FredMcD.com

Another project in progress for you.

For some background, I’ve been using Etymotic ER-6Is for several years and have grown to adore the noise reduction that about 1.7cm of silicon in your ear gets you. However, that sounds sucking power comes at a cost. Most noticeably, the ER6Is are difficult to put in and pull out (I had to start by using them two handed.), they get very waxy, as the flanges pull the wax out, and, as a result very dirty. They can also, sometimes, be uncomfortable.

On Etymotic’s much more expensive Hf5 and ER4 headphones, you can get eartips molded to the shape of your ear, which fit you exactly but doing this for my lowly ER6Is would be somewhat overkill (The service costs more than the headphones, I think.) but making the eartips myself shouldn’t be quite so expensive.

How I’m thinking of doing this:

I’ve already sent an email to a local audiologist (There’s a place that does hearing aids near my house.) to see what the cost of getting impressions made of my ears, I’m not sure how much this is going to cost, but, seeing as your eardrum is probably the most delicate part of your body exposed to the outside world, I would strongly advise against getting one of the do it at home kits. One piece of that foam touches your eardrum and when you pull the mold out, out comes your eardrum (This Head-Fi thread for more details on that.).

Once I have the foam impressions made, it’s just a case of dropping them in a shot-glass and filling the rest of the glass with silicon sealer to make a negative, followed by replacing the impression foam with epoxy and leaving it to set. Then it’s just some epoxy filler to make the final eartips, which I then drill and finish to make the finished work.

This is going to be an interesting project and should hopefully end me up with some pretty snazzy (Not to mention, comfortable.) eartips.

Thought’s on other peoples work:

The main guide I worked from “DIY guide: making your own custom IEM sleeves/tips.” was useful as it will speed up prototyping my own eartips.
As I wanted to make my eartips detachable from the ER6Is (And will need to, to change filters.), I need some way for them to hook in and stay attached, which, fortunately, has already been provided by Etymotic, as the foam Eartips have a hard plastic tube running down the center which I can cut out and clean of foam for my own creation.
Also, getting some pneumatic syringes for filling the negatives with silicon or epoxy might be a good idea.

I also read somewhere about dipping the eartips in wax to give them a bit of extra bulk, which they’ll loose in the molding process. I might give it a try someway down the line.

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