Arizona Al earphone users - question?

[kartracer]

I've spoken with Al and have had impressions of my ear canals made. Before I bite the bullet and have him make me a pair, can those out there who have Al's earphones compare them to what you used before them. And not just while riding.

 

I have an iPod that I listen to when away from home and recently got an XM Roady. I'll be using the 'phones for listening in a home environment as well as riding and cutting grass, laying on the beach, maybe in the car. I'm looking for opinions mostly on fidelity and somewhat on other issues - comfort, sound isolation, robustness.

 

Thanks and have a spooky Halloween

 

MikeB.

[David]

I used the Etymotics beforehand (can't remember the model off the top of my head). Here's how I'd rate them, with the winner listed in each category:

 

Volume: AA

Fidelity: Ety

Unobtrusiveness*: Ety

Sound Blocking: Ety

Comfort: AA

Robustness: AA

 

*Do people look at your funny!

[Trinity]

I've also had the Etymotic 6's (which I sold) and now have the AA plugs for use with my iPod. Admittedly, the Ety's were a winner from a pure fidelity standpoint, but I couldn't wear them under the helmet for more than a hour without severe ear canal pain. The AA plugs are WAY more comfortable, have a custom seal (obviously...) and just a notch down from the Ety 6's in fidelity. The cord and attachment on the AA plugs is far more robust than the Ety's.

 

I'm on a K1200RS and given the "less than RT wind protection," I highly doubt that a user would notice that much difference at all.

[K12GT_Steve]

Sure wish that I could send my EM-6s to Al for the custom job!

[steveknapp]

(can't remember the model off the top of my head)

 

You had the ER-4S model. The ER-4P model had better volume output FWIW.

[Sierra Smokey]

Does anyone have contact info on AZ Al? Also how much are his plugs and what is his turnaround time?

[Les is more]

You can contact Al by PM on this site under his user name, ArizonaAl.

 

As I recall the turn around time was fairly quick and the customer service and attention to detail of delivery was top notch.

 

Signed,

 

A VERY SATISFIED CUSTOMER!

[Tool]

Does anyone have contact info on AZ Al?

 

Al's e-mail is: customearplugs@cox.net

 

Can't answer your other questions, but you'll like the product!

[KMG_365]

Though I've never used any other brands of earplug speakers, Al's plugs are very comfy, well made and block the sound very well. My only objection is the frequencies highlight the mid/high part of the range (for voice) at the cost of the low frequencies. If you would like to use them for listening to music--especially if you are an audiophile--be aware that you will sacrifice a LOT of the bass and the music sounds kind of tinny in comparison to other quality speakers. I complained to Al about the fidelity of his plugs and was told there is an upgraded speaker option (for some rediculous price--$70.00, I think??!!), which might be nice but since I'm in too deep for these plug/speakers as it is, I can't justify an additional, even more expensive set!! I wish I'd known about that before I laid out so much for the first set. That said, I really love Al's speakers for the GMRS radio and the Autocom intercom. They make the voice range very clear, and the enhanced quiet of the plugs makes it very easy to understand speech. They are comfortable enough to wear for 16 hours a day for weeks on end without even worrying about comfort. The excellent mics on the Autocom also lets us talk all day without the hiss and static getting on our nerves after a long few days.

[Tom02RT]

Jamie...

 

As I understand it you are using AA's earplug speakers in conjunctioon with an Autocom system. Does this mean that you have the Autocom speakers in your helmet as well as the AA earplug speakers? I guess I'm wondering how you used the Autocom microphone and the AA speakers. I thought the Autocom speakers and microphone were tied together.

 

I hope this question makes sense.

[KMG_365]

Tom,

 

Yes, I have the AutoCom (Pro-M1)--No, I don't use the AutoCom speakers--Yes, the AutoCom speakers and Mic are tied together--No, they don't have to stay that way!

 

One of the slick things Al has for those who want to use earplug speakers with their AutoComs is a set of detailed step-by-step instructions (in Word format) on how to modify the AutoCom speaker/mic/5-pin din plug headset for use with the earplug speakers. The connections are just soldered together with heat-shrink covering the joints. It took me about 20 minutes to do the mod on mine and even less time to do Leslie's. Neither of us ride without earplugs anyway, so I removed our speakers from the system. Depending on what tools and supplies you already have on hand it cost me about $15.00 in parts to make three mods. You can get everything you need at Radio Shack. PM Al for the Walk-through and the parts list.

 

If you occaisionally wanted to ride without the earplug speakers and just use the helmet speakers you can leave them in place. But be aware that some people have space issues while using the earplug speakers with the AutoCom speakers installed in the helmet. Since the AutoCom speakers need to be right on top of your ear canal to be useful at all, sometimes there is not enough room for the plugs and/or wires without hitting the speakers and causing painful pressure on the ears after a time.

 

Also this easy mod only works with the Pro-M1 unit with a 5-pin din plug. If you get the newer Pro-M7, you'll have extra wires that you need to deal with. I believe Al said he is working on a work-around/walk-through mod for the 7-pin model. However--if you're going to be using earplug speakers you really don't need the Pro-M7 anyway--since they changed the wiring to make it louder for sport bikes and the straight pipe set. With the earplug speakers you need some sort of in-line volume control to keep the earplug speakers from blowing out your eardrums anyway (also available at Radio Shack ~$8-$10). You might be able to find a good deal on the Pro-M1's if you can still find them around. Fernando will know if they are thinking of discontinuing the Pro-M1 or not. You might try a search. I believe he posted the answer to that, but I can't remember what it was.

 

After the mod, you wind up with a double pig-tail coming out of the helmet about 4"-6". I heat-shrinked mine together so it stays neat. The donning procedure takes less than a minute once you've done it a few times--less than half a minute if you practice it:

 

1. Put a very small dab of polysporin on your index finger tips and lightly coat the inside of each ear (first time of the day only--makes placing the earplug a snap and prevents infection with prolonged earplug use)

 

2. Screw the earplug speakers in

 

3. Don the helmet, but do not buckle chin strap yet.

 

4. Check to make sure donning the helmet did not displace the earplug speakers by sliding a finger up alongside your cheek and feeling for the top edge of the plug. The polysporin can make this happen more easily so be careful. If the top of the earplug comes out even slightly, 20 miles down the road you'll be stopping again. Pull the chinstrap to the side with the opposite hand to facilitate this step for each side. The additional advantage of using a lubricant is that if you catch the cord on anything, the plugs just pop out of your ears instead of pulling the wires out of the earplug. It also makes a better seal with your ear canal.

 

5. Buckle chinstrap.

 

6. Plug the 1/8" stereo mini-jack from the earplug speakers into the female plug in the pig-tail.

 

7. Plug the AutoCom helmet extension lead into the 5-pin din plug in the pig-tail.

 

8. Conduct radio check with riding buddies.

 

9. Drive off!

[decorbin]

These are great comments. While we have a couple of the custom cords that plug between the Autocomm and the helmet headset to allow you to use the custom plugs, we no longer use them. I bought a couple of stereo extension leads from Radio Shack and used them to make a couple pigtails soldered to the wires from the Autocomm headsets. The plug end is soldered to the speaker wires and tucked up under the helmet collar when you are not using it. The jack end is soldered to the speaker input wires (the other end of the wires you cut to solder the plug to the speakers). The jack hangs out of the helmet with the Autocomm pigtail. We plug the speaker lead into the helmet and then tuck the cord insider our jackets. That way, you only have the one cord going back to the Autocomm or to wherever you plug in your extension. If you do need to use the in-helmet speakers, just pull out the other pigtail and plug them together.

 

Haven't seen Al's step-by-step instructions, but I suspect his accomplish the same thing.

 

In any event, using the customer speaker/earplugs is the way to go, regardless of the system you use.

[Tom02RT]

Jamie...

 

Thank you. Your post helps me a lot as I try to figure out what to do. I'm thinking of using the Autocom with XM radio and a radar detector. With AA earplug speakers and Autocom do you feel I need any source of amplification? It is my understanding there is no volume control on the Autocom unit and there is no volume control on the XM radio receiver.

 

[ArizonaAl]

Tom, if all you want to do is have XM radio and your radar detector, then you don't need an Autocom. The Delphi XM radio does have a line out volume control and does not need an amplifier to power the speaker earplugs. You will need to get one of Sean Daly's mixers or something like it to combine the inputs from the XM and your radar detector and you will be in business.

 

If you decide you want to do intercom and/or bike to bike then you need to get the Autocom and other radios and such.

[steveknapp]

My AA earphone plugs arrived friday. The trick-or-treaters didn't even get em!

 

They are comfy. More so than the custom earplugs. But the sound quality isn't as good as the ER4P. Tolerable, yes. Great for the bike, I'm sure! But the ER4's are still a notch above for sound quality.

 

As far as hookup, there is also the "Y" cable option. And I'm going to try out a setup that basically does what Jamie described, but wouldn't require any soldering. Just remove the mic from the old headset, plug it into the new harness and go.

 

Also if you have the Pro7 you need some stuff, it's not just a matter of wiring up the earplugs to the right pins. And the few people that have tried this haven't mentioned it being too loud. *shrug*

[SSSR]

Arizona Al RULES!! I just received my Challenger C's and the fit is perfect, the quality is superb and the sound is very good for bike riding.. not as good as Etymotic, but with such a noisy environment, Etymotic 4 is of no use and it not comfortable under a helmet. Arizona Al's customer service is second to none. Highly recommended.

 

[David_S]

I just received mine from AA today. Does everyone else's wire come strait out of the ear plug/speaker rather than angling down so it doesn't get forced down and cause pressure when a helmet is on? Sound is superb compared to what I'm used to I'm just concerned with this wire being forced to a 90 degree angle every time I put on my helmet.

[WestTX RT]

What Jamie said, except I'd add step 2A "put Slik on head to cover ears", then you can skip step 4. The Slik makes it easier to slide the helmet on without jerking out the wires.

The only problem with the Slik is looking like an extra from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

[Dave McReynolds]

My hearing isn't all that great, and I wouldn't use any other earphones while riding the bike than Az Als, since they isolate you from most of the road and wind noise.

 

OTOH, at home when listening to videos, in order to be able to hear without blasting everyone else out of the house, I use ER-6i's because of their better fidelity.

[steve.foote]

Dave, did you notice that you are replying to a post which is almost four years old?

[Dave McReynolds]

Amazing, isn't it? I wonder what miracle of electronics brought it to the front on my computer? I certainly didn't dig back that far to find it. I keep looking at it to see if I can find the face of the Virgin Mary, but so far it eludes me.

[steve.foote]

 

Yeah, I've done it too. Maybe this is a sign of age.

[Mike05]

I purchases Al's plugs the week before Torrey; rode to & from with them and consider any post (even one four years old) asking about them as another opportunity to say how great they are!!

 

Didn't know what I was missing!! They are the best!!

 

Pick your own colors though; Al says one of mine is "red" but it sure looks pink to me!!

[Couchrocket]

I have AA custom speaker/plugs too. Used all sorts of "wire breaking" plugs before that. And while in a quiet room one of the others had better "absolute" fidelity, on the bike, the AA's are superior overall IMO, because of the effective isolation of the sound from ambient noise, bike noise, wind noise, etc., which is much better than sticking a regular "non-custom-molded" plug speaker in your ear.

 

I have Sure EP500's for home, and it doesn't get much better than that, but on the bike, the AA's are the cat's pajamas for sure.

 

+1 on wearing a cool max helmet liner. In addition to not yanking on the plugs/tubes when you put your helmet on and off, it keeps your helmet from smelling like dirty gym socks after a few trips! I carry two HJC cool max liners, and will wear them for a day or two while on tour, then swap out and hand wash the dirty one and let it dry in the top of my top case.

[Ken H.]

Amazing, isn't it? I wonder what miracle of electronics brought it to the front on my computer? I certainly didn't dig back that far to find it. I keep looking at it to see if I can find the face of the Virgin Mary, but so far it eludes me.

Wow, that's just plain weird. Wonder where the 'bump' came from?

[UberXY]

Tom,

 

 

One of the slick things Al has for those who want to use earplug speakers with their AutoComs is a set of detailed step-by-step instructions (in Word format) on how to modify the AutoCom speaker/mic/5-pin din plug headset for use with the earplug speakers. The connections are just soldered together with heat-shrink covering the joints. It took me about 20 minutes to do the mod on mine and even less time to do Leslie's. Neither of us ride without earplugs anyway, so I removed our speakers from the system. Depending on what tools and supplies you already have on hand it cost me about $15.00 in parts to make three mods. You can get everything you need at Radio Shack. PM Al for the Walk-through and the parts list.

 

 

This is a very easy thing to do. Just take the two speaker wires that go inside the helmet from the Autocom plug, clip them, and solder on a female mini-stereo plug. Each speaker wire has a black side, and a black-and-white side; the black side is ground, so you just need one of these for the jack, plus the two black-and-white ones. I then put a male stereo plug on the wires from the speakers; I can now use ear plugs or the speakers, just a question of plugging one in or the other. Takes about 20 minutes, $5, no instructions necessary. I'm sure Autocom probably sells a cable to do the same thing for about $50.

[EffBee]

Tom,

 

 

One of the slick things Al has for those who want to use earplug speakers with their AutoComs is a set of detailed step-by-step instructions (in Word format) on how to modify the AutoCom speaker/mic/5-pin din plug headset for use with the earplug speakers. The connections are just soldered together with heat-shrink covering the joints. It took me about 20 minutes to do the mod on mine and even less time to do Leslie's. Neither of us ride without earplugs anyway, so I removed our speakers from the system. Depending on what tools and supplies you already have on hand it cost me about $15.00 in parts to make three mods. You can get everything you need at Radio Shack. PM Al for the Walk-through and the parts list.

 

 

This is a very easy thing to do. Just take the two speaker wires that go inside the helmet from the Autocom plug, clip them, and solder on a female mini-stereo plug. Each speaker wire has a black side, and a black-and-white side; the black side is ground, so you just need one of these for the jack, plus the two black-and-white ones. I then put a male stereo plug on the wires from the speakers; I can now use ear plugs or the speakers, just a question of plugging one in or the other. Takes about 20 minutes, $5, no instructions necessary. I'm sure Autocom probably sells a cable to do the same thing for about $50.

 

Steve, what you say is true for the Pro-M1 and its 5-pin connectors. But the Pro-M1 went out of production about 4 years ago. The 7-pin connectors on all of the Autocoms since then utilize independent ground wires for each speaker. In order to get the best sound (and remember, the OP is interested in fidelity), you definitely need to use the 1187 or 1188 Autocom cables.

[JerryMather]

Sure wish that I could send my EM-6s to Al for the custom job!

Why not ........ no mail service in your area?

 

As long as he has impressions, I think the company that he works with can make a custom sleeve to go over yours.

I went ahead and had someone local do my impressions and had them send them out to be made. Unfortunately, they stick out to far when they're in my ears, so when I try to put my helmet on, they both come out of my ears. I'd need to remove some of the padding inside it but I've opted not too, right now I just use Al's instead and have the others as a backup.

[Fugu]

 

Steve, what you say is true for the Pro-M1 and its 5-pin connectors. But the Pro-M1 went out of production about 4 years ago. The 7-pin connectors on all of the Autocoms since then utilize independent ground wires for each speaker. In order to get the best sound (and remember, the OP is interested in fidelity), you definitely need to use the 1187 or 1188 Autocom cables.

 

It wasn't a matter of fidelity w/ my Autocom, it was a matter of working or not working.

 

Had to get their cable. Works great now.

 

 

I'd love to see a picture of the AZ Al's setup with the tubes.

 

 

I hooked my Shures up to two lengths of aquarium air tubing terminated with foam plugs with holes in them....

 

Surprisingly good. Really surprising. I'd be all in for the Al's setup w/ the custom molded ear impressions if I could see how his deal with the exit from the ear and the noise transmission of the tubing itself.