I’ve tried a couple of things and now I am back to square one with my shures with the default silicone tips. Recently I tried a pair of etymotics, and they were so uncomfortable that I could only wear them for about an hour, which sucks because they did have the best isolation of anything that I’ve ever tried. I know the general consensus among people who like them is that if you just wear them long enough you’ll get used to it and you can eventually like it, but I just can’t do it. I’ve tried the default foam tips on my shures but they also make my ear canals very sore, and the outer texture of foam chafes the skin in my ear canals. I tried them for quite a while so they had ample time for me to get used to it, but I never did. I have purchased a pair of custom molded IEMs in the past, and they are I think the most uncomfortable option I’ve ever tried. I can only wear them for a maximum of 15 to 20 minutes before I have to take them out, and the isolation is also kind of meh compared to other things that I’ve tried. Another slightly wackier solution that I tried very recently and immediately gave up on because I could feel a pressure in my head, and the headache lasted all of the rest of the day, was foam ear plugs and bone conduction headphones that I got on Amazon. It sounded a lot better than I expected it to sound, but the pressure of something pushing into the bottom of my temples consistently, and the aggressive vibrations on that area, it just didn’t work for me. Another thing that I think contributed to this was that where I had to wear them to get the best sound was directly outside of where the ear plugs were inside of my ears, so aside from having foam ear plugs pushing outward inside of my ear canals, I now had something on the outside pushing in against that outward expansion, and it was very unpleasant. Foam ear plugs on their own, without something else affecting it like that, are at least tolerable in the long run. having tried all of these options, I am back to square one with silicone tips. I think this is the only option that I can use consistently with good comfort, not being distracted all the time throughout the day and in pain.

With all of this said, can anybody give me some recommendations for my options? Are there very good single flanged tips that will fit anything, and/or is there a universal fit iem that provides better isolation generally than Shure se425s?

Also, typo in the title. IEMs, not items. I typed the text body with voice to text and there were some typos, which I have corrected as well.