Does anyone have a pair? How do they compare to generic ear plugs?
You must log in or register to comment.
If they can fully block sound than yes. I say this with someone with a child.
every musician I know that spent hundreds of dollars on custom molded sound blocking IEMs are saying yes definitely 100%
I am however a man of refinement
I’ve also heard about earbuds specifically designed to tune out noise. Wonder how those work?
I’ve got earbuds tips made out of earplugs material. They’re great! However I tend to run hotter when wearing them, they really bottle up the body heat. Almost like wearing earmuffs!
Yes. I got them for playing the drums but now I keep them in my work bag for whenever I find myself working behind a server rack. They are much better than generic ones because everything is just quieter rather than only some frequencies, which means talking with others is easier.
Bro. Hell to the yes. Generic are itchy and irritating. Custom silicone fits perfect. You can get them with different interchangable filters. Mine are for people working at music venues so it dips all sound by 17db but the voice frequency is dipped by 11db. So I can continue to hear people fine but all the loud noises and especially bass and room ambience is gone. I wear them to bed and nearly all the time when I just go outside because I live next to a busy road. Best thing I’ve bought in the last 5 years.
The filters get expensive if you want to get a bunch of different ones, like there is one out there for gun fire. So guns get lowered but you can still hear talking. Filters for road rumble and wind noise for motorcyclists. People that work at like F1 have specific filters too. It’s kinda wild to me now that people are just raw dogging reality with their ears. Ambulance passing, it doesn’t hurt. Someone hurling insults at you on the street. Sounds like they’re whispering under their breath. Is it expensive, yes(less so during black Friday). Would I pay full price for them again. Also yes.
Any questions let me know. Edit:spelling
Interesting to read, I work with industrial machines and wear generic foam type ones for 8+ hours a day Mon to Fri and will often wear the same ones when I’m out and about to drown out the noise of society too. I dont mind them for the most part as I’m so used to them however every other month it was cause my ear canal to be quite painful for about a week.
I have always considered them but never wanted to pay the price.
Do you have recommendations of brands or companies I can look into for a decent set? I’m in the UK
Those foam ones are really irritating after a while. Your local chemist may sell “mouldable silicone” ones that are cheap, better at sound isolation and way more comfortable. You basically just mash them into your ear and they form a perfect seal.
I use them every night.
I appreciate the reply but I cannot stand those moldable ones that are like ramming a lump of blu-tack into your ears xD I find the opposite to be true that they don’t provide as much sound insulation and they end up falling out due to the movement of your body as you work. At least that is my experience with them.
The foam ones I do use tend to be of slightly higher quality and for the most part I don’t find them irritable apart from every now and then when they cause me some pain as I mentioned before. 85 % of the time they are good though and will stay in place for 8 hours plus without me having to fuck around.
Generally I’m happy with the foam ones I get through work, it is just that 15% of the time when they can cause me some pain that I would like to alleviate.
I have also tried the silicone ear plugs that are sort of ribbed with a more solid centre to them that are sort of a middle ground between the foam and moldable silly putty ones but they are the most irritable of them all as well as not staying put either so would not recommend them to anyone!
Yeah fair enough. I’m not using them in a work environment. I’m happy if I get an extra 20 minutes of sleep in the morning when all the noise from the teenage grooming starts. Sometimes it’s 40.
It sounds ridiculous but it all adds up.
I grew up in the arse end of nowhere so any noise at all wakes me.
Different things work for different people and I appreciate the input regardless just definitely isn’t for me :D
You’d hate where I live then, surrounded by university students in a city where the bin lorry comes at fucking half 5 every morning. It fucking sucks and I miss the quietness of the countryside where I grew up!
Ah yeah totally fair. To each their own.
I did live in a city centre once a long time ago but I’d definitely be keeping the earplugs in all night if I were you now!
I have pacificears.com.au/products/pro-17 but that’s Australia. But I feel like it’s a generic enough product that something similar would be available in the UK.
curious as to your recommendations?
Pacific ears pro 17 in Australia. There is a url in another comment I made.
I thought it was about the fit, or maybe they are molded for your ears too?
I have like slits and not “tubes” so all plugs just fall out.
They are moulded to my ears. If you got unusual ears i donno what to say, but I suspect they could custom mould for you too. Go ask an audiologist.
I like mine. I have tinnitus and its important to me to be able to dial down loud music and movies, without the sound getting muffled and unintelligible. Mine are custom molded with removable 20db etymotics filters; they came with solid filters too that you can switch when you just want to block sound and don’t care about fidelity.
Before these I had some etymotics 30$ musician’s earplugs and they never worked very well. With them in I couldn’t make out the words a singer was singing, and always felt like I was missing out on the music.
My GF has a pair of 20$ musicians plugs she likes just fine (“downbeats”), and she doesn’t feel like they ruin the sound. So maybe custom molded isn’t as important as a good filter?
For sleeping, shooting, or settings where hearing isn’t important, the foam ones are fine.
1000% yes. I’m on my 3rd pair. I use them almost daily. Being in a band, going to shows, riding motorcycle, work stuff, loud bars, home improvement projects, at this point I could not live without them. As someone else mentioned, filters are expensive, but get a pair of 15+ dB filters and you’ll be good 99% of the time. You only get one pair of ears, so treat yourself.
Regular foam 3m earplugs, or the lighter river ones on a string are as good or better than the custom molded ones, when properly inserted. They’ll down out loud sounds and you’ll still be able to have a perfectly normal conversation with someone standing next to you.
Most people aren’t wearing them correctly. Custom plugs tend to have this long tail that goes in to your ear canal, foam plugs should go as deep.
For a couple of bucks for a hundred of these things it’s hard to imagine that the expense for a custom pair is even remotely worth it.
Significantly better, and if you have in ear headphones it’s worth it to see if you can get custom molded tips while you’re bothering as this will noticeably improve audio quality and noise cancelling
This is what I did initially then I went on to get plugs since I already had my mould made and there was a 50%off coupon for plugs.
Dunno. But I have purchased the kind for music, back when I was in a band. Much better than the foam kind. They also attenuate sound evenly rather than the drill thinking of adults in a Charlie Brown Christmas special. Great for concerts.
Would love to hear recommendations on brands people use
I use Pacific ears in Australia. But ultimately it’s going to be the exact same product. Just moulded silicone. So what ever is cheapest. But if you want filters they might be more brand specific, but I don’t really know. In Australia there aren’t many options as far as I could find.
Oh yes. I waited for so long to try, and won’t go back now.
