Do third-party in-ear monitor tips sound better? (Yes.)

🔗 Tuesday, 30 July 2024

By Cariad Eccleston • 👋 @cariad@indiepocalypse.social • ✉️ cariad@cariad.earth

I spent £80 on this. The least you can do is read it.

Late last year, I picked up a THIEAUDIO Hype 2¹ in-ear monitor (IEM) set² to run between my Astell&Kern SR35³ and my coconut.

I haven’t talked about either of them much because, honestly, I’m not convinced they’re worth their asking prices and I’m a bit depressed about all the other things I could’ve bought instead. The SR35 sounds incredible but the interface is so fiddly and unintuitive and laggy that I actually hate to use it. The Hype 2 sounds great–not incredible, just great–but none of the bundled silicone and foam tips fit well in my weird ears.

Folks online swear that third-party tips fit and sound better, and I don’t think sponsored influencers would lie about something like that⁴, but how do you know which brands work for you? Which models? Which sizes? You don’t have to go and buy them all and try them out… do you?

Crikey.

So I sat with the bundled tips and sucked it up… until now. I took part in a game jam a week or so ago and it got me excited about music production again after I ragequit a couple of years ago. I opened Ableton, grabbed my keyboard, and good lord I’d forgotten how painful Bluetooth headphone latency is when playing in real-time. I plugged in my Hype 2s and they worked fantastically, of course, but I had to do something that about fit.

So, it was time to check out those third-party tips.

Making the selection

I spent a day or so consuming reviews to get a feel for the brands and models that folks seem to genuinely love, and settled on trying these for myself:

• Final Audio Type E
• Linsoul DUNU S&S
• Linsoul TANGZU
• SpinFit W1

Thankfully, Linsoul and Final Audio sell multi-size packs of their DUNU, TANGZU and Type E tips for folks who don’t know what size they need, but SpinFit sell the W1 only in single packs. I consulted the tarot and ordered medium-small, medium and large packs.

And today’s the day I got to try them out! I brewed a big fat coffee, loaded up Steam Powered Giraffe’s 1896⁵ FLAC on my SR35, and…

Intermission

…okay, so this bit’s a meta note on the review itself rather than the tips.

I spent all of Monday going through the tips, making notes about sound quality, fit and noise isolation, and the further I worked through the collection, the more strange it struck me that the random order I plucked from was also the reverse order of quality. The first tips fit and sounded great, and later tips became increasingly uncomfortable and decreasingly pleasant to listen to. In the end, the final tips wouldn’t make any kind of seal in my ear and sounded awful.

It might be obvious to you, dear reader, but this was the first time I’d reviewed in-ear tips like this and it took me a hot minute to realise I’d stripped all the oil from my ear canals. It was bone dry up there. Freaky dry, to the point that the silicone was tugging rather than sliding, and bunching up in weird ways rather than making a seal.

Luckily I had a little spray bottle of olive oil in my shoebox of drugs, so I gave myself a couple of squirts and took a break from sticking things up there.

And so, on with day two!

Hype 2 bundled silicone tips

I started the comparison with the tips I’ve using since the Hype 2 landed on my desk; the large silicon tips bundled in the box.

They’re fine. Totally fine. They lean a little further into their treble than I’d prefer. The bass pops its head over the wall now and again, but it’s muddy. And the weak fit brings weak sound isolation. But still; they’re fine.

Final Audio Type E

The Type E package comes with small-small, small, medium, large and large-large tips in a hard-shell case. The tips don’t feel particularly futuristic; they’re just soft silicon bulbs. There are a couple of adapters for fitting the tips on IEMs with narrow nozzles, but I didn’t need them with the fat Hype 2’s.

I started with the large fit, and the sound quality was absolutely a step up from the bundled tips. I’ll go further than nice; they’re really nice. Far more balanced than the bundled tips, bringing the bass up to match the treble. The sound isolation–which, by the way, I tested by leaning into the industrial fan cooling my office–was more satisfying than the bundled tips too, though the fit wasn’t significantly more resilient or comfortable.

I tried going down to the medium size, but they fell out of my honking lugholes immediately. So then I went up to the large-large tips, and bloody hell! I’ve never had ear tips fit so comfortably, so strongly, and with such intense isolation! But here’s the kicker: the bass was overpowering. I’m a Beats fan, and even this was too much for me.

Linsoul TANGZU

The TANZU combo-pack comes with just three sizes–presumably small, medium and large–and no case this time, but I appreciate the colour-coding, and the texture embedded in the silicone made me feel like I was getting something special for my money.

I started out with the medium fit, which was optimistic. Anything narrower than a bottle cork just falls out of these satellite dishes. The large size, however, fit perfectly. I mean really perfectly; it felt great! Sadly, though, the audio was little high in the highs, and a little anaemic throughout. Not offensively so, but they didn’t compete with the Type Es.

SpinFit W1

Of all the SpinFit W1 packages to work through, I decided to start with the medium-size then ask my gut whether to open or return the larger and smaller sizes.

Now, I don’t know what SpinFit have done to the silicone here, but it feels fantastic! It’s grippy without being sticky, and if anything was going to stay put inside my trumpet holes then it had to be these.

And–oh, glorious day–the mediums were a perfect fit, comfortable as hell, and coaxed out the best quality of sound I’ve ever heard from my Hype 2’s. The treble was sharp, the bass was warm and defined. I actually got lost in the album and sat through another hour of my library before I forced myself back in front of the keyboard. Just beautiful!

More out of curiosity than necessity, I cracked open the large tips for a try. And I’m so grateful I did! The sound quality was indiscernible from the medium tips, but the comfort was a significant upgrade; not that the mediums needed it!

The SpinFit W1 had launched so far into the lead, was it possible for the DUNUs to catch up, let alone overtake?

Linsoul DUNU S&S

I tried to go into this comparison without a favourite in mind, but I have to admit I was predisposed to want the DUNUs. They come in a nice hard case, and they’re cylindrical rather than bulbous which my gut told me would fit great in my weird holes, and…

…well, they don’t fit me super well. And they don’t sound super great. The audio was balanced, if a bit murky in the highs. That was probably caused by the wonky fit and terrible isolation; a larger large would’ve suited me much better, I’m sure.

So yeah, I was disappointed, but how likely were they to beat those W1s anyway?

When all’s said and done…

I swapped the W1s back on, and oh boy! Especially in comparison to the DUNUs, the bass felt great, the details were beautiful, and I had a fucking fantastic afternoon listening to more of my favourite albums.

But which W1, though? Both the mediums and larges fit me well enough, so which one gets promoted to my daily driver?

You’d think from my initial thoughts up there that the larges would win, but you know what? After really, really spending time with both sizes, the mediums had the most comfortable and effective seal, and a more enjoyable bass.

So, that’s it! Do third-party IEM tips really make any difference? Absolutely, yes. And which ones am I using? SpinFit W1 mediums all the way, friends.