This is Tech

As an update to my post about the difference between the customer service at Shure and Sensaphonics, I finally received by custom sleeves for my Shure E3 earphones, and thought I would share my impressions of the final product. By way of background, Shure makes high end in-ear earphones. Shure earphones are expensive but isolate the sound and block out outside noise. They are fantastic. Sensaphonics is a company that makes custom in-ear monitors for musicians and high end personal use. They offer custom fit silicon sleeves for the Shure E3 earphones. These sleeves are custom molded to fit your ear canal and intended to provide even better sound quality and comfort.

After months, when they finally arrived, the right side worked great, but the insert for the left ear had been molded improperly. Due to a manufacturing error the channel in the silicon that the sound should go through did not connect from where the Shure’s go into the inserts to where the sound would enter my ear. Instead there was a second misformed channel that didn’t line up properly with the sleeve. When I returned to the audiologist to have them look at the sleeves, they indicated that the problem was with my earphones, not the sleeves. At first I didn’t believe this, since my headphones worked great before I tried them with the sleeves, but upon inspection, the sound was much quieter coming out of the left earphone.

Believing that the Shures were defective, I got in touch with customer service at Shure again and they replaced the E3’s within a week and a half. Shure’s customer service is incredible. Their products are expensive, but they absolutely stand behind them, and they sound great. When I got the new earphones from Shure, the left Sensaphonic sleeve still didn’t work, which I realized was because the channel in the silicon dead ended. This dead end had caused by E3s to fill with silicon and apparently was the reason they stopped working in the first place.

After visiting the audiologist for the fourth time, they indicated that if I just twist the left earphone in the sleeve, I can get sound to come out. This is not the natural position for the earphones in the sleeve, so every time I use them I have to retwist the earphones into the proper position to hear anything out of my left ear. I contacted Sensaphonics again, and they indicated that they would make another left side sleeve for me, but that I should expect it to take as long as it took for the first set to come back (i.e., 3 months).

At this point, I am crossing my fingers and hoping that the new sleeves will come soon. In the mean time, I can give some preliminary feedback on the comfort and quality of sound I get from the Sensaphonic sleeves. When sound comes out of the left side, they sound great, but the much hyped comfort and sound isolation are a bit over blown. The sound quality is great, but not better than the replaceable sleeves that come with the Shure E3s. The Shure sleeves are also more comfortable than the Sensaphonics. My custom sleeves fit my ear perfectly, but go to deep into my ear canal which I find a bit uncomfortable. After wearing the custom buds for an hour my ears start to itch. They also stick out of my ear further than the standard Shure sleeves, which looks strange, and makes it less comfortable to sleep with the Sensaphonics in.

I plan on giving the Sensaphonics a bit more use to see if my experience gets better. It is possible that a properly formed left sleeve will make a difference. For now, my conclusion is that they weren’t worth the $140, four trips to the audiologist and 3 months of waiting.