Near the end of December, I took a short trip to Thailand. Not for business, purely pleasure, but since I was in town I figured I’d have a look at the local scene. Maybe catch up on some IEMs I missed, or perhaps uncover some hidden gems that only locals would know about.

ARC Custom is a company that isn’t quite a locally-kept secret since they had a brief stint in Music Sanctuary’s catalogue, but I didn’t really keep up with their releases ever since they were dropped from Singaporean shores. So I decided to drop by (on appointment, of course) and see if they have any new goodies in store for me.

The business model of ARC is pretty standard for any new up-and-coming custom IEM manufacturers: providing a decent sound for as cheap as possible, in a market where the barriers of entry are notoriously high. So, while (spoiler alert) I don’t award any star value ratings to any of the ARC models, it is to be noted that typical “budget customs” have a price floor of about $200-$300 right out the gate. The hidden costs of custom-moulding every individual order rear their ugly head the lower price of a custom gets, so one shouldn’t really expect a $300 budget custom to perform at the same level as a $300 universal IEM.

With that in mind, let’s get into the lineup of Thailand’s most famous custom IEM brand.