Custom Molded Earplugs review

Some of you may recall that I stopped in at the DBplugz booth at Daytona 3 weeks ago and ordered a set of custom molded ear plugs. Michael, the owner of the company, was there in person and got me fitted up in no time. If you want to start at the beginning of my journey to audio nirvana, the story began here on post #32 of my "Losing my hearing" thread: CLICKY.

Today I got home from work and there was a box waiting for me from DBplugz. I opened it with anxious fingers to find a beautiful black velvet box packed in bubble wrap. Did I order ear monitors or ear rings? Snazzy little box indeed. I opened it to behold my new riding buddies.

The appearance

They are truly a work of art. I ordered them in clear. They even put my name on each one in very tiny blue letters. Looking at them with a magnifying glass, I can see the tiny wires and electronics inside each one, with a port running from each driver to the ends of the ear canal extensions. They are crystal clear with removable twisted kevlar wires. Nice.

The fit

Trying them on for the first time was challenging. I had to figure out which was which. I've never used anything like this before. The instructions said to rotate my wrist as I put them in. I messed up the process several times before getting one in. This will take some getting used to I guess. It seemed like I got the first one in place, finally, by accident. They seem to fit well, but then I don't know how they're supposed to feel. The left one has just a little more pressure than the right. I'll have to wear them for awhile to know for sure if everything's all right. At the moment they seem OK. I can certainly feel the pressure that there's something in my ear, the left a little more than the right, but that's about it just sitting here on the couch for a 1/2 hour. The right one feels about perfect, but they're so new to me, it's hard to tell for sure. I'm told that your ears get used to them after awhile. They extend WAAAYYY down into the ear canal, coming up perhaps 3/16 of an inch short of my ear drums. That stands to reason as the small foam plug placed in my ear just before filling them with foam during my fitting... was about that thick. That makes sense. Anyway, time will tell.

The performance

I plugged them in to my computer and kicked on an old familiar song. Very first impression: way too loud. I turned it down. Still too loud. I ended up with the volume set just a click above "0." These things are seriously loud. Make no mistake, these are not your run of the mill ear buds. I didn't buy them to "crank em up," but I cranked them up to about half volume just to test them. Absolutely no distortion, of course. But way too loud for me. Fine... I can certainly turn them down easy enough.

Second impression: what was that I just heard in "All Right Now" by Free? I've heard that song a thousand times, I'm sure. But what was that unusual growl in the bass guitar? What was that twisting sound coming out of the drums at times? So very hard to describe here, but something was rather different with the first song I listened to. I didn't recall ever hearing that before. Was something wrong here?

Another song, the Beatles, "Paperback writer." I know every note of that song after hearing it for nearly 50 years. (Hard to believe isn't it? And don't even start in on me about being old. Look in the mirror, gram-paw). But there were several little unusual nuances in the song that I don't recall having heard before.

On to "Alone" by Heart. Wow. The bass is so crisp, not heavy and sticky like my Klipisch S4i's. I never realized that there was an issue with the S4i's sound. These indeed sounded different.

Time for Jan and Dean's "Pallisades Park." Again, several little things going on in the song that I never heard before. I'm starting to see a pattern here.

Flipped on the Temptations, "Papa was a Rolling Stone." This will be the ultimate test.

OH MY SOUL... that did it. What's going on here? Listening to the gentle tapping of the cymbals in the beginning of the song, there's the strangest echoing, cycling kind of resonance rolling off the initial tap of the cymbal... with each beat. I honestly never heard this before. Once the song gets rolling and all the other instruments start cranking up, it's not so easy to hear, but it's just amazing. It's as if I never heard the song before. It sounds so much more ALIVE.

THE VERDICT:

Guilty. I am indeed guilty. I have no excuse your honor. I just didn't see it coming. I've been blindsided.

My ears have died and gone to heaven.

But I have a great deal of work to do. I've got 1700 songs on my iPod that I need to listen to again for the very first time.

Can't wait to get started. Listening to "Papa was a Rolling Stone" still as I type. Wow. I never realized there was all this stuff going on in the back ground. And I've got the volume at less than 1/4.

I do need to get the helmet on and try these out on the road.

Stay tuned.

Pictures to follow tomorrow if I can get to it.

Gary

It is amazing how good they are and how much you miss hearing before. I had the same experience with my Big Ears. You will get used to inserting them with a little practice. Sometimes it helps to gently pull up on the top of your ear with your free hand as you twist it in with the other.

I used a dremel with a sanding drum on it to grind a little off the end so it didn't stick quite so far into the ear canal. Maybe a 1/16 of an inch. I also had to grind a little off one to take care of a hot spot that I would get after several days of wearing them with a helmet on all day.

Don't be surprised if you have to modify your ear hole pockets in your helmet. I had to because the pockets didn't align with my ears and put pressure on the ear buds, which put pressure on my ears. Just take the liner out, I used a combination of a sharp chisel and the dremel to remove some foam on the ear area. Then I would test fit and ride for a while and take some more. Took me about 3 tries to get it right.

Also, you may want to use some Neosporin on your ears prior to inserting the plugs. It helps your ears from becoming sore if the helmet to ear pressure is not right.

AuburnFJR said:

It is amazing how good they are and how much you miss hearing before. I had the same experience with my Big Ears. You will get used to inserting them with a little practice. Sometimes it helps to gently pull up on the top of your ear with your free hand as you twist it in with the other.
I used a dremel with a sanding drum on it to grind a little off the end so it didn't stick quite so far into the ear canal. Maybe a 1/16 of an inch. I also had to grind a little off one to take care of a hot spot that I would get after several days of wearing them with a helmet on all day.

Don't be surprised if you have to modify your ear hole pockets in your helmet. I had to because the pockets didn't align with my ears and put pressure on the ear buds, which put pressure on my ears. Just take the liner out, I used a combination of a sharp chisel and the dremel to remove some foam on the ear area. Then I would test fit and ride for a while and take some more. Took me about 3 tries to get it right.

Also, you may want to use some Neosporin on your ears prior to inserting the plugs. It helps your ears from becoming sore if the helmet to ear pressure is not right.

Click to expand...

I had them in for an hour yesterday, no issues so far. The length inside the ear canal seems to be fine, Michael did it right the first time, or so it seems at the moment. I have yet to ride with them.

Helmet ear pockets: my Shoei Neotech has plenty of room in the ear pockets. Though they don't line up well with MY ears, they're big enough so that I don't anticipate a problem. I have speakers stuck in them now and they don't touch my ears (not that I can tell anyway).

Neosporin: thanks for the suggestion. If I have any issues, I'll remember that. However, Michael from DBplugz did mention that if I ever felt any lubrication was needed... that he'd recommend mineral oil: FWIW and JSYK (just so you know).

Gary

-I also got a neat little cleaning tool to go with them. Nice touch.

Gary:

After you have ridden with these, I'm interested in knowing:

1. How is the wind noise at varied speed compared to using regular (but well fitting) ear plugs? What I have learned with my current ear buds is that the difference between a TON of wind noise seeping through a VERY small leak in the fit makes the difference between an absolutely enjoyable ride and one that SUCKS the big hairy one.

When the fit is right though, there is NO wind noise and my ear buds are very high quality. Bass and treble sounds great. MikeP1300 has the J-n-L audio setup with speakers in his helmet. He uses ear plugs also. So there's no wind noise but the music sounds pretty bad to me.

2. Do your ear buds move at all while you are putting your helmet on? Sometimes I get a perfect fit with mine - then I put the helmet on and they move just a smidge, which results in issue #1 above. Also, to the ear bud fit change after you have ridden? Sometimes when I swallow or burp or sneeze, my ear buds will get pushed out a bit. Again, just the smallest smidge, and the whole things changes.

3. If the ear buds do move out a little for whatever reason, are they designed such that you could stick a gloved finger in your helmet and push them in a bit? Or would you have to remove your helmet completely and start over - a PITA for sure.

Also, if we chose the vendor you have to make the molded fittings, do we have to purchase the ear buds that they provide? Or can we supply them with the ear buds of our choice and have the molds made?

I'm really interested in this. Thanks.

Thank you for posting this sir, exactly what I was looking for.

I'll get some pics up and answer yer questions when I get home from school today. Busy in the office at the moment.

Gary

As much as I wanted to check these things out on the forum, I don't recall seeing any decent pictures. Well, if that was indeed the case, we won't have that problem any more. I'm sure other custom molded ear monitors look similar, indeed many guys order theirs in various colors. I chose clear just so I could see inside.

The came bubble wrapped in this white box...



Inside this velvet covered box... 'bout the size of a jewelry box. Just under the monitors you can see the little black velvet bag to put them in.



They come with 54 inch kevlar coated twisted cords. These cords can be unplugged. It takes a little wiggling to get them unplugged as they are not designed to plug and unplug often. Purpose is to be able to replace the cords if they get damaged. Notice the gold plated plug.



Each ear has its own color. Now if I can just remember which is which... Below you can see the plugs molded at the end of the wires and the receivers in each unit. Notice the individual wires running through each one. From what I'm told these are higher quality wires than those used by some manufacturers - to prevent breakage. You can see a tiny resistor in each one. Notice the wires look a little different at the ends where they're designed to be bent to form around the ear.



Here you can see where they put your name on each one



It was challenging to get my old camera to shoot a close up with enough focus to be clear. This is about the best picture I could get of them. Here you can see the rectangular shaped drivers. One is bass and one is treble.



Here's what they look like in place. I don't want to hear any cracks about all the gray hair or the wrinkles. Funny thing, I never knew I had wrinkles in front of my ears. If ya look carefully, you can see how the drivers are pointed inward toward the ear drum. They sit in the ear, out of the range of any interference from my helmet. They seem to be pretty comfortable and they seal well. Needless to say, the quality of construction as well as their sound is absolute top notch. As I said above, I never dreamed they could sound so incredible. I suppose the dual drivers in each year have something to do with that. Michael told me I'd be really impressed with them. He did not exaggerate.



So there ya go. The cost at Daytona for the single driver units was about 300. The cost for my dual driver units was 420. They go up from there and can be had with as many as 8 drivers per ear for those of you who can hear good enough to even care. They are available here CLICKY and I'm told that you can get fitted at any approved local audiologist near you. Customer service has been amazing. Really enjoyed gabbing on the phone with the owner, Michael Reali.

Gary

darksider #44

Gary:

Much thanks for these pictures. I am very impressed. Saving nickels starting today.

Any comment regarding wind noise at speed? Do you have a good solid fit that stays put while you ride?

Good fit that stays put? so far, absolutely. They are locked in, they seal tight and block out noise better than anything I've ever tried. Perfect? No. Still some wind noise. But what is perfect? How do you measure the reduction in wind noise outside a lab? You spoke of "NO WIND NOISE" in your post #4 above. I'm thinking you mean a very REDUCED wind noise. I have a Shoei Neotec helmet. It blocks a good deal of wind noise by itself. But nothing blocks it all at expressway speeds. You can indeed hear the wind. The question is, for all of us, HOW LOUD IS IT? My new DBplugz work really well, wind noise is definitely subdued: about as good as some good foam ear plugs. But definitely better than any stereo ear buds I've ever used. Ya can't block it all. But wow. What a difference. My ear buds used to start hurting after about a half hour. No more. These things feel great. Helmet slides on and off easily. Cords are serious quality. Sound quality? My soul. Even enjoying the extra bass available at higher speeds. They just plain work. Can't say enough about Michael and his staff. Call 'em on the phone listed on the website. You won't be talking to some secretary. He handles all his own calls. It was a joy to work with him. And from what he told me, if there ever were any issues with the fit, he will make it right without hesitation or hassle. What more can ya ask?

Gary

I wear a thin skull cap that covers my ears to prevent buds from moving when putting on my helmet.

Gary - thanks again for the report. I'm definitely saving my coins for this. Cheers.

Yeah, I can't believe I waited this long, suffering with various configurations of earbuds and speakers, settling for wind noise or sore ears or crummy acoustics. I am one happy camper. As much as I try to be frugal, Lord knows I've wasted a lot of money through the years on things I didn't need. Like that boat I bought one year. Got it out on the water perhaps a total of 20 times, spent a small fortune and WAAYYY too many hours of my own time: repairing the dumb thing. Finally sold it for a 3500 dollar loss... after owning it for about 2 years.

By comparison, the ear monitors, though pricey, are some $$s that I consider well spent.

Gary

darksider #44