You may have stumbled upon this blog entry because somehow having your own Custom In Ear Monitors (CIEM) piqued your interest and now you're scouring the web for impressions or reviews before you spend at least 8,000 to 15,000 pesos.
I am telling you as early as now, have a pair made ASAP.
It doesn't take a genius to tell that 15,000 pesos for a CIEM is a hell of a deal, especially in the Philippines where the closest option you had for one was Unique Melody which I never bothered to consider because of the prohibitive cost and the effort it took to send ear impressions overseas. With Flipears, you just have to go a bit of ways down south in Las Piñas to get your ear impressions made, wait a couple of weeks, either pick it up there or have it LBC-ed to your place. This is as cheap and easy as it gets for the common Filipino.
When I had one made, it took a while for me take the leap, I spent a lot of time studying customs, universals, balanced armature drivers, and dynamic drivers, and I really urge you to know the difference between your Knowles ED, CI, TEC, FED, DTEC, TWFK, WBFK, HODVTEC - it's an alphabet soup, yes, but the knowledge will be valuable if you're particular with the sound you would want to hear. I'm convinced that more drivers doesn't make for a significantly better product, case in point the Ultimate Ears Reference Monitors, or the Westone 4R. Google them (especially Westone 4R vs Westone 3) If you want to know what's in them, check this google document which lists what's inside most of the custom and universal earphones. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1jguxmYfEmZdHEGIUDvQUnfm3vhxo51WeNKKG0_oRtMA/pub?output=html&richtext=true#
After pages of Head-fi, Cymbacavum, and other websites, I felt like I knew enough to really get into details with the master craftsman of Flipears himself, Aries Sales. My questions to him were many and my curiosity was relentless that at some point I feel like I have been bordering on annoying, but I was operating on the pretense that I wanted to most out of my money because let's face it, 15,000 is exorbitant for "just a pair of earphones".
After weeks of discussion, I ended up having my ear impressions made and Pro Tip #1: NEVER get your ear impressions done after having gone through a plane ride that made the insides of your ear hurt like hell. I'm pretty sure Aries and his partner will do their best to make sure you get a good pair of ear impressions. And if in the end you wish there were improvements on the fit, they will be more than willing to help you with that at no cost to anyone... well except shipping fee.
What really stood out for me for Flipears is Aries' openness to discuss with you on how the CIEM will be set up, I had specifically asked for a CI+TWFK, similar to the drivers inside a Westone UM3X, or a Knowles GK set up. Furthermore, I asked for the CI to be dampened with the red filter and the TWFK to be undampened as is. It's important that you really discuss with Aries what you want out from his work, and with the level of thoroughness I had in discussions with him, I was particularly surprised when there were capacitors and resistors on the final product, which turned out for the better, however with me being so particular about most details, I wish I had known before hand so I could've had inputs regarding what to do with the caps and resistors, which by mere speculation, would more or less turn out like the final product.
And that is the beauty with Flipears, you have the luxury to really get in touch with the man who will create your pair of custom earphones which allows for an immense level of customization, and I feel that's what they ought to tell their prospective customers more, that with the right amount of knowledge with basic electronics and sound signatures of balanced armature drivers, you can truly make a pair of earphones customized to your ear anatomy and sound preference... except for bassheads who love their "mud", maybe.
Now speaking of bassheads, such as myself, balanced armature drivers such as those found in CIEMs will most definitely not suffice. I was particularly surprised when I found the bass lacking in tracks I trusted with my recabled Sennheiser ie8s. Don't get me wrong though, the bass in the CIs were there to deliver but not to the bloated extent of dynamic drivers found in the ie8. I just have to get the seal real tight to get the most of the bass.
Now with the level of detail that these CIEMs have, they are nothing short of mind blowing. If TVs had 4K resolutions, this would be the earphone equivalent of it. Back then, I spent more money for earphones just to hear parts of the recording that were indiscernible with a pair of stock earphones. I thought I had heard everything high bitrate music files had to offer, for spending quadruple digits on earphones as my budget allowed, I had thought I reached the 1080p of music. But then these earphones got lodged into my canals
and the tweeter half of the TWFK, which is the WBFK, lends itself well to ensure that you get sound so detailed and so accurate that you start hearing mistakes in the recording by the artists themselves that may have gone unnoticed through studio monitors.
With that being said, the my Flipears CIEM can get very "honest", and by "honest" I mean if the song you're listening to has been poorly recorded, mastered or transcoded, you will be hearing poor sound quality. So spending 15,000 will ensure that your music will be perfectly replicated, but spending such amount will not ensure that you'll be hearing good music. If you want to maximize your experience, do yourself a favor, invest on downloading high bitrate torrents, o least 320kbps. Let not Aries' craftsmanship get wasted on poor sounding tracks, his work deserves so much better.
If you're still on the fence whether you'll be buying Flipears or not, I just want you to remember one thing: that where you spend your peso is a vote on what you support and believe in. You have a pioneer in Philippine CIEMs in Aries Sales, you either support him or the audiophile behemoths abroad such as Ultimate Ears, Unique Melody, etc. Either way, you'll be getting awesome music blasted in your ears, you'll be winning.
It's your choice whether who would you want to win with you.
