I see many people in my office who want to enhance their music listening experience through the use of custom-fit earphones. There are two basic options for custom earpieces for personal listening: either a universal-fit earphone with a custom mold attached, or an entirely custom-fit earphone, such as those used by musicians as in-ear monitors. In the first category are higher-end earphones such as the Shure SE series, the Westone universal fit series (e.g. the Westone 3), and the Future Sonics Atrios, as well as more basic earphones such as those that come standard with your iPod. Custom earmolds can be attached to any of these earphones for an improved listening experience. At the other end of the spectrum are custom-fit units in which the entire earphone is built into a custom shell. These are often used for performing musicians' monitoring needs, but can be used for a high-end personal music experience as well. Custom earphones are available from JH Audio, Future Sonics, Westone, and a handful of other manufacturers. For those of you audiophiles who want to get into the nitty gritty of what this is all about, check out the discussion forums here: www.head-fi.org. Whichever way you go, you'll find that custom molds, even when used with more basic earphones, can provide enhanced bass response, better isolation from outside noise (leading to the ability to hear the music at a lower, safer volume), and superior comfort.
