# Custom In Ear Monitors



## yourgrandma (Oct 29, 2007)

I know this may be a little out of place, but theres nowhere else I could think to put it.
I am looking into having some custom earpieces made. I absolutely require at very minimum 26dB of sound isolation, but outside of that, I'm not that picky. I assume any of these will sound very good, so beyond the base model, I would probably be wasting money with my totally blown ears.

The ones Ive been looking at are made by Starkey Labs, a respected hearing aide manufacturer. They have many levels of product, but the only ones with a noise rating are their pro monitors. They come in two models, the "low end" are $380 single driver units that from what I'm told sound very very good, and then there's the $800 two way option that must be fantastic. 

My question is whether anyone on here has any experience with this type of product, and can anyone lead me to a less expensive option.

I would primarily be using these at work and while riding my motorcycle, so again, the protection factor is of utmost importance. 

A cool thing about Starkey is that they have a 30 day guarantee. If you don't like them, they'll take them back and re use the actual headphone part.

:thankyou:


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## eugovector (Sep 4, 2006)

yourgrandma said:


> I know this may be a little out of place, but theres nowhere else I could think to put it.
> I am looking into having some custom earpieces made. I absolutely require at very minimum 26dB of sound isolation, but outside of that, I'm not that picky. I assume any of these will sound very good, so beyond the base model, I would probably be wasting money with my totally blown ears.
> 
> The ones Ive been looking at are made by Starkey Labs, a respected hearing aide manufacturer. They have many levels of product, but the only ones with a noise rating are their pro monitors. They come in two models, the "low end" are $380 single driver units that from what I'm told sound very very good, and then there's the $800 two way option that must be fantastic.
> ...


There are companies that will make molds for your existing equipment. There was one company at AES, I'll have to look for their pamphlete that would create molds for $200-300 that could fit anything from your cellphone earbud to a pair of etys.

Also, I would use them while riding your motorcycle unless you ride an obnoxious straight pipe. Being able to hear oncoming traffic, ambulances, honking would be much more important,


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## yourgrandma (Oct 29, 2007)

I believe starkey makes a mold for earbud style phones to fit in, but they offer verl little in the way of protection.

As for being able to hear ambiant sounds, I do have a loud exhaust, but there is a muffler there. While riding, the primary sound is wind noise. I wear earplugs now and I find that they block out the white noise and make it easyer to dissern those sounds that represent a danger. I wouldn't be riding around with the music so loud I couldn't hear the road. I'm a very safety concious rider, and I know the importance of using all your sences while riding. Its just nice to have a little bit of music on the way to the twisties, once there, I need to hear the bike, so I'd probably turn them off. Some of the places I ride are a couple hours away, and often I'm relegated to the freeway. With no turns, the boredom will mess with you.

Oh, about my exhaust, I guess I wouldn't be able to comment on whether its obnoxious or not, but from the compliments I get, it must sound pretty good. I custom built my muffler, as the aftermarket one I had was badly damaged, and I didn't feel like buying one when I could make a new one.


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