I spent the money, got a special fitting and tried Earmold Audio Earplugs out on a trip to Alice Springs and back! But did they work?
Let me start at the start. I’ve been looking for an audio system to use on motorbike trips for ages. I check out all the ads in the mags and probably just like you, wonder: Which systems WORK? And will they work for ME?
After reading a recent editorial in Two Wheels, editor Jeremy Bowdler mentioned he had used the Earmold Earlpugs with the audio system. He seemed pretty happy with them. And as an aside this started a barrage of feedback about which was the best motorcycling songs to tootle around listening to. Whats yours? Hit the comment link below.
So, after tossing coins for over a year about which way to go and what system suited me best, I jumped right in and booked a fitting with Ray Mack the Australian distributor of Earmold who luckily enough lives in Adelaide. Ray is a really nice guy and looked after me really well.
Get Paid $20.00 For Your Review!
You see I had a bad experience with Earmold Earplugs before. Three times in fact (maybe I’m just SLOW). Once a hearing aid guy made me some by injecting silicone into my ear and “custom making” some plain ear plugs. They fell out as soon as I tried to put a helmet on!
So I tried again at a gunshop in Morphett St and after paying the dough and getting home and fitting a helmet they fell out!
By now I must sound as thick as a brick because I backed up again at another gun shop in Magill Road and after two goes they fell out every time I tried to put a helmet on. This crapped me off because they seemed so much better than the safety yellow and pink foam earplugs which I had used for years. They just wouldn’t work for me.
They fitted great without a helmet, but that wasn’t the point.
So I was a bit wary of Ray and his version. Ray told me he had fitted thousands and apologised about the past experiences. Ray went on to say there was a special way to mould them so as to stay in your ear when pulling a motorbike helmet onto your noggin, and sounded like he knew what he was talking about.
A small piece of foam is inserted nice and deep into the ear and you pick which colour silicone you want injected inside. I chose flouro green and theres a ton of colours to choose from. Ray then injects the mixture with a syringe and lets it set a bit. The foam thingy has a piece of string on it so it comes out easy. As does the set silicone. It gets a couple of layers of laquer to fatten it up and make it fit snugger then the holes are drilled for the audio tubes.
The audio system has a convetional 3.5mm plug which fits most sound systems. The wires from this travel up to a junction box where the sound is converted to play sound inside the hollow tubes which come out the other side of the junction box. These hollow tubes have some spiral sections to aviod the plugs pulling out if pulled suddenly, and fit right through the moulded earplugs to the edge of the plug deep within the ear.
They fitted superb and YES they stayed in even when fitting a very tight BMW Sport Integral Helmet. This helmet has a very tight entry orrifice. The music quality played from my minidisc was sentational. So far so good. I handed over $200.00 and felt very pleased with myself.
I gave them a demo on a quick trip to Hawker SA on Wilma the Wideglide and with the Harley exhasut note (loud) they were reasonably quiet and after a bit of fiddling with the tube placement they seemed acceptable. I thought the upcoming trip to Alice Springs would test them out proper. And it did!
In this podcast Andy talks about:
How the Earmold fitted under the helmet?
How to route the wiring/tubing to eliminate problem noise?
What the problem noise is and how it compromised the whole exercise of audio on the motorcycle?
How they rated?
There’s a lot you need to know about these earplugs if your interested in them and you should know how they faired on the Alice trip. If you want to know more? Simply hit the play button and check out the photos while you listen. It will make way more sense to you than me one finger typing a long story.
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C’mon! why not review your Motorcycle, Motorbike accessory, your favourite ride or one recently ridden? Simply
send an email to andy@motorcyclemania.com.au with your best contact phone number and a brief outline of the
review you’d like to do and I’ll phone you. We’ll set up a time to talk, I’ll interview you and record the
phone call (unless you live close by, then I’ll visit). Then publish it on this site.
EASY, and you’ll be famous!
Or leave a comment by clicking the comment link at the bottom of this podcast. Especially if you’ve found Earmold Audio different to me! Tell us about it.
