so you can sleep next to a partner that snores or something ?? hehe

Advanced Communication Solutions - Sleepfit™ Protectors

that's how they advertise them

but i found out i just sleep way better with such plugs and i even use them for studying in libraries and such, helps me concentrate/get me in the right mood.

 

[bosie]

and i have to ad another thing:
stacey did reply to my email within 60 minutes actually. for whatever reason it didn't show up in gmail until 36 hours later.

 

[digivate]

Your audiologist should know how to take an ear impression without you having to give them any instructions ... they do it all the time.

I'm not sure if Stacey used the exact phrase "full chonca to the second base" but basically the concha is the shell like part of your ear.

When the impression is taken they place some cotton or foam into your ear canal and then squirt some material into the canal until it fills up and also fills the concha. The material should harden after a few minutes and can then be removed.

When you look at the impression you should see that the material that went furthest into your ear canal appears to have turned through a couple of slight bends on the way in. I'm willing to bet that Stacey actually said that your ear impression has to have gone far enough into the ear to get just past the second turn in the ear canal.

I personally prefer the fact that my custom sleeves are moulded to fit around my UM3x, and when I sent in my order I specifically asked for them to be made this way. They almost look like full custom IEMs, and I'm fairly certain they give better isolation and fit than just having the canal tips. However, I'm sure that ACS can create you smaller canal tips if that's what you ask them for.

Here's a thread that contains some comments and pictures of other peoples custom sleeves ...

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f103/r...er-ie8-415905/

 

[bosie]

digivate, "full chonca to..." was a quote from whomever i spoke on the phone. since she repeated it twice i am pretty sure she said it

the impressions are already done and i am sending them to ACS tomorrow, so thanks guys for your help

 

[digivate]

I hope they turn out a success. I'm sure ACS will do a great job.

Quote:

Originally Posted by bosie /img/forum/go_quote.gif digivate, "full chonca to..." was a quote from whomever i spoke on the phone. since she repeated it twice i am pretty sure she said it the impressions are already done and i am sending them to ACS tomorrow, so thanks guys for your help

 

[minusthetom]

Quote:

Originally Posted by digivate /img/forum/go_quote.gif I personally prefer the fact that my custom sleeves are moulded to fit around my UM3x, and when I sent in my order I specifically asked for them to be made this way.

digivate do you have any pictures of the end result? I'm considering getting a pair made and asking them to do the very same for my Westone 3's

 

[digivate]

Quote:

Originally Posted by minusthetom /img/forum/go_quote.gif digivate do you have any pictures of the end result? I'm considering getting a pair made and asking them to do the very same for my Westone 3's

Sorry, no I haven't taken any picture's yet as I don't have a digital camera of my own. I usually borrow my mum's camera but she gone on holiday to New Zealand for 5 weeks.

As soon as I can I'll take some pictures of them, and stick them on this forum, because I'm chuffed to bits with them ... but that doesn't really help you out.

If it's any help, when I sent my order to ACS I included a photo that I found on another thread on this site that illustrated what I was after ...

... as well as a picture showing a pair of custom tips that I wouldn't be happy with ...

* credit for all these pictures go to the original uploaders (and apologies to the red tip owner for using your tips as a bad example

).

 

[bosie]

after using them for almost a year I have to say: not impressed. they kind of move, I get a superb sealing only if i dont move/the cable doesn't move. 
if they get a good sealing they are really good though.
 
i don't know if this is normal but I would stay away from ACS then, I ordered two products from them and I have the same problem, got the impressions from two different audiologists