IEM "nozzle" sizes, small ears and Comply foam tips

[Nicole]

I've been looking for a set of IEM's small enough to fit, but when people discuss size of IEM's only the size of the tips ever gets discussed along with vague non-referential terms to sizing. Nowhere can I find specifications on the exact size of the plastic nozzle that fits inside the ear canal. With a set of good non-returnable headphones, a mistake could be very expensive.

So... I purchased a set of cheap sacrificial IEM's to better quantify my size requirements, picking up a set of Sony MDR-EX32's last night. Using the smallest tips, I can cram the right ear in although it's not comfortable at all. The left ear -- well I can sort of get the nozzle itself in if I don't use any tip. Apparently I need something with a nozzle about 2mm smaller than the Sony's, 1mm smaller *might* work. The Sony's are roughly 7mm.

Since I thought the Comply tips were sized according to the nozzle of the IEM they fit over, I visited their site and pulled up tip models for various headphones. Since the Ultimate Ears, widely reported to be the biggest IEM's, use model T500, and the Klipsch X10's (supposedly the smallest) use model T100, can anyone verify if it's safe to assume model numbers go from small to large nozzles?

Here's a sample of Comply sizes:

T-500 -
Ultimate Ears super.fi 5

T-400 -
Sony MDR-EX32 (actually, all Sony, I think)
V-moda Vibe
Denon (all)
Sennheiser CX300, CX400, CX500

T-200 -
Etymotic ER-6
Shure E2c

T-130 -
Phonak Audeo PFE

T-100 -
Shure SE series
Altec Lansing inMotion 616/716
Klipsch (all)

My theory is that the T100 are the smallest, and any IEM which uses the T100 should be small enough for me. Unless of course, their model numbers are not logical.

Since many of the members here seem to have multiple IEM's in their collection, any thoughts on whether or not my sizing assumptions are correct?

[CrowdAds]

[dfkt]

Ety, Atrio, and Shure SE nozzles are the smallest diameter, around ~1mm, Phonak and Jays are around ~3mm, UE, Sennheiser, Mylarone, Radius, V-Moda, etc are around ~5mm.

Comply foamies are easy to stretch, they can accommodate a multitude of phones.

[Nicole]

Thanks, dfkt, that helps enormously.

[Confispect]

I have a question I think I know the answer but maybe not Martin or anyone esle which of these comply last the longest as well as block out the most noise?

[Nicole]

It's unrelated to the last post, but since someone bumped this anyway...

I went with the Shure SE110's. Realistically, the primary use I will get out of IEM's is mowing the lawn, so I didn't want to throw down a huge chunk of change and reports of superior isolation was a big draw for me.

Pretty decent, although they are fairly heavy and certainly not low profile. I also had a lot of trouble fitting them -- they didn't really want to go in the ear and the silicone tips wouldn't seal at all. I finally went with the largest foam which more or less expands to fill much of my outer ear and gets a good seal and a decent grip. I wouldn't want to attempt to jog in them.

Once I got them in... well, they are not audiophile material, but they are reasonably priced and a huge step up from the $25 crowd. Personally, I dig the nice flat response -- the headphones don't really color the music at all.