Headphone manufacturers were also in attendance. As I walked into the room, I spotted Ultimate Ears' Mike Dias. I asked what impressed him and he didn't hesitate. "Matt [Engstrom of Shure] has designed a new foam tip for the Shure in-ears. I am so jealous that we didn't think of that." You get that kind of mutual admiration among competitors at Head-Fi events.
Jon Iverson and Corrina Jones walked over to talk to Matt about them. The new "dark foam" tips are impressive. They're durable, too—and come in multiple sizes, including one Matt jokingly calls the "John Atkinson," saying our Editor's hard-to-fit ear canals got him thinking. They got Corrina, another hard-to-fit candidate, thinking, too—thinking about buying a pair of Shure SE 420s. Dark foam ear tips are available in S, M, L, and JA for $14/5 pairs.