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Whether you are a touring musician, a player in a local band, or a music lover with a daily commute, insert ear monitors (IEMs) can be an indispensable part of your everyday life.  For those who delve deep enough into the water, a question often eventually surfaces: do I need custom IEMs?  It’s a good question, and there are several factors to consider:

Comfort

If you are wearing insert earphones for an extended period of time, comfort is a primary consideration.  Often users will opt for a custom mold as this is made specifically for their ear and can be easier to wear for hours on end.  When choosing a Westone Audio CIEM, there is also the option of our proprietary flex canal.  This is an alternative to the industry standard hard acrylic canal and uses a malleable material that softens as it warms in the ear, providing more comfort.  The flex canal comes standard on the hand-poured Elite Series (ES) line of Westone Audio custom IEMs.  The 3D printed ES and AC lines of CIEMS are available with hard acrylic only.

That said, there are some users that prefer the comfort and fit of a universal IEM.  One of the hallmarks of Westone Audio universal IEMs is a smaller eartip stem (aka nozzle) than other IEMs on the market.  The practical upside of this is that the eartip has more space to compress and move to fit the geometry of your ear canal.  The key to a comfortable fit with a universal IEM is that you don’t want anything hard pressing against the inside of the ear canal.  With an eartip mounted on a larger diameter nozzle, there’s nowhere for the eartip to flex to, resulting in a shallower, less comfortable fit.  A shallower fit will also reduce isolation from external sounds (more on that later).  Because of this, Westone Audio universal fit IEMS are more comfortable, often rivaling our custom IEMs.

Aesthetics and Personalization

One of the special aspects of CIEMs is the ability to truly make the earphone your own.  You can choose the body color, faceplate color, connector type and even add custom artwork.  Simply put, universal IEMs don’t offer the same experience in this regard.  For stage use, CIEMs also offer the ability to choose less visually conspicuous options compared to most universal IEMs (although the clear-bodied Pro X line of earphones are a fairly invisible universal option).  Conversely, custom IEMs also offer the user the option to choose more striking color options to stand out on stage in a style that is uniquely theirs. 

Serviceability and Long-Term Use

Another advantage of CIEMs is their long-term serviceability.  Westone Audio’s custom lab often repairs CIEMs many years after they were manufactured.  Due to the materials used in CIEM manufacture, it’s far easier to open them, clean things up, and get them back into working order without ruining the aesthetics of the earpieces.  One thing that should also be kept in mind is that human ears continue to grow as we age, so it’s not uncommon for CIEMs to have fit issues (particularly maintain a seal) after 5 years or so.  There are exceptions to this, of course, so it is possible that a pair of custom IEMS will still fit after 5 years, but it is something to be mindful of.  If you find that your CIEMs don’t fit quite as well as they used to, they can be reshelled for a nominal fee.  On the other hand, long-term fit with universal IEMs is less of an issue as you can always switch to a different eartip should you run into fit issues over time.
Isolation from External Sounds

Isolation is one of the primary reasons that IEM use has grown significantly over the last 20 years.  As musicians have become much savvier about the dangers of hearing damage, professionals and amateurs alike have migrated towards IEM use on stage.  One of the most misunderstood elements of custom vs universal IEMs is attenuation of outside noise.  Conventional wisdom is that CIEMs have higher attenuation since they are molded specifically to one’s ears.  On average, this may be true, but it’s more of a function of poor fitting that some users experience with universal IEMs.  A properly fit CIEM should yield 25-30dB of attenuation (higher dB of attenuation, means more external sound is blocked).  The same holds true for a universal fit IEM with a silicone tip.  In a perfect world, you can often achieve a bit higher level of attenuation with deeply inserted foam eartip.  Ultimately, attenuation is more a function of fit than anything else.  When it comes to IEMs, getting a good seal is paramount.  Without a seal, you aren’t getting the protection that you need in noisy environments.  With the right custom earpiece or universal eartip, you should be able to achieve good isolation.

So, What Should You Get?

There really isn’t a wrong answer when it comes to custom or universal IEMs.  If you want a simpler, off-the-shelf solution without the hassle of having to get ear impressions taken, universal IEMs can be a great solution.  You can still get wonderful sound quality, comfort and noise isolation (and can even share them with a friend or bandmate should you so choose).  If you want a bit more personalized solution, a pair of custom IEMs may be the way to go.  Whatever you choose, it’s important to make sure that a proper fit is achieved, or you will miss out on the best sound quality and noise isolation that good IEMS have to offer.