Cleaning and caring for your IEMs

An IEM sits in your ear canal for hours, so earwax, skin oil and sweat end up on it. Most of it collects in two places: the ear tip and the nozzle, the little tube the tip sits on. The nozzle usually has a fine mesh in the opening that keeps dirt out of the driver. When that mesh gets blocked, less sound gets through.

There's often a small vent in the shell as well. It lets air move behind the driver. If it's covered with dirt, the bass can change.

Once a week is plenty for daily use. It takes two minutes.

1. Take the ear tip off.
2. Hold the IEM with the nozzle pointing down, so loose bits fall out instead of in.
3. Brush the mesh gently with a dry, soft brush. A clean, soft toothbrush that you only use for this works fine.
4. Wipe the nozzle and the shell with a dry, lint-free cloth.
5. Check the vent and brush it lightly if it's dirty.

Some IEMs have replaceable filters in the nozzle and come with spares. If yours do and brushing doesn't bring the sound back, swap the filter. If yours don't, the mesh is part of the nozzle and brushing is the way to go.

Tips are the part that touches your ear, so they need the most attention. Silicone can be washed, foam can't.

Replace tips when silicone tears, loses its shape or stays sticky after washing, or when foam springs back quickly instead of slowly. Also when the bass sounds thinner than it used to and nothing else has changed. The ear tips guide goes into sizes and materials.

None of the IEMs we sell lists a water resistance rating, so treat them as not waterproof. Sweat is salty and slightly acidic, and it's the moisture that does the damage over time.

• After the gym, a run or a gig: wipe the IEMs and the cable dry.
• Let them air dry on a table for an hour before they go in a case or a closed pouch.
• Don't dry them on a radiator or with a hair dryer. Heat can deform the tips and loosen glue.
• A silica gel packet, the kind that comes with new shoes, in your case helps keep it dry.
• Don't wear IEMs in the shower or the pool.

The cable takes the most abuse, and the weak spots are where it bends most: at the plug and where it enters the earpiece.

• Unplug by holding the plug, not the cable. That goes for the 3.5 mm plug and for the connectors on the earpieces.
• 2-pin: pull straight out. Don't wiggle side to side, it loosens the socket.
• MMCX: pull straight off too. Turning it on and off over and over wears out the snap.
• Coil the cable in loose loops of about a hand's width. Winding it tightly around your phone or your fingers kinks it at the ends.
• If the cable has preformed ear hooks, don't bend them straight. They're shaped to go over your ear.

Using our KZ Bluetooth cable? Charge it with a charger of at most 1.5 A, as KZ specifies. Not with a fast charger.

Loose in a pocket with keys and coins, a shell gets scratched and a nozzle can bend. A simple case or pouch solves that. The product page lists what's in the box. If there's no case, it's worth getting one.

Keep them out of a hot car and out of direct sun on a window sill. Heat isn't good for silicone, glue or a battery in a Bluetooth cable.

Most problems have a simple cause. Work through this before you assume something is broken.

Still not right after all that? Email us. If it's a defect, it falls under the warranty, and we handle that with the manufacturer.