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Since you asked...
Originally Posted by RJVB
I've been using IEMs since about 2018. Before that, I used foam earplugs for over 30 years on all but solo or small group quiet gigs. I always hated earplugs because they felt weird, I couldn't enjoy the sound of my guitar, and I was never completely sure I wasn't playing too loudly or too quietly so I was always asking others if my volume was OK. I discovered that there was a set of Shure PSM900 systems at my regular twice-weekly gig, so I decided to try them and just plugged my ordinary high end corded ear buds into the wireless belt pack receiver. I loved it! Good ear buds and IEMs are as effective as foam plugs at attenuating external noise, so the buds worked well just to reduce external SPL by about 20 dB at 1 kHZ and up to 30+ dB in the highs. Being able to hear everything well was a bonus.
About 2 years ago, I bought a set of BASN B SInger Pro IEMs on the recommendation of a friend who used high end Shures and others for years but discovered that the $50 BASNs sounded very close to as good, were more comfortable and stable, and cost about 1/5 as much as the intermediate Shures she was using (the top Shures are $1k). They come in a good little zipped carrying case and are cheap enough so that she could have several pairs to keep in travel bags, car etc.
I don't use them on solo or quieter small group dates, but they're essential for me on gigs that have me sitting even close to loud drummers and/or in front of horns or big amplifiers. I've used them on about 100 blues gigs and maybe 50 jazz dates in 2 years, so I learned how to get the most from them. They're very light, and the shaped body makes them more stable than little round buds. You do have to find the right sized tips for them, so that they stay in your ear canals without getting loose, causing discomfort, or losing a complete seal. I use Comply tips, which are very comfortable and seal perfectly but only last a few months of frequent stage use before tearing.
The beauty of IEMs is that you can hear what you want to hear at a level comfortable to you while blocking enough external sound to protect your hearing. The down side is that what you hear isn't up to you in most cases. The transmitter has to be fed a signal, and you only hear what's in that signal. My regular gig is at a club with a huge board that can send a different mix to each IEM transmitter. The problem is in getting the right mix for you, so you're completely dependent on the sound person to feed you what you need. If you're getting an accurate mix that reflects how loud you are relative to the rest of the band, you're way ahead of the game. But if it's off, you may be too loud or too soft, and you have no way of knowing unless someone tells you. And IEMs work best if there are no stage monitors. If you can hear a monitor with a different mix from yours, you lose some of the balance you need. I'm used to that problem, because only the drummer and I wear them in the blues band and the stage monitors are all live. I've been various Dumble clone pedals for years (I'm currently wedded to a Smokin Amp Company Zensation) and set it so that I know if I'm getting too loud because the breakup starts to get gritty.
Last night, the drummer and bass player from my blues band and I backed Robert Lighthouse (a great blues singer and guitarist originally from Sweden who plays multiple styles on everything from a single cone resonator to a Supro solid body to a dread). During the afternoon rehearsal, he wasn't happy with my volume - sometimes it was too loud, others too soft for him. He was using multiple amps for his guitars and harmonica, and I just wasn't getting a good mix of it all in my IEMs (and couldn't get the sound guy to fix it for me - don't ask why, because it's complicated and frustrating). Robert understood that I wear IEMs to protect my hearing, and he promised to keep the volume down if I'd try it without the IEMs. That was the key - I could hear everything perfectly, and the whole night was fantastic without my IEMs.
You can't use IEMs unless you have a signal source, a transmitter to receive the signal, and a wearable receiver into which you plug rhem. It's best if everybody in the band is using them and there's a house sound system to mix the signal for each transmitter. You could just stick a wireless mic out in front to the band (or whichever part of it is the biggest driver of your volume and playing) and plug the mic's receiver into an amplifier that can drive your IEMs. This is far from ideal and not likely to work for most because it's impossible to control the mix you're hearing. To use IEMs effectively, you really need to do it right.
Would I buy the BASNs again? Absolutely! They sound very good, they're comfortable, and they've held up so well that I'd replace them in a heartbeat. I do have custom ear molds that I had made up as ear plugs a few years ago. They have a hole in them into which the IEM driver housing fits and in which I put attenuating filters when I got them. But they're not as comfortable as Comply tips on the BASNs, so I don't use them. I've used the $100 Shures, and they sound the same but tend toward looseness since the fit depends solely on the tip's retention in the ear canal. I've also tried the $1k Shures at a dealer, and they do sound fantastic - but not 20 times better than the BASNs. There are "better" BASNs with multiple or larger drivers, and there are many similar brands and models available on line. I've been happy with the $50 ones, although I may upgrade to the $100 BASNs if and when these need replacement, just to see if there are more subtle benefits.
In summary, I'd much rather play without anything in my ears and that's what I do whenever my hearing isn't threatened. But if it gets at all loud, I wear my IEMs in venues that have a house sound system able to feed my transmitter plus a sound person able to give me a good mix. And if it's a loud gig without a system to drive IEMs, I wear foam ear plugs.
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06-09-2024 03:23 PM
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Thanks! Seems I guessed right about how they're supposed to work - a bit like shooting-range cans but without the internal pass-through mic.
I don't play in situations where I'd need more than passive plugs (foam or fancier things) at most. But I've been thinking of doing some duo playing with a friend back home in which case it would probably be a good idea to hear myself through the same channels as I hear her, rather than directly. I'd probably need a pretty severe attenuation of ambient sound though...
I already looked those BASNs up on A'zon and was a bit surprised at how many people find they don't last (over 10% or 2 and 1 star evals). Plus, in-ears tend to come loose pretty easily for maybe, maybe because of perspiration (which itself will cause irresistible itches). I'd need to look into those Comply tips, maybe (could test them with my Klipsch in-ears, if they exist for the old model I have).
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Kudos to them for also listing compatibility with "ancient" earbuds like the Klipsch Image S4II which are hopefully similar enough to my own S4I (bought in 2007 I saw). Originally Posted by nevershouldhavesoldit
Which model do you use? The "Pro" version looks interesting as an optimal sound blocker but isn't there a risk that the sound channel will remain compressed and the sound from the phones is blocked too?
Lifetime on the normal model is listed as 2-3 months, which I find short given the cost they represent. I wash my foam earplugs with some regularity to get rid of all the crud they accumulate (esp. the ones I sleep with), I wonder if that would be an option with this Complies (?) too?
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I use the Comply 500 tips - they only list one model for my BASNs. I suspect that the short projected life span is based on using them several days a week. I got about 2 years from my first 3 pack wearing them 6 to 8 hours a week. The failure mode was a rip in the foam that kept them from sealing. Originally Posted by RJVB
Wearing them all night every night, I suspect that 3 months is about right.
I don’t know if they’ll survive washing - I never tried. I don’t shed much wax or other debris in or on them. What little there is lifts out of the channel easily with a toothpick and wipes off the outside with a tissue.
They are expensive. But they’re the most comfortable tips I’ve ever used. They seal well and block noise as well as the best foam plugs I’ve used. I’ve had irritation from other tips that made it impossible to use anything for a week or more. I’ve been using Comply tips on all my earbuds for a few years with absolutely no problems.
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The trick will probably be to use hand-warm water and a very mild detergent. And it may not be necessary if they don't have a spongy texture. But in that case that evokes another general question I have: Originally Posted by nevershouldhavesoldit
Even wearing open-back over-ear cups provokes increased perspiration in me that leads to irresistible itches and will probably only get worse by inserting something that jams up in the canals but doesn't absorb anything...I’ve had irritation from other tips that made it impossible to use anything for a week or more.
Oh well, the 500 series isn't listed as compatible with my Klipsch so not an option for evaluation but I may order a set of the Pros to see how well those buds will do as IEMs.
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When I first discovered the Shure IEM system at the club, I used regular earbuds and they worked well. The cables, connectors, and general build quality of most consumer earbuds aren’t nearly as robust as purpose built Originally Posted by RJVB
IEMs. But the sound quality and isolation are fine to let you know if you like using IEMs.
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Exactly what I was expecting. For what I have in mind they should do just fine I think. Originally Posted by nevershouldhavesoldit
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Yeah I know. I had a thread about this recently--sound to my ears on stage is very different from what the audience hears or is recorded. Originally Posted by sgcim
It's hard to wrap your head around, but I imagine the pros get used to it.
Sometimes you see a band that has an awful sound for one reason or another, and you think, do the people on stage know that their sound sucks? (Most concerts I've been to in recent years have have good to excellent sound, regardless of the venue, but there are exceptions. Brian Setzer for instance sounded great, but his horns were dialed up way too high and were painfully loud.)
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Try listening to a purely acoustic ensemble (pref. with singers) from the opposite end of a vast cathedral... It can be as if different wavelengths travel at different speeds and you get dissonances because of that which make things sound out of tune. Originally Posted by Doctor Jeff
FWIW, it's often said that you can't appreciate the actual sound of an instrument if you're not several wavelengths away from it.
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When you're using no amps and everything is in ear, you're at the mercy of the sound person. I did "Smoky
Joe's Cafe" (the show), for a whole summer, and the contractor came down to hear it. He said I sounded great on the solos, but he couldn't hear me on the rest of the stuff.
The sound person was a young, hot looking blonde, straight out of college. I told her about it, and she said, okay. My parents came down to see the show and it was the same thing!
I tried to avoid working at that theater again.
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My impression with "sound persons" is that they're all fans of house, rave or whatever the current version is called and try to make everything sound like that without even trying to understand the music being played. If you're lucky they actually look at the (AFAIK compulsory) dB meter in front of them but it's clearly still possible to mess things up while remaining within legal (?) sound pressures. I've been to a jazz/blues festival where hearing protection was provided at the door for the indoor concerts, with a strong suggestion to make kids wear them. That's so weird to me... Originally Posted by sgcim
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Yeah, she was off the wall, but because she was a beautiful, young woman, they listened to her and ignored my complaints and those from the contractor. Originally Posted by RJVB
They fired the contractor, a great trumpet player, and probably replaced him with another beautiful young woman.
As a result of this post, I'll probably be placed on the #Me,Too list.
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If only all sound persons were beautiful young women. In my experience they’re shlubby middle-aged guys with beard stubble and borderline hygiene issues, but if it sounds alright no one’s complaining. Originally Posted by sgcim
Yeah, she was off the wall, but because she was a beautiful, young woman, they listened to her and ignored my complaints and those from the contractor.
They fired the contractor, a great trumpet player, and probably replaced him with another beautiful young woman.
As a result of this post, I'll probably be placed on the #Me,Too list.
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