Custom ear buds ( ipod ) \ musician ear monitors question

[guroo270]

Hello all,
I'm new to the forum and wanted you guys' input. I work in audiologists office and we are having more people asking for custom earmolds for ipods. We work with Westone and know they are a good company, but don't know how good their custom in ear monitors sound. Also, as an audiophile myself I am considering getting some, but first wanted to hear what the community had to say. We want to do more and more of these so...what custom ear monitors (I think the difference between in ear monitors and custom ear buds are that custom ear monitors have the circuitry placed inside the custom mold whereas the custom ear buds are earmolds that have a place where you can plug in an earbud into the custom mold) sound the best?
Is it worth it to get the monitors, or should we encourage people to buy shure ear buds and plug them into our custom molds?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[jamie2112]

I have a pair of Future Sonics and Sensaphones and they are great ........FWIW the Westones are a VERY good company and if you already work with them then I would go with it.....

 

[guroo270]

do you have the future sonics monitors ($900) or the earbud sleves?
any input on sinlge driver, dual driver, tri driver?
(we "heard" that having multiple drivers in such a small space can cause high frequency distortion...no?)

 

[guroo270]

I'm also curious about what you guys think about venting them. Some patients are not going to enjoy the occlusion of the ear canal. I'm sure venting gets rid of some of their capacity to reduce outside noises, but any input on what it does to sound? Thanks.
Edit: the main problem with using Westone is that they DO NOT ALLOW REFUNDS. It makes things a lot tougher on us. We are thinking about using Microtech/Starkey Tunz to see if people like the feel, then if they need better sound quality, stepping up to the Westone.

 

[jamie2112]

do you have the future sonics monitors ($900) or the earbud sleves?
any input on sinlge driver, dual driver, tri driver?
(we "heard" that having multiple drivers in such a small space can cause high frequency distortion...no?)

Triple drivers are the best as they give you the whole spectrum of frequencies.I have never heard of Microtech at all.Call Marty Garcia at Futuresonics and he will be able to talk to you.He is a very acessible guy and super tuned in to IEM's.He was also one of the first to do them...