Review: M6 Pro 2 In-Ear Monitors

kwthom

=o&o>
Premier Member
IBA Member
#1
Thanks to @BMW RT Pilot for the idea. https://forum.ironbutt.org/index.ph...get-a-cup-of-coffee-its-long.2784/#post-41292

A couple of months ago, I'd posed a question on the LDRiders mail list about what the experienced riders do with ear irritation while using earphones. Now, I'd been using a $20 pair of Sony earphones, and tried to get my wife interested...

I wrote this back then:

She's reluctantly begun to wear earphones while riding with me (yes, I'm forcing the issue - the wisdom shared here has not been lost on this reader regarding maintaining what little hearing I have left) on longer rides, and she's got a couple of irritants that I'm attempting to help find a solution for before we hit the road next week.

So, the first one is rather easy. Way back when, while investing in LD Comfort gear, I purchased two of the helmet liners. I *love* mine; she never became a fan - not sure why. Now, once I began to wear headphones regularly, I found out the *other* reason - it helps hold the headphones in yer skull, while the helmet is installed.
On the Atomic 1000 ride we did in April, she did okay for about the first 500 miles. When we got back on the bike, her complaint of in-ear irritation with the silicone tips on the $15 Skull Candy earphones was too much. The rest of that ride...no added hearing protection.

Many good pieces of info provided (see, when it comes to the WOTL - Wisdom Of The List - there is some gems out there...) but I was looking for more.

At about the same time, I ran into referenced review. Okay - $250? Nope. Now, I have no issue with spending money like that - but the CFO does.

So, let's see how good the Google-Fu is...

The Shure SE215's seem to be a much less expensive model, and it's well-liked by those that use it. Once thing that you'll note - most of the "IEM's" are offered for use by musicians in a live setting. A motorcycle environment is similar, but not exact. Our application needs to simply remove the noise from the audio equation. A respectable amount of isolation is ideal.

Then a couple more hours down the rat-hole of Internet research brought me to a company called MEE Audio.

The direct comparison to the Shure SE215's is their M6 Pro 2 (2nd generation). $50? Really?!

Thirty-six hours later, the USPS truck delivered two of them to the door. On Sunday.

Now, I use an Edsets 3G headset on my Shoei Neotec helmet. The interface module on the helmet contains a 3.5mm jack for the use of auxiliary earpieces. A 3.5mm male-female splitter adapter allows the one jack to be used by my wife and I - at least for the time being.

A short time later, we were on the bike for a hour-long ride getting used to the additional cable. We both were sold on the IEM's!

A week later, we were on a five-day train-chasing adventure. Out of ~2400 miles of riding, there may have only been 100 miles of us NOT wearing them in those five days.

The MEE Audio kit contained two cables (one for phone use, one for non-phone use), a half-dozen styles of tips, including Comply Foam tips. For those that want an ultimate seal, MEE Audio offers a novel method of creating custom eartips - 3D printing!

The first 8 minutes is superfluous - the meat of the process is about eight minutes long from this start point of this video:


(hint: play at 1.5 speed or greater...) Pretty slick system - and inexpensive.

Durability? Hard to know just yet. For those that ride a LOT...and with the warranty they provide, this could be a viable alternative.

In fact, I'm seriously considering getting the custom inserts. Yeah, I'd probably ride out there to get them scanned, just to go thru the process.
 

BMW RT Pilot

Premier Member
#2
... so much stuff!... :)
Thanks for the shout-out! :)

I've been riding with the custom sleeves for a few months now and what I have discovered is that I have to cinch-down the helmet strap a bit more so that the Neotec doesn't move upwards. When it does, it usually puts pressure on one of the buds, which can certainly cause irritation.

I also found that they stay in place better by using the cinching piece on the headphone wires, especially while getting the helmet on in the first place. And by throwing the excess wire (I connect these to my 20S), over my left shoulder while I put on my jacket, the excess wire won't get pulled as it would if it were laying on my chest.

But in the end, this solution (getting a decent pair of earphones with a custom sleeve), absolutely works. You get better sound AND much better hearing protection!
 

bikerbill

IBR Finisher
#5
I have been blessed with a gift of these monitors (birthday present from my wife). My initial assessment is that they will be much superior to what I have been using. I will be testing them out this weekend on my trip to Sehnert's in McCook, NE.

Update: Went to Sehnert's and had a great time visting. The M6's did a marvelous job keeping me entertained and audibly comfortable. If there is a complaint it is a slight irritation where the wire comes over the ear. Otherwise I am well pleased with them. Thanks Ken.
 
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Dr. Tiki

Premier Member
#7
Ken, do you use these when communicating with other bikes or your passenger? Just wondering if you have a microphone setup that works well on the bike or not. I ride with a group that uses CB's quite a bit, so that's the challenge that I am having right now.

My only other 'concern', and it's just a concern at the moment is that I am starting to wonder if should have went with the M7's as they offer a more universal MMCX connector from the IEM driver to the cord. I will probably end up with an M7 set as well very shortly.

And I want to get my custom molds done now as well. :)
 

kwthom

=o&o>
Premier Member
IBA Member
#8
I do listen to the CB...though, I don't think I've yet to have a conversation via CB using them.

The mic I'm using is part of the Edsets 3G setup in the helmet...speakers in the lid are bypassed with the IEM's. My wife has a similar setup, using J&M equipment, but we have a kludge setup to plug her IEM's into the system. The legacy Goldwing communication system is a bit of a kludge in itself.

Though the M6's use a proprietary connector, for $50 or less, you can get a whole 'nother IEM set, if needed.

I don't know if the 6's & 7's use the same custom mold or not. IF they did, that's be golden!


EDIT: I'm pretty certain that I have not had a phone conversation with them in while on the bike either.
 
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Dr. Tiki

Premier Member
#10
Everyone like follow ups... Rode down to to MEE Audio today and got my ear holes scanned. Was a nice 600 mile ride as well. Now I just have to wait for the turnaround for MEE to make them. Jaosn Left Ear.jpg
 

Dr. Tiki

Premier Member
#12
I was scanned on Sept. 16 and received the custom molds today on Oct. 10th. So Approx. 3.5 Weeks.

Initial thoughts...I like them so far but I have only been wearing them tonight for about 2 hours in my home office while on the computers but I do find them comfortable. Tomorrow I'll head into the office and try them on the bike.

They ship with a small 0.5oz bottle of gel that helps with insertion, unfortunately my bottle had nothing in it. With a little research I found that a drop of Olive Oil helps so I used that tonight.

MEE Audio states that the the lubricant is only needed until you are accustomed to inserting them. As part of lubricant research, the lubricant help ease insertion until a layer of wax is formed on the silicon, at which point the gel isn't necessary until the molds are cleaned/wiped down (depending on how you clean them ... which is another rabbit hole).

I am still getting used to removing them though. Inserting is basically rotating them 90 degrees forward, press them into the ear canal and rotate towards tieback of you head, they will kind of cork screw into your ear. Removing them is the opposite process. Simple enough right? Well... they fit pretty flush, the removal involves getting a finger tip under the mold, breaking the seal, and rotate forward. I have yet to do this smoothly yet. I seem to be more accomplished at grabbing the driver, rotating and removing the driver from the mold. :) It will take practice.

Now for the pics!

The setup before the custom ear tips, MEE Audio M6 Pro II. Been using this setup everyday pretty much for the last 4 months.


Packaging for the custom molds


Both molds, marked in Red with an 'R' for Right Ear, and a Blue 'L' for Left ear.


With the drivers inserted, my molds and drivers were ordered clear, with only the right driver in red to visually queue me which one is for which ear. There are a selection of colors available.
 

kwthom

=o&o>
Premier Member
IBA Member
#14
<...>Though the M6's use a proprietary connector, for $50 or less, you can get a whole 'nother IEM set, if needed.

I don't know if the 6's & 7's use the same custom mold or not. IF they did, that's be golden!
A bit of education, for those that may still be looking into these...

The M6 Pro's are in fact different then their professional versions, the MX series. The MX1's are another $20 more than the M6 Pro's, and (the biggie...) the custom eartips are NOT compatible - boo, hiss.

I've yet to take the plunge for the custom molded tips, so I continue to use the silicone tips. However, I did run into a problem - the darn tips can sometimes stay in my ear as I remove the IEM's from my skull. :eek:

Hey...someone in this big, wide world has had this problem before me. I certainly couldn't be the first - and I was right; I wasn't. :cool:

Early this morning was when I did the search; and came up with a brilliant answer to the problem - Teflon tape applied to the sound tube!

https://www.quora.com/How-do-I-prevent-the-silicone-tips-from-falling-off-my-earbuds

Yup; it worked!
 

Dr. Tiki

Premier Member
#15
I had a similar problem with the custom molds. I would take them out and there have been a few times where the mold dropped and landed on the floor without me realizing it until I went back out to the bike. So in a panic I would search the floor of the coffee shop (and in one case a welding shop) to try and find it. Luckily I found it every time.

I think I must have ran the same search you did Ken because I came across the same website mentioning the teflon tape. I talked to MEE though and they advised that because of the extra weight of the custom molds, that I should not just let the monitors hang from around my neck. If I just needed to remove them for a short time, their advise was to just leave the mold in your ear, and removing the driver only. Since I was already doing this half the time already from the beginning, it was an easy learning curve.

Now I hardly ever remove the driver and mold together as one unit.

For comfort... a couple of thousand miles later with the custom molds, I like them allot. They are very comfortable. The drivers still pop out every so often from the molds when I am putting on my helmet but a good head sock should fix that. Maybe I should try some teflon tape. :)
 

kwthom

=o&o>
Premier Member
IBA Member
#16
I lightly wadded up the IEM's one time and put it into my outside jacket pocket, then made the short ride from where ever I was to home.

The next time it was ride time, I knew right where the IEM's were. I reached in, slowly removed 'em, then noted one of the silicone eartips wasn't on the IEM. I ended up pilfering a replacement tip from my wife's set of IEM's to go on my ride.

A few hours later, searching the pockets for what seemed to the 6th time...the missing silicone eartips turned up.

So, no longer putting the IEM's in jacket pockets mitigated the problem, but so did about three or four turns of teflon tape increased the diameter -and- provided enough additional grip to keep the tips on the IEM when removed from my skull.

Winner-winner! :cool: