Why it Matters A LOT for Sound Quality

Most gamers obsess over the hard specs: driver size, frequency range, driver type, and a bunch of other charts and acronyms. But earbud fit can really make or break your experience.

You could have the best earbuds on paper, but if they don’t sit in your ears right and create a tight seal, you’ll never hear them at their best. Whether it’s gaming, music, or movies, poor fit means flat and hollow sound, ear fatigue, and endless falling out and readjustments.

This guide will show you how to find and keep the perfect fit so you can enjoy what you’re listening with your earbuds in total comfort, with better sound and more stability, every time.

The Right Fit Matters

Sound Quality & Bass Response

A good seal means your earbuds simply get to work better. 

Ever had a bluetooth speaker that sounded amazing in your room but absolute garbage the moment you take it outside? All audio devices still have to obey the laws of physics, which in this case, is acoustics. So, whether they’re earbuds, headphones, or speakers, they’re designed to play in certain spaces optimally.

This is the first reason why having a good seal is essential: by getting a good seal in your ear canal, your earbuds can deliver deep, punchy bass and crisp detail that can be crazy immersive. Break that seal, and you’ll get thin, limp audio that’s really lacking.

Because now, not only do you have contamination from the outside noises, but the drivers that are designed to work well only in a space the size of your ear canal now has to deal with the additional air coming in, like how a half-open door lets in heat or the cold.

Noise Isolation

The right fit isn’t just about comfort. Well, primarily it is but it’s also your first line of defense against the outside noise. A good seal naturally blocks out distractions a lot better than ANC ever could, which keeps you focused and locked in on the action.

!!! CONSPIRACY THEORY TIME !!!

Source: IMDB

It is our firm belief that Apple was never a fan of the rubber or silicone eartip earbud design since they never really had those. Even as far back as the iPod days, they always preferred the more open flat head earplug design, which they narrowed down the opening for the original AirPods.

They’ve only started adopting the soft eartip design by the time of the AirPods Pro because we imagine that even they started to realize that the soft eartip design is the superior one when it comes to sound quality.

And with that long intro out of the way, this is the point we’re trying to make; they added in ANC primarily because the original AirPods design just couldn’t give your ears a good seal.

Have any of us worked at Apple at the time to confirm this? No.

But a quick Google Trend search can support this claim, at least in the beginning since Apple marketed ANC heavily back then.

And to this day, ANC is still the top feature they’re promoting on the AirPods.

Now… Do we know this for sure?

No. We’ll let you be the judge for that. But what we can say for now is that ANC has been such a hot feature all of a sudden that if you look at all other earbuds, headphones, IEMs, and other personal audio equipment, they’ll have ANC plastered all over their listings, even if they have the soft eartip design that provides natural, and we argue superior, passive noise cancellation.

And that we know how much of a trendsetter Apple is.

Comfort for Long Sessions

A properly fitting earbud will feel secure without pushing your earbud too hard into your ear canal. With the older flat head earplug designs of old, yes, that kind of was true. But with modern eartip designs, it’s not so much a question of how deep in you can get them, but it’s all about diameters.

When you can match the eartip with your ear canal’s natural opening diameter, it’s gonna stay there regardless. The problem, and we’ll get into all of this later, is that most earbud manufacturers arbitrarily add in a small, medium, and large eartip size when in fact, what counts as the actual small, medium, and large may be in-between what they’ve given you. Fortunately there are aftermarket eartips that we highly recommend if the earbuds you bought can’t give you the right eartip sizes – but again, more on that later.

What this means is that once you have the right fit dialed down, you can play, listen, watch, have it on you for hours without sore ears or constant readjustment.

Choosing the Right Ear Tips

Material Types

There are three main types of materials that ear tips are made of that you should worry about.

• Silicone: The go-to for most gamers – durable, easy to clean, and comfy for daily use. A good quality silicone tip can be your endgame, and with the hygiene bonuses, this honestly makes it an instant S-Tier for us.

  • One thing to look out for are rubber eartips that are usually found in cheaper models. These things aren’t horrible, but we find that they provide less surface grip and they’re generally flimsier so structurally they latch on to your ear canal’s opening less, causing more readjustments or times when they fall out.

• Foam: Soft, conforms to your ear shape for excellent sound isolation and peak comfort. The downsides? They wear out faster and the foam, as you may expect, can soak up your earwax and that’s just gonna be disgusting in the long run. For what it’s worth, the star that shines the brightest burns out the quickest, and it’s very much true for foam tips.
• Hybrid: A mix of silicone and foam (in any order) for the best of both worlds. Most foam eartips actually are hybrids with the inside being made of silicone to make it more durable whenever you’re attaching them to earbuds (which are usually IEMs). But if you can find them, find ones that have a silicone outer and inner shell covering the foam so that you can still wash them.

Sizes & Fit Testing

Ear tips usually come in small, medium, and large; with some brands offering a fourth size somewhere in the middle. 

If you will take away one thing from this post it’s this: TEST THEM ALL.

The right size will be snug but never painful. Too small, and they’ll slip out; too big, and they’ll feel like they’re drilling very, very slowly in your ear canal.

We recommend to test the largest one first and work your way down. This way you can start with “they’re too big and tight” and work your way down to “oh that feels just right”, rather than “this is too small” and work your way up to “yeah, this is good enough”

We promise we’re still talking about eartips.

Specialty Tips for Gaming

• Wash silicone tips weekly with mild soap and water.
• Avoid alcohol on foam tips. The alcohol, since it’s a solvent, actually breaks down the material that’s used in most foam eartips so it breaks them down faster.
• Replace tips every 3–6 months depending on wear, or sooner if they lose their shape. Online shopping is your friend: you can get eartips from anywhere in the world now, and make sure to stock up if you notice that you’re going through these fairly quickly.

Conclusion

At the end of the day, the right fit might not turn bad earbuds into great ones, but it ensures your drivers can perform as best as they can, thus resulting in amazing sound. 

Adding in the additional benefits of comfort, hygiene, and not losing your earbud randomly, we say that getting the right fit is key to getting the best experience with your earbuds whether you’re gaming or doing everything else.

Test different materials, sizes, eartips, and techniques until you find your personal sweet spot because all ears are sized and shaped differently. Once you nail the fit, you’ll get better sound, better comfort, and better focus, every time.

If you want to check out our best recommendations for gaming earbuds, you can check out our ranked list for our top picks in 2025 here.

• Memory Foam: Perfect for long tournaments where you need to lock in for hours. They’ll lose their resistance the more you wear them but they won’t lose their shape thus, maintaining their grip.
• Shallow-Fit Silicone: Great for quick removals between matches or casual training sessions. Just make sure you’re still getting the one that fits the best.

Getting the Perfect Fit: CHECKLIST

Insert & Twist Method

Gently insert the earbud in your ear, then twist slightly to create a seal. Don’t jam it in too far! Comfort is key here and the reason why you want to twist it slightly is so that there’s this sideways or lateral resistance that helps keep your earbud in place. 

Seal Testing

Play something with strong bass or do an intense gaming session (at least audio-wise, so even single player campaign missions are fine here). If the sound feels distant or hollow, reseat your earbuds or try a different-sized eartip.

Using Wings or Hooks

For high-movement gaming like VR or competitive play, consider earbuds with built-in wings or hooks to keep them secure. Wings or hooks come in two basic forms: those that hook on the outside of your ear, and those that “hook”, or rather latch, on the inside and provide counter pressure that keeps the earbuds in place.

Those that use hooks on the outside are those that you can find on sporty or sport-oriented earbuds – which are fine but we find that they’re usually there so that when your earbuds fall off they won’t fall out too far.

But what you really want are inside hooks that help your earbuds clip into your ears better. Those that the SANWEAR earbuds from SAN Sound have (Quantum and GAMETYPE). We were able to try them in PAX Seattle last August and they just stay in your ear better because of these earhooks.

Source: sansound.com 

Regardless, if you expect a lot of movement, wings and hooks are essential.

Over-Ear Cable Routing

For wired earbuds, loop the cable over your ear. This simple move improves stability and keeps cables from pulling them out mid-game, and most IEMs are designed this way by default. The wires serve as the sports type ear hooks too so that if they do fall out, they won’t be dangling all in front of you.

Troubleshooting Fit Problems

LIGHTNING ROUND: Here are a bunch of quick tips to help you troubleshoot your fitting issues.

Earbuds Keep Falling Out

• Try bigger tips or foam tips for extra grip. Or like we mentioned earlier: get actual silicone tips that grip better than cheaper rubber tips.
• You can also look for angled nozzles that better match your ear canal shape since, at the end of the day, fitting your earbuds right is about the overall shape; but getting the right diameter covers 99% of it.

Ear Fatigue or Pain

• Swap to smaller tips or softer foam. Even if you’re a big guy like some of us in the gamingearbuds team, your ear opening might actually be small. So what might work best for you might be the smaller eartips and not the big ones – though this isn’t always the case since again, manufacturers tend to have arbitrary classifications on small, medium, and large.
• Take short breaks during extended play. Also check if you’re experiencing any grounding issues if you’re using wired earbuds.

Uneven Sound in One Ear

• Check your seal and clean the mesh of any earwax or debris. In fact, it’s best to do deep cleans of both your ears and earbuds regularly.
• Replace damaged or worn tips.

Constant Adjustments

• Test different tip shapes and materials until you find a fit you can forget about.

Quick Maintenance Tips

• Wash silicone tips weekly with mild soap and water.
• Avoid alcohol on foam tips. The alcohol, since it’s a solvent, actually breaks down the material that’s used in most foam eartips so it breaks them down faster.
• Replace tips every 3–6 months depending on wear, or sooner if they lose their shape. Online shopping is your friend: you can get eartips from anywhere in the world now, and make sure to stock up if you notice that you’re going through these fairly quickly.

Conclusion

At the end of the day, the right fit might not turn bad earbuds into great ones, but it ensures your drivers can perform as best as they can, thus resulting in amazing sound. 

Adding in the additional benefits of comfort, hygiene, and not losing your earbud randomly, we say that getting the right fit is key to getting the best experience with your earbuds whether you’re gaming or doing everything else.

Test different materials, sizes, eartips, and techniques until you find your personal sweet spot because all ears are sized and shaped differently. Once you nail the fit, you’ll get better sound, better comfort, and better focus, every time.

If you want to check out our best recommendations for gaming earbuds, you can check out our ranked list for our top picks in 2025 here.