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Gear$$$Expensive: Several hundred dollars and up.Ultimate Ears

Custom in-ear monitors

Molded earpieces built from a cast of your own ears

Each pair starts with an audiologist taking an impression of your ears, and the maker builds a sealed earpiece with several drivers around that cast. Musicians wear them on stage. Podcast hosts wear them so a co-host's voice does not bleed back into the microphone. The seal blocks outside noise without any electronics doing the work, so nothing needs turning up to compete with a room. Weeks to make, hundreds of dollars at minimum.

Who backs it

Sorted by strength of stance

  • Technology writer · 512 Pixels and Relay

    Swapped a pair of Sony MDR-7506 headphones, which he describes as boring but reliable, for custom Ultimate Ears 7 CSX in-ear monitors.

    Source: 512 Pixels: My Gear

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Gear entry · notes paraphrased from cited sources, quoted excerpts copied from the transcript they link to. Not medical advice. Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or reviewed by anyone listed. How this works.