Klipsch Custom-2 In-Ear Noise-Isolating Earphones

by Klipsch

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 1.3 x 0.3 x 0.3 inches ; 9 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B000WALWW8
• Item model number: 1007719
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (60 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: January 9, 2007

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

From the Manufacturer Revel in the sound of these Custom-2 noise-isolating earphones from Klipsch that let you connect with your music like never before. Delivering crisp highs, deep lows and everything in-between, these premium earphones provide optimal listening anywhere and everywhere you go. Status symbol products such as the iPod(R) have played a major role in making technology fashionable in recent years, making it necessary to develop a stylish audio accouterments that can bring better sound to in-vogue listeners.

Make great sound a part of your daily routine

Great Comfort

Featuring a black soft-feel paint finish with silver accents on its earbuds, Custom-2 earphones utilize dark gray patent-pending Contour Ear Gels that are anatomically designed to accurately fit inside the human ear canal. These soft, oval silicon tips reduce ear fatigue as well as provide an amazing seal for excellent noise isolation and bass response.

Because ear canal measurements vary, Custom-2 comes with five different washable ear gel sizes: small, medium, and large single flange designs as well as small and large double flange designs. Extra small sizes are available through the Klipsch website. This variety of size options allows these earphones to fit more of the population than any other earphones on the market today.

For perfect exterior comfort, flexible ear wires bend over and around the ears so they can be customized to each user. And not only do these adaptable wires provide optimal comfort, they also let users experience full or partial noise isolation—a great safety feature for on-the-go users. Just pull the ear gels out of the ear canals and adjust the wires to firmly position the earphone nozzles over the canals.

Several tip sizes and a cleaning kit always ensure a clean, comfortable fit

Great Sound

Dynamic earphones are a must for true-to-life audio experiences and Custom-2 makes it a reality. Coupling over 60 years of audio expertise with exclusive KG534 dual-balanced armatures, Custom-2 earphones deliver clear highs and thundering lows for that "front row, center stage" feeling anywhere and everywhere you go

Great Durability

Klipsch has gone to great lengths to ensure the long-lasting durability of Custom-2 earphones, up to and including its 50-inch-long cables. Put through extensive "real world" testing, these headphones feature appropriate strain relief at every cable connection point to help prevent wire damage. Plus, underneath the cable's black cloth weaving, a special PVC Wireguard jacket prevents the wires from becoming exposed and frayed.

Complete Features and Added Frills

Klipsch Custom-2 earphones have precise audio performance and a secure personalized fit for active lifestyles. With unparalleled comfort and exceptional durability these earphones can go the extra mile with you wherever you may go with any number of portable devices such as iPods, the iPhone and virtually any device with a headphone jack. These headphones come with a high-quality vinyl carrying case that will also fit an 80G iPod, an airline adaptor, five sets of ear gels, and an ear tip cleaning tool.

Product Description

Delivering crisp highs, deep lows and everything in-between, these earphones let you connect with your music like never before.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

50 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A discontinued set of balanced armature earphones. You may like the Klipsch Image S4 better, November 28, 2009

By 

Alexander Kunlun (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Klipsch Custom-2 In-Ear Noise-Isolating Earphones (Electronics)

I've had these Klipsch Custom 2 In-Ear-Monitor (IEM) earphones for about a month now. There are a number of things you should know before you buy a pair:

1.The Sound.
They used two Balanced Armature drivers to deliver a flat, balanced sound that really emphasizes the mid-range. Unamplified vocal music comes across warm and present. Treble is a less prominent than the mid-range. Bass is always in the background. Take note: The earphones can reproduce bass, however, it's muted--and after a few minutes of listening you don't notice it very much. It feels like it's missing something and this is due to the design. Balanced Armature drivers don't move the air as much as a moving coil "dynamic" driver, which many other earphones use. That's important because with these earphones we don't "feel" the bass punch the way you might be looking for. It's always in the background and not prominent with the Klipsch custom 2. This will be disappointing if you like music that emphasizes the bass. On the other hand, if you like a full-range earphone and find other earphones to be "too bassy", then these would be good for you.

So, these earphones are good if you like acoustic vocal music where bass is not a primary component.

If you do like bass, you'll find that these earphones are missing something which other earphones provide a bit more (no in-ear-phone will have a fantastic subwoofer-range bass response, especially for ipods, as earphones with an impedance of 16 ohms or over have reduced low-range on ipods).

Klipsch itself seemed to have recognized this as they have gone with a moving coil "dynamic" driver design in their Klipsch Image S4, which won an award from CNET recently.

*Update* I recently listened to the Klipsch Image S4. After a "burn-in" period necessary for dynamic driver-based earphones, it sounds great, with a more bass-prominent sound. The custom 2's are just slightly richer in the mid-range, but honestly, the Custom 2's are better than most earphones in that range. There are music tracks where you can hear elements of bass on the Klipsch Image S4 that you don't notice on the Klipsch Custom 2. The Image S4's are really great earphones and I wish I had bought them instead of the Custom 2's.

2. Comfort
Klipsch noticed that the human ear canal isn't round, it's oval-shaped. So, they've given us oval-shaped ear-gels. Well, an oval is different sideways versus upright, right? This accounts for all the discussion on comfort in other reviews. It takes a little time to orient the eargels in the right way. Once you get the hang of that, these are very comfortable earphones. A good fit is important for the sound quality (crybabies who gave these earphones 1-star clearly didn't take the relatively short time to properly fit the 'phones).

They have an over-the-ear loop. That may not be for everyone, but they're neat because you can pull the earphone out of your ear and let them dangle from the loop when you need to talk to someone or pay attention to your surroundings (IEMs block outside noise when they are in your ear). Not a feature for everyone, but it can be very nice.

3. Value
They used to be $199, now they are $60. There's a reason for the price drop, but if you like jazz or folk or acoustic or classical music, then these are a real steal (5 stars earphones for you). If you like punchy bass that really makes itself present and alive in your music, then you can avoid this discountinued set of earphones and maybe go for the Klipsch Image S4. People coming from an old pair of dynamic driver-based earphones (sony, monster, etc.) should go with the Klipsch Image S4 for sure. If you're coming from balance armature earphones like Etymolic, you'll find the Klipsch custom 2 to be more balanced than, say, the Etymolic Er6i.

43 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I am extremely happy with these earphones, January 10, 2008

By 

Robert Moore (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Klipsch Custom-2 In-Ear Noise-Isolating Earphones (Electronics)

For the past two years I have been using Shure E2C earphones and have been very happy with them. But they broke three times on me (Shure did a great job of replacing them each time) and with the warranty ending I decided that I would retire these as my main earphones and use them as back ups for whatever earphones that I upgraded to. After looking and reading reviews I decided to get the Klipsch Custom 2 isolating earphones.

I am in love. I must, however, confess that I did not fall in love instantly. It took a while. When I bought the Shure E2Cs, all I had to do was pick out the right size of sleeve, pop them into my ears, and love the sound. The Klipsch earphones, on the other hand, are far more sensitive to placement within the ear and far more difficult to fine tune. The Shures are very tolerant to the angle you place them in the ear; the Klipsch have to be "just so" or they will not work well. It was also pretty difficult to find precisely which sleeves I should use. After three days of experimentation I landed on the large sleeves and it has been nothing but joy since then.

The sound of these earphones is infinitely better than that of the Shures, but the improvement is not as large as the jump from the earphones that came with my iPod (which are, I'm sure we can all agree, are pretty much crap) to the Shures. Going from Sony's earphones to the Shures was a titanic leap in quality. The jump to the Klipsch did not represent anywhere near as extreme an improvement. That being said, there is a definite and sharp improvement. I tested a number of songs ripped at 320 bps (using EAC rather than iTunes) and in every case the Klipsch earphones brought startling new levels of detail out in the music. For instance, if I played a song at a rather high volume over the Shures there was a fair amount of distortion. The same song played over the Klipsch resulted in nothing but clarity. On many rock songs, for instance, there is a presence to the bass drum that is entirely lacking on the Shures. I couldn't be happier with the sound. And because there is so little distortion I find listening to my iPod even less tiring than I did before.

There are a couple of design details that I really love. For instance, the wires are wrapped in cloth mesh rather than rubber or plastic. Living in Chicago, this is a very big deal. I mentioned that I had to have my Shures replaced three times. In each case it was because of a short in one of the wires. I believe that each time the short was caused because of inflexibility in the wires when the covering material became very brittle during extreme cold. But with the Klipsch's cloth mesh covering, this simply will not happen. I don't know if I will have to have these replaced at some point (and let's face it, one of the real problems of earphones is that they are fairly delicate), but there is no question that these are much more sturdily constructed.

The comparisons I have been making between the Shure E2Cs and the Klipsch Custom 2s isn't entirely fair. After all, I paid just under $100 for the Shures two years ago (the price has since dropped further) while I paid $199 for the Klipsch. A truly fair comparison would have been with the comparable Shure product, which I have no doubt is very fine. But I don't have the kind of cash that would allow me to be fair. I can say that for the money both earphones are outstanding. I was a bit hesitant to double the amount of money that I was going to spend on earphones, but am very happy that I did. I can enthusiastically recommend these earphones, though I urge patience in experimenting to see which pair of sleeves is best suited to the user's own particular ears.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Klipsch Custom-2 Rock!, November 28, 2007

By 

Midwest Music Fan "Ben" (Indiana USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Klipsch Custom-2 In-Ear Noise-Isolating Earphones (Electronics)

Klipsch. The company probably best known for very large floor standing speakers, including the legendary Klipschorn, now makes in-ear 'phones.

I ordered the Custom-2 Klipsch Custom-2 In-Ear Noise Isolating Earphone as soon as they were available directly from Klipsch. I was fortunate enough to try out prototypes of the IMAGE and Custom models this past summer. For absolute comfort, the IMAGE is unbelievable. The Custom series while not quite as easy to forget they're in your ears as the IMAGE are also amazingly comfortable. I have sensitive ears when it comes to sticking things in them and while I normally do not forget that the Custom-2 are in my ears, they are amazingly comfortable. I've used for several hours most days at work and my ears are very happy.

How do the Custom-2 sound?

Full, rich. Shimmering highs and thunderous lows. I've used Grado SR60's the past few years, which I still love, and the Klipsch Custom-2 sound more live. The music sounds more real. And there's more bass. The noise isolation allows one to better tune out nearby coworkers not to mention hear greater detail at lower volume levels.

Think you don't like in-ear 'phones? Try the Klpsch. I couldn't stand sticking 'phones in my ears but these are very comfortable and an amazing product.

The legendary sound of Klipsch that fits in the palm of one's hand or in one's ears.

As Professor Thump likes to say: "Stick it in your ear!"