Cheap eartips, do they work?

[Sykes]

I've got $15 Melec M2 earphones and have a bit of problems with the eartips. The medium size is a tad small; large size fits better, but isn't very comfortable. The double-flange tips don't work well either.

I'm thinking of getting some foam tips, or triple-flange silicons. Obviously, for the cheap M2's, Comply foams are a bit expensive (and not available where I live).

I found some cheap tips, both foam and silicon, on ebay:

foam tips

3-flange silicone tips

Cheap ebay stuff sometimes work well, sometimes not so much. Which might be the case of these? Could they affect sound too badly? I know M2 isn't anything special, but still, why make it worse. I'm guessing silicons should provide the same sound as the stocks (apart from the fact they're 3-flange), but I don't know about cheap foam. Can it be too bad? Is it a waste of money or worth a shot?

[CrowdAds]

[WalkGood]

I don't know how good they'll be but I really like the Shure foam tips, very comfy, great isolation, I just don't like Shures price Those look like Shure foam tip knock offs, for that price I'd certainly give them a try.

Edit: FWIW I don't like MEE's tips either, cheap Chinese plastic ...

[El C]

You could try Heady's IEM ear tip mod.

[WalkGood]

Originally Posted by El C

You could try Heady's IEM ear tip mod.

My MEE tips already have had that mod and while it works, I still prefer the foamies I've been using. Strange that the double flanges worked fine for a long time and all of the sudden they stopped sealing as well so I stopped using them and went back to foam.

[Sykes]

That mod is funny. I think I'd still rather go with foam tips though. I don't think human ears were designed with rather hard plastic tips in mind. Guess I'll try those cheap foam stuff. How bad can it be?

[Sykes]

Bump/Update. I've received the cheap foam tips. Now I understand why people praise foam tips. The comfort has skyrocketed a billion times. They're made of harder material, that seems to be half-way between foam and rubber and they seem kinda waxy. Perhaps it's really a Shure knock-off, I haven't seen those.

Unfortunately otherwise the tips are quite crap. They have no plastic middle part - it's really just a piece of foam. Also they are too small for my ear, so no bass for me. Maybe I'll try modding them later.

So, give them a shot if you want to experiment with foam.

[markmp3guy]

I don't know if your brand is known to Comply but they make the best foam ear tips available. They actually make my Klipsch S4's sound like a pair of $200 IEMs. They are that good. I have the P series for my Klipsch but, alas, that product only fits a few products. Comply does have a product finder and they are compatible with most major earbud products.

http://www.complyfoam.com

[FreeZ5]

The complyfoam site recommends T-500, the meelec site recommends T-400. Guess work?

Steve

[markmp3guy]

Steve, Go with the complyfoam site. They've done their homework and tested all of the major brands with their products and they know what works. I know that amazon was showing the t400 as an add on product to go with my TS IEM's but I knew that the T200's were the correct ones. I would take the rec's of the people who make them.