Reliabillity of in ear speakers, Ultimate Ear/Green Leopard.

shedracer · Jan 15, 2007

I thinking of getting the in ear speakers for my intercom, which is better, Green Leopard or Ultimate Ear. I have looked through the searches and some people seem to have had issues of the wires pulling out of the ear piece. Now is this a common problem with in ear speakers and does that mean you have to continually pay for repairs?

I know that the quality of sound is going to be far better that having speakers in the helmet, especially as I currently use ear plugs, so its just the reliability issue I'm concerned with.

Your input will be greatly appreciated. :bow

GSrich · Jan 15, 2007

Ive been running a set of Ultimate Ear plugs for 6mths now and never had any issues. I think its all down to how the plugs are used or treated, mine look nicely made and nothing looks loose.

pedmo · Jan 15, 2007

My ultimate ear monitors broke after about a year, the wire connection failed.

Dale · Jan 15, 2007

Shedracer,

I use the Green Leopard ones as supplied by Schianini. recieved top service from him, great product... would happily use him again if needed.

They are a bit different to the other makes in that the speaker is not inside the earplug, but connected to the earplug via a hollow tube some 20cm in length. I dont have a pic, but can take one for you if needed.

Advantages of this are that if the tube gets blocked with wax, you just push it through the plug a little way and trim it off. Also no chance of the wires getting seperated from the plug / speaker and needing repair.

Disadvantages are ....
If the tube gets kinked when you put your helmet on, you get no sound, and ...
If the tube is exposed to the wind or allowed to chafe against something then you get that noise transmitted directly to your ear

Carefully stick a plastic straw into your ear and then tap it lightly to see what I mean

To be fair, once you have learnt how to put the things in and where to route the wiring/tube, they work perfectly.

Lastly, remember that the ambient sound reduction from a set of "speaker earplugs" will not be as good as a normal set of custom moulded plugs, but the differece is small enough not to worry me.

Dale

Droopy Dick · Jan 15, 2007

I've had lots of problems with my Ultimate monitors.

The sound quality is superb, though. Pink Floyd is GREAT riding music!

Three failures in 18 months.

One broken wire.

And two blocked with wax. I'm not a heavy wax maker, and the tool they give you is hopeless.

But they charge you £30 a time for repairs!

I've always been very careful with not tugging the cabling, but perhaps they're too fragile.

I know a few folk who've had no problems.

Some have Duocom (which can be bought at many SpecSavers) with the same mixed results.

Fanum · Jan 15, 2007

Droopy Dick said:
I've had lots of problems with my Ultimate monitors.

The sound quality is superb, though. Pink Floyd is GREAT riding music!

Three failures in 18 months.

One broken wire.

And two blocked with wax. I'm not a heavy wax maker, and the tool they give you is hopeless.

But they charge you £30 a time for repairs!

I've always been very careful with not tugging the cabling, but perhaps they're too fragile.

I know a few folk who've had no problems.

Some have Duocom (which can be bought at many SpecSavers) with the same mixed results.

Pretty much the same here

I have to say though that I was contacted by the main man at Ultimate ear who was keen to get them sorted...he was talking about fitting them with thicker wires and adressing my other problems with them.

Unfortunitely it was only a week or so before we went away for a couple of months over a long period and I never managed to get them to him to see what they could do and at the moment I'm not even sure where mine are

A shame 'cos when they were working they were fantastic....10hour plus day comfy, great sound etc.

shedracer · Jan 15, 2007

Thanks for your replies

Just one more question, how do you connect the wire to your intercom from the helmet ? I already have moulds made up, from standard ear plugs from Ultimate Ear, so I wonder if I will get a discount, I see Green Leoperd charge £50 more for moulded ones.

judge · Jan 15, 2007

If you already have your moulds then UE will deduct the cost of the mould taking from the price or the monitors.

I have used UE's products for 3 years now and through my involvement with them I have at times been a crash test dummy for prototype products. I have ear plugs, sleep plugs, monitors all paid for with my own hard earned cash.

But I've also trialled and broke several hundreds of pounds worth of product and all of the stuff I broke never made it into production. All the R&D has ensured over the years improvement to the products and new products being produced.

My own monitors have gone back twice, once for gummed up (wax) drivers and once for brittle cables*, both after the years warranty was up and both elicited an out of warranty repair at cost to me.

I use mine a lot, an awful lot and I have sweaty ears which was the cause of the gummed up drivers, when they came back from repair they had wax guards fitted, good for keeping solid wax at bay, not so good at dealing with liquid wax which is what caused my problems, so I use an ear cleaner regularly.

So the product is not infallable and whilst very occasionally a problem may occur in production they are reasonable people who will get things sorted, more importantly they do this for real not as some hobby and you will find them at most bike shows, music shows, game shows, GP's and WSB races etc across the country as well as at their offices in Sidcup Kent where all their production takes place on site by their own technicians and not farmed out to a 3rd party.

I don't think I'll ever understand those who have paid good money for these products and give up on them and sling them in the drawer or bin thus throwing the money down the drain. :nenau

I make sure I clean mine after every use now and so far so good

* The cable goes brittle after extreme exposure to the elements, keep the cable out of the elements for prolonged life.

Ultimate Ear and Green Leopard are not the only manufacturers of custom ear protection

judge · Jan 15, 2007

shedracer said:
Thanks for your replies Just one more question, how do you connect the wire to your intercom from the helmet ?

Autocom and Starcom both make and sell a specific part for attaching custom moulded monitors into their headset systems. Ultimate are Automcom dealers and will ship the corresponding part with your monitors if you order it from them.

NeilF · Jan 15, 2007

Droopy Dick said:
I've had lots of problems with my Ultimate monitors.
The sound quality is superb, though.
Three failures in 18 months.
One broken wire.
And two blocked with wax. I'm not a heavy wax maker, and the tool they give you is hopeless.
But they charge you £30 a time for repairs!

QUOTE]

Likewise for me. £30 for each "repair" visit, lasting a couple of weeks, then to find another problem. . . another £30.

Having spent over £200 on them, they're a great idea (when they work) but my personal experience has left me disappointed to the stage that I'd not recommend them. I shalln't be throwing more money away at them.

Cheers,

Neil.

Packer · Jan 15, 2007

shedracer said:
Thanks for your replies Just one more question, how do you connect the wire to your intercom from the helmet ? I already have moulds made up, from standard ear plugs from Ultimate Ear, so I wonder if I will get a discount, I see Green Leoperd charge £50 more for moulded ones.

I've had my UE's for about 9 months now with no problems to date. I clean them regularly and take care to keep my ears wax free in the area that the plugs reach.

I connect using a cable from Starcom which is connected to a bud microphone that velcro's into the front of my helmet. It's meant for a full face but by carefully routing the cable I'm able to use it on my flip front helmets, originally Caberg Justissimo but now System 5. Works a treat and no boom mike to continually adjust. It means that each time I put on my helmet I have two cables to connect; the monitor plugs and the link to the Starcom module under the tank.

(RIP) Kaister · Jan 15, 2007

you could try commercially made stuff

i just bought these and i'm pretty pleased with them - nice and small with good sound

B000E6G9RI.01._AA280_SCLZZZZZZZ_V39779991_.jpg

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sennheiser-CX300-Ear-Canal-Headphones/dp/B000E6G9RI

Greybeard · Jan 15, 2007

motomartin said:
you could try commercially made stuff

i just bought these and i'm pretty pleased with them - nice and small with good sound

I bought some CX300's for my daughter and I think they work really well (though not for biking in her case) - giving a really clear sound.

I actually use some custom moulded Duocom earphones bought from Headset Services about 12 months ago and they work really well with my Schoei Raid2, though I don't use them very often, just on longish journeys. Wish I'd decided to use them before - they may have prevented my tinnitus...

Steptoe · Jan 16, 2007

judge said:
I don't think I'll ever understand those who have paid good money for these products and give up on them and sling them in the drawer or bin thus throwing the money down the drain.

:

Surely thats throwing money in the draw or bin

----------

I've been using the same set of UE monitors for almost 2 years now without any problems at all. But i am very careful removing them from my ears, i always pull them by the earplug material and never the wire.
And they're always kept in the leather pouch they're supplied with, never just stuffed into a pocket.

Reliabillity of in ear speakers, Ultimate Ear/Green Leopard.

shedracer

Well-known member

GSrich

Registered user

pedmo

Registered user

Dale

Registered user

Droopy Dick

Registered user

Fanum

Toubab

shedracer

Well-known member

judge

Well-known member

judge

Well-known member

NeilF

Registered user

Packer

Appreciating Scotland

(RIP) Kaister

Well-known member

Greybeard

Active member

Steptoe

What a waste.

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