irish_admiral
From Cardiff Vineyard
Hey...
Thought I would do a quick heads up for those of you who - like me - had toyed with the idea of having some custom IEMs done, but were put off by (a) the price, (b) the prospect of putting hard plastic in your ears and (c) didn't know much.
I've come across a company called Minerva - local to me, funnily enough - who are doing IEMs. They've done hearing aids etc for the NHS in the UK for years. Anyway, they've recently chopped the price of all of their IEMs. The single drivers are £150, dual drivers £250 and triples £350. Compare this to what Ultimate Ears would charge you, and it's quite a saving.
They will also make the IEMs in medical grade silicone for you if you prefer, which is what I think i'm going to do, as I lead worship, and I know that the ear canal moves as you move your jaw.
It's not a recommendation - yet - as i've not tried them, but i'm probably going to get a pair of the duals for Xmas (selling a few things on eBay to fund it). There's been some pretty good feedback thus far, and if anything, they'll make some good iPod earphones.
They should be good quality too, as there are only two IEM speaker driver manufacturers in the world, so it'll be one of the two! The other thing is the ear impressions, and given that they've been doing hearing aid work for ages, they should be fine...
... think i'm talking myself into it here...
Anyway, just a heads-up for anyone who was looking as they're doing a minor Xmas promo as well.
Cool, those sound like a good deal, the website's pretty good and i like that there's lots of optional extras as well.
Like kevlar protected cables - sounds a little excessive but pretty darn cool.
If they turn out good i might be quite tempted myself once i finally make up my mind on which IEM transmitter and receiver I want.
so you buy some IEM how do you then rig everything up so you can get a signal to them? I know silly question but do you need to buy more than just the little things that sit in your ear?!
They do open mouth cus your ear canal opens up when you open your mouth so they're slightly bigger when they're made and hence a better seal. If you're a singer (i.e. regularly opening your mouth when wearing the IEMs) they do a 'bigger' open mouth one so the fit is still good while you open your mouth (and ear canal) to sing. A friend has the ACS squidgy silicon ones and says they're great and really comfy - especially if you wear them all day (he's a pro live sound engineer) and they're as good sound quality as hard UEs (which he's had before) with an equivalent number of drivers. The hard ones (which i've got) are great but can get a wee irritating/itchy if you have an all day rehearsal then gig. They sound incredible though!
H
Pauline
You get an In Ear Monitor unit... they can be wireless or wired. So in the case of the first, it's like a preacher with a wireless tie-clip or Britney style head mic. The mic itself is wired to a small bodypack, which transmits wirelessly to a receiver by the mixing desk.
A wireless IEM works the other way around - you take an Auxiliary mix off the mixing desk, and send it to a wireless IEM transmitter. This transmits a signal to a body pack on the musician, into which their earphones are plugged!
You can also get IEM units which are wired straight to the multicore, stage box or mixing desk, just like a normal stage wedge.
Henry - yeah.
The normal advice for the silicone mould is just to relax your jax, not necessarily to have it wide open. That's what put me off the acrylic ones though, as the stem is as wide as possible, so it means when your jaw moves when you sing, you're pressing on it all the time. So I went for the squashy ones.
I asked Minerva whether they'd had much to do with ACS, they said they'd spoken to them a bit initially, but their aim was to set up in direct competition to them. They're about the same on the speaker technology, but have got an edge in the moulds as they do so many of them for the NHS.
They've cut the prices as they can afford to do so given the volume they can churn out... be interesting to see if ACS follow suit!
Anyway, i'll report back in a couple of weeks on the sound quality.
As a drummer I can get away with a wired IEM system so I am using a Behringer headphone amp daisy chained off the foldback speakers. It works well but as the whole foldback system is new there is still a learning curve and I'm not sure that the desk is correctly configured for it?
I found a battery powered unit but the cost was not justifiable at this time.
http://www.thomann.de/gb/fischer_amps_inear_monitor_bp.htm?sid=a835f0b1a7327dc02b4d5b6e0acc1d01
irish_admiral
Did the sound improve much from the custom moulds? I just sent away for some! :D
Hey...
I've only used them a few times so far with my iPod, and not to lead yet, but the sound quality seems good, and the fit is comfortable, once you get used to something being jammed down your ear canal that is!
There's still some occlusion effect, but i'll have to try them out with the monitor mix being fed back down my ears to see if it is a problem.
Other than that, they look, feel and sound like a quality product, so i'm quite happy with them, subject to stage use. As iPod earphones they're nice. They block out tons of sound, and give quite a faithful reproduction of the sound. I was speaking to the sales director and he said he thought the duals had quite a strong bass response, but i've found them to be pretty balanced whilst using my iPod.
A word of warning... crap mixes and recordings are showed up for what they are! Good ones are great to listen to...
What's the website for this company, Joe?
http://www.minerva-hearingprotection.co.uk/
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Brief update - I had the impressions done today.
They shove a small piece of foam on a string past the 2nd bend in your ear, then squirt goo into each ear. It feels a touch weird, but it cures in a handful of minutes and then the guy just pulled it out. Really odd as you see just how far into your ear the stuff has gone.
Bit weird, but not as weird as doing it for hard plastic IEMs! Nigel from my old church said that when he had his Ultimate Ears done, it had to be an open jaw impression, and you have to sit there for about 20 minutes with drool running down your chin. This was much easier!
Anyway, my IEMs should be back in a week or so, so i'll report back.
Minerva certainly pass the first test for customer service anyway - chap who sorted me out took the trouble to explain everything and give me a small factory tour afterwards.
Joe
"One, two, three, here we go..."
www.myspace.com/josephhargreaves