Etymotic Research ER38-14F Foam Replacement Eartips - 10 Pack - Black

I use my Ety's every time I ride my motorcycle. I realize their dB rating is only 10-12 but I also run with baffles in my exhaust, and a fairly quiet Shoei X-Fourteen helmet to begin with. These tips wear out in about 2 weeks of 6-day-a-week use. You might get them to stay in your ears longer, but they just don't rebound as well anymore, so I would just suggest replacing them every other Monday morning or something, like I do. $10 covers me for 2 months of riding, and that's not bad. I didn't like other earplug options, so these do the trick. Not the cheapest, but certainly comfortable and a good enough sound reduction rating.

I bought these in an attempt to make my own workshop earbuds that could cut out the noise of a table saw. I knew my headphones wouldn't fit these eartips becasue of the bore. Etymotic has about a 3.0mm hole for the eartip to fit on. most earbuds (including every pair of mine) has about a 4.9mm hole for ear buds. However I had faith that I could get something to work.It actually wasn't very difficult at all. I'm not advocating you do this and I'm sure Etymotic isn't advocating it either but all I had to do was take some pliers and remove the grey tube inside of the tips. This leaves a hole which is about 4.9MM and easily fits on all my headphones.I tested these with many headphones and to quantify the isolation I would put on some music and see how loud it had to be for me to be able to hear it. With these eartips and nosie cancellation on I only had to have my music at about 35% which was fantastic. Without noise cancelling on I had to go up to about 60% which is ok but I wanted better.One thing that's very interesting is of my noise cancelling headphones only one actually worked with these tips. Some of my other headphones seemed to be out of wack and didn't cancel noise anymore but just introduced some white hiss noise.My final setup (for now I guess) is to use these tips on my Ausounds Au-Flex headphones (those headphones are super awesome BTW). I don't recommend using them for any Anker headphones. I tried them on my P3 and my Liberty Pro 2 and neither were optimal. the P3 were a pair of headphones that broke the noise cancellation. Also neither could fit in their case anymore. The Ausounds are a neckband headphone so there was no worry about the charging case. Actually I'd venture a guess that no TWS headphones would be able to charge with these on.Or you could just get some etymotic headphones and use them the way they are designed.... but where is the fun in that?

The only complaint I have about these foam tips are1) Stiffness. I am almost certain that the original foamy ones that came with my er3xr are softer. But these looks as authentic as they can be and does work the same as the original ones.2) Doesn't expand as fast as the original ones. This complaint is along the same line as #1. Needs to hold the tips in position longer for them to expands and fill the space inside the ear canal. Not a big deal3) Longevity. This is the main problem. The tips lost about 80% of their "squishy-ness" within a month of two at most. At that point foam will not expand fully to fill the space and barely usable as they will lose isolation (and then sound quality) when you turn your head sideways or something like that which make them lose inside your ears. A week after that the foam will completely detach itself from the plastic tube that go over the metal body. At that point you have to discard the ear tips for a new pair. I tried gluing the foam back on the plastic tube with some E6000 but doesn't work.4) Dirtiness. The foam will be coated with ear wax after some use. Kind of gross. It can be partially clean by gently wiping the ear wax off but eventually it will become saturated. Warm water will clean the wax but it will also loosen the glue that hold the foam and the plastic tube together.Bottom line: Good isolation and sound quality, but need to be replaced almost monthly.

Buyer beware:If you are a daily all-day user of in-ear monitors, like me, then be prepared to be ordering these about every two to three months. Your mileage will vary, of course, but in my opinion, these wear out far too quickly for what they charge (although I'm not surprised, given the name).The inevitable absorbance of in-ear moisture over time will harden the foam, making it more difficult to conform to your ear canal, thus hampering the seal and overall comfort. Worse still, the adhesive they use to secure the rubber nozzle is absurdly weak and WILL cause separation from the tip. If (more likely 'when') this happens, there's a chance it will occur whilst removing the earbud, leaving the foam piece lodged deep in your ear canal. Please be careful.All that said, it performs in spades, as advertised, and you won't likely be disappointed. That is, until you need to continue re-ordering them when they eventually fail, but such is the nature of memory foam, I suppose.

I originally got a set of Etymotics earbuds to use primarily as earplugs at my office - putting in actual earplugs seemed kind of passive-aggressive, whereas wearing headphones is pretty standard. I found the foam tips the most effective, but unfortunately they do wear out and get grungy rather quickly. I was happy to find a 10-pack of replacements at such a reasonable price.

Best fitting eartips period! Just what I was looking (listening) for. Doesn't fall out or have to fidget with while running. Impeccable sound due to the form fitting foam & noise cancelation by physical design. However, if you try to use them with any other earbuds, they will split & become unusable. I went through a couple trying to "make" them fit. Finally bought the kid's version of Etymotic brand earbuds and they went on without any fuss. Great concept & idea. Just wish they made a universal fitting foam set that went with the more common earbuds out there. Regardless, they are my go to set if I know I'll be around any other noise other than a quite room.