You say it's a pain to keep taking them out? I was going to wear them at work but I'm guessing i would never hear the phone ring! Did you have to pay for the mould session? I would love to go for the 1k monitors but even 700 bucks seems excessive, maybe I should stick to in ear-headphones.....do you recommend any?
I chose to pay for a consultation session each time, which includes hearing tests and other stuff. But the audiologist's visit specifically to mould the phones are inclusive, at least for the UE-10. Can't say whether the same is for the 5c but I would imagine so.
The custom thing as I said is largely not a sound thing, unless you have major issues fitting generic in-ear monitors: It's a fit thing. If that matters to you enough (and it matters to me) to pay extra, then that would be what you want.
I notice a lot of web reviews of the UE customs casting these in some ultimate-sounding way. They are not. They happen to be among the best IEM's you can get, but they don't provide a commensurate increase in the sound quality in terms of the cost difference compared with a generic, and they also aren't ultimate monitors by a long way if you have any experience of regular professional-use (and we're talking $2-$300 items) headphone listening. Like Apples, perhaps the initial experience tends to make reviewers overstate the actual benefits.
If it's your first IEM it might be better to go with a generic and see how you get on. The Shure SE530's are a good compromise and are unlikely to disappoint - especially those new to high fidelity audio. They give out decent sound on the whole, have a good range of fit options and generally lacks the compromises that other single and dual driver IEM's have in terms of not being able to cover the musical frequency range convincingly. They are also (relatively) reasonably priced at $400ish street. I'd say don't bother with the Push To Hear model, but it's up to you.
If you want to hear your colleagues and the surrounding environment then an IEM is not a good idea because of the high isolation. You're best off with mildly isolated headphones, the cheaper in-ear phones which isolate less, or a pair of open phones. If you want to selectively block out certain types of noise (droning air-con, computers, etc) then electronic cancellation can be more effective.
