impressions for in-ear monitors for artist Darius Rucker...

Looks like I get the honor of providing my Hearing/Ear services for Mr. Darius Rucker tonite after his concert at the Fox Theater here in Bakersfield. He will have 2 tickets waiting for me and i'll provide my magic after his show per his request. He will be getting new in-ear monitors and I will provide the impressions of his ears.

I look forward to this great performance tonite!!! Now would be the time for a nice Ascend Acoustics shirt to wear!

I'll post a pic of him and I asap ; )


Brian in Bakersfield...

http://www.dariusrucker.com/event/all/april_28_2011-3

Update: Last nite was awesome to say the least. We really enjoyed the personal pre-concert "meet and greet" and are waiting to get our picture that we took with him.

I honestly felt like I was included within their private circle and felt like part of his family group. Everyone there was real and so down to earth and just reminds me why we connect with such a talented artist as Darius. The royal treatment was really appreciated and enjoyed but as a servant I felt I didn't deserve such a wonderful welcoming. I'm just a purpose driven man who makes mistakes, loves my family, and takes my vitamins. This was totally unexpected and we are forever one of their biggest promoters.

Passion for sound is something one cannot turn off or on and believe me we conversed about sound, in-ear performance, and making sound that much better. I'm honored to have been welcomed and escorted to their individual bus by security amongst the crowd, that was way cool. My wife and I really appreciated everything they did for us.

Brian in Bakersfield...

Excellent!!

I couldn't upload the photo here so here's a link to Home Theater Shack with a pic next to one of his trailers. I just need an Ascend shirt...:D

http://www.hometheatershack.com/foru...tml#post434538



Brian in Bakersfield...

I just bought a pair of 'relatively' inexpensive IEM's, I went with etymotic hf3, mostly because I wanted a microphone as well-- and it's what bestbuy had, I used up a gift card to pay for 2/3's of it; else I might have went with something a little less well known.
I'm curious, what IEM did you make impressions for? I'm going to guess... shure 535? I really have no idea, just figured if I was a well-known artist I'd buy something nice and expensive haha. Supposedly Earsonics has a great set.

Heh, thanks for your response. When discussing options and current problems they were having with their existing units the amount of drivers internally may solve their problems. They were blowing drivers. Also loosing weight or gaining weight will cause them to not fit since your ear canal size changes with body weight and Mr. Rucker has lost a bunch of weight.

We talked about Westone products with their amazing ability to make great fitting products and per the keyboard artist Ultimate Ears will be their flavor of choice. They also make great product and are in Orange County north of Ascend facility. Here's a link to what they will get...only the best is what they deserve! :D

http://ultimateears.com/en-us/products/18-pro

oh my!! $1350!!!!

for logitech that seems ballsy haha, i bet they sound phenomenal though. at that point i'd consider JH's pair as well. have you ever used etymotic's iem's? ive read a few reviews on how un-lively they are, very precise sounding though.

I have a deep history with Etymotic Research. In the 90's while working for a hearing aid manufacturer in Oklahoma we did research on their directional microphones they created. Trying to get them to work with programmable hearing aids and digital hearing devices was a huge task. The impedance was over driving the amplifier processors. Dr. Killion is a genious and is the real deal when it comes to auditory research. He thinks outside the box which is way cool with me!

What makes an in-ear monitor better than others is this, the crossover network, and the amount of drivers sharing the chores of creating sound. Think of the UE monitors for Darius as a mini 5 way loudspeaker with a heavily engineered crossover splitting the signal. It's really just like a loudspeaker. Crossover, amount of drivers and quality of drivers used, all those things minus the enclosure though.

i somewhat gathered the crossover with mutliple drivers makes a huge impact-- which makes me curious why etymotic has not moved forward in a while with their iems.
i also find it funny how expensive iems seem, but when compared to home stereos and their static placement-- iems are such a bargain!

To give you an idea of how much in-ear medical devices like hearing aids cost this will reflect how affordable music devices are:

1. Cochlear implants with all pre and post services included (Surgery, therapy, rehab): 60K one ear/side average North American rate
2. TransEar device for single sided deafness: $3500 one ear average Central CA price
3. High end Digital Hearing Aids (active lifestyle, Datalogging, almost a terabyte of memory, remote control, wireless connectivity to tv and bluetooth): $6600-$8200 pair
4. Basic Digital Hearing Aids (non-active, nursing home): $1490 a pair

With government and corporate health care in effect add at least 10% for taxes to these prices soon as Obama-Care goes to town on the medical world. Currently there is zero tax on medical devices like hearing aids, that will soon change. How does one put a price on the emotional connection sound gives us as we live our lives, talk with friends, listen to our children sing a song, or the quiet whisper your first born makes? Corporate health care is not for me!

i just got my pair of etymotics, they're great. the detail of sound is superb considering where they fall in the scale of other IEM's.

i hear ya on the pricing structure of medical equipment- it's always so ridiculous; what you wrote really puts into perspective consumer grade equipment like IEM's.

in my opinion some of the good parts about an IEM: the music is right inside my head, it's detailed and not necessarily loud, it isolates the outside, soundstage is easily placed and rather wide.

some of the bad sides i feel: music is right in my head haha, im unsure how 'live' and in your face it makes the music feel, soundstage is different than from my home system; no longer infront of me and seems more 2-dimensional and reaching out to my sides.

what are some of your favorite iem's? if you use any that is.

Any of the Westone products are awesome and i've tried all but the best Ultimate Ears. It is very different and takes time to get use to the Occlusion effect and when they are too hot you then suffer from Ampclusion. Occlusion can sometimes give you as much as a increase of 20db from 500hz on down so you then need a stronger mix just top take you back to normal then amplification on top of that so it can really mess some of our natural senses and abilities when it comes to localization and dimension. Your experiencing some of the side effects of occluding the ear or plugging it up. Crazy when you really think about the science side of our ears and how we hear.

It's all in the mix, just like its all in the crossovers.