Moulded in-ear speakers?

[Phmode]

Costas, I'd forgotten all about it. It does the same thing as my Sena. I'll offer it up to the members to see if anyone can make use of it.


Hi Brian

I would be interested in this.

Steve

...and you don't even know what it is 

I'll dig the details out tomorrow and post up the make etc. and if it suits your needs it is yours for the taking.

Brian

[TomL]

Why are you messing about with wired earplugs?

Get yourself a Bluetooth headset and use fitted earplugs.

[Phmode]

Tom, I have explained all this above! Doncha just love it when people don't read the posts properly.

All speakers are 'wired'!

I have Bluetooth!

My Sena is Bluetooth but I still have to get the sound to my bloody ears and my ears are NOT Bluetooth!

I detest poke in, twisty, fall out squishy ear plugs! In my ears they are worse than useless!

The ONLY answer for me is moulded ear plugs and I could use those with the wired, in-helmet speakers from the Sena. But, the whole purpose of moulded ear plugs is to stop noise getting into your ears and they do that very effectively, effectively stopping the sound from the in-helmet speakers from being heard unless they are turned up so loud the eejit in the M3 next to me at the lights thinks I am a loonie!

So, moulded monitors is the way I choose to go. They stay plugged into the Sena on the helmet, just like the in-helmet speakers and cut the sound to the in-helmet speakers. Simples!

Also, on the Sena, with a tap of a button I can get the ambient sound from traffic, toll-booth operators, the blonde in the car next door at the lights or the rubbish music from the anti-social lout in the M3 fed nicely into my ears via the electronics so I don't lose the surround sound from the environment. Once on the move, another tap cuts it out and all is peace and very quiet once more!

Brian (who thinks he has explained himself enough, if not very clearly    )

PS That's why I am messing about with wired ear plugs   

[mab1067]

Yip, Im with TOML here. Modern technology and decent molded ear plugs should be fine. Although if you have funny shaped ears, its no wonder they fall out . Lol.
As for, the make your own molds. Dont bother, tried these and they are like bricks after a few weeks.

[Costas]

My cousin sales ear hearing aid equipment and made me two pair of ear plugs both for the bike and for the shooting range, top quality never had an issue and they are as soft as the tender bottocs of a baby.

[Phmode]

 

I hadn't thought of sticking a baby's bum on my head 

[Costas]

Of a nice young lady perhaps?
But now this conversation takes another way.

[Matt]

I want to see these photos.  If you get your email Bri can you do the upload?

[Phmode]

Like this you mean....








Whilst looking clumsy compared to my 'normal' ones, I can see that these have a number of advantages:-

They can be used as defenders without the 'phones
If the phones die, you don't have to get another set of impressions and plugs made
If you lose your plugs you don't necessarily lose your 'phones

Compared to my suppliers, they seem to do short leads which is a must for Bluetooth devices on the helmet.

The also have one or two disadvantages:-

You can lose your plugs off the end of your 'phones
They probably can't be used with in-helmet speakers fitted

I need to speak to the man about how customisable they are; I have a burning need to have one flouro plug and t'other in black or translucent as I always seem to be putting them in in the dark and never get them right first time. I have resorted to tying a knot in one at the moment which works but might not lead to longevity of the, well, lead!

Brian (who can't see with his ears but can distinguish flouro from black even in the 'dark'  )

[Phmode]

I have just spoken to Nigel Hirst at AudioFit. Very nice and knowledgable guy.

So, to clear up the confusion over what Simon sticks in his ears, Nigel tells me that it is a combination of two of his standard products.

The moulded plugs are his ProtectHear product and this is combined with the headset from the stereo version of his NanoComm product.

The cord is customisable in length and unlike my current cord which claims to be Kevlar re-inforced, Nigel's are covered in knitted Kevlar which cannot be cut through with a knife.

He confirmed that the plugs are totally effective as noise defenders when worn without the headset, but, fairly obviously, the headset cannot be used as headphones without the plugs attached.

Interestingly, he also explained that the most common cause of in-ear monitor failure is not the detachment of the cable when pulling them out of your ears but rather deterioration of the speakers by contamination from moisture when worn inside the ear for long periods!

This product retails at �180 and for those oop north, Nigel takes impressions free of charge. For those not able to get to him he reduces the cost by �20 toward the cost of getting your own impressions taken.

Bearing in mind that every major player in this market insists on new impressions for every purchase (due to possible changes to the shape of the inner) ear and also bearing in mind that my first set of moulded plugs from a decade ago still fit my ears very comfortably and also that I have never had a moulding fail on me, there is a great saving in both cost and time to be had from Nigel's product.

I will put up copies of his brochures and spec sheets when I get them.

Brian (who loves an enthusiastic supplier  )

PS Two of his biggest customer groups are pilots and police.

[Costas]

I can suplly you this for 10e , take the plane and come here to take the measurwments, a second set will be offered as a gift. My god 180�?  All that he stated are correct but my God 180p �?

[Phmode]

I can suplly you this for 10e , take the plane and come here to take the measurwments, a second set will be offered as a gift. My god 180£?  All that he stated are correct but my God 180p £?

That is for the whole set up Costas, not just the impressions!

If you have someone who can make the plugs with the wire inserts to take the phones AND supply the phones to clip to the plugs then I will get my own impressions taken and send them to you and I guess others will too 

[Costas]

Cousin looked to it and confirms price a bit high , only if worthy parts used and work needed can justify the amount requested. Impressions cost 10e.

[Phmode]

It's what you pay in the over-developed world my friend, especially in rip-off Britain but probably no cheaper in the rest of Weatern Europe.

[Phmode]

So, having ridden a 430 mile round trip to Oulton Park last Sunday, I am now in a position to comment on comparisons between moulded in-ear speakers and helmet speakers with moulded earplugs.

My moulded in-ear speakers having given up the ghost I decided to do the trip with my 'old' moulded speakers used as ear plugs and the sat nav etc coming through the helmet speakers.

I wasn't convinced that it would work satisfactorily, but the results, whilst not being perfect, were better than I anticipated.

There were two areas of disappointment, both of which were down to having the sound produced outside the plugs rather than in them.

The first was a lack of high notes in the sound; everything being heard mainly at the bass end of the frequency range and with no adjustment on either sat navs, phones or intercomm systems there seems to be no way round this although I did wonder about switching from a female voice to a male voice on the sat nav. I rarely, if ever listen to music on the road so it isn't an issue there, just on the clarity of the spoken nav instructions

The second disappointment was to do with the 'surround sound' feature of the Sena i/c which allows the sounds of traffic, voices of your mates at traffic lights and filling station cashiers etc. to be heard inside the helmet so you don't get the muffled sensation of using 'dumb' ear plugs! The sound, when it comes from the moulded in-ear speakers is very 'natural' and pleasant in an unexpected way. With the helmet speakers the moulded plugs cut most of this environmental sound so you get a weird sort of railway station announcer effect, almost echo'y in nature!

So, I can live with the dumb plugs in the interim but I can see me going back to the in-ear speakers once the Albanian lodgers pay their back rent.

Brian (who paid extra for more bass in his sitting room but doesn't want it booming around in his helmet  )