Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with earplugs

help me find comfortable earplugs for clubbing

needs more cowbell — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 02:37:51 -0800

I want to start going clubbing, but I also want to keep my hearing intact. Earplug selection help needed! I can't find any earplugs that are comfortable.

I bought some musicians earplugs (these sonic valve ones or something like them), but they seem to form a suction seal in my ear canal, and the suction is painful. Should this be happening? Does it happen with other flanged styles (like these) too?

I've used a few models of the more standard foam earplugs before and find them uncomfortable as well - I don't like the sensation of the foam against my ear canal, and they also make sound that filters through sound funny in that way that musicians' earplugs don't.

So - ideas for something that will be more comfortable? Ideally they'd be reusable and not over, say, $25 (but less is better). Earplugs that will still allow me to hear (almost) as much of people talking as I'd be able to hear in a noisy club to begin with would be especially good.

Where can I buy sound protecting earmuffs for infants in Toronto?

modernnomad — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 15:06:16 -0800

Where can I buy children's ear muffs (for sound protection, not warmth) in Toronto? A concert-going friend is soon to have a baby, and I would like purchase him and is wife (also a frequent concert-goer) some sound protection for their child (newborn or infant size) similar to these. Looking for a physical shop in Toronto where they can be purchased.

What are the best earplugs for swimming?

Sevenupcan — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 05:58:28 -0800

What are the best ear plugs for swimming? As a child I always had really bad ear infections. So much that it put me off swimming for a while as I would always get water in my ears and it would really hurt! I soon discovered that wearing a swimming cap was the best solution. A fair few years have passed now and I am a little less bothered by water getting in my ears but still find it painful at times.

Now I'd like to find a really good pair of earplugs. I always used to find the wax ones let water in after a while and often get dirt on them. But then again some silicon ones felt uncomfortable because it felt like they were digging into my ear canal.

When it comes to earplugs for swimming is there one universal name or brand that springs to mind?

Silence me

kestrel251 — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 21:02:16 -0800

Makeshift earplugs??? I'm traveling for work and find myself in a loud hotel. Well, not the hotel itself, but outside. Think: college campus on a Friday night. I'm not a prig, and remember college, and am not going to call Public Safety. But I forgot to bring earplugs.... Can I do better than a twist of TP in my ears, or a pillow over my head? Any techniques????

stuffy ear is driving me bananas.

sucre — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 10:40:34 -0800

My left ear is stuffy almost every day. Allergies + Qtip use + Earplugs = ? YANAD, but you might be able to help. for a few years now, my left ear has been stuffy on and off. it is similar to the sensation of having water in your ear (without the actual water sensation, just the stuffiness). i have allergies (cats, dogs, possibly mold, dust) although i have never had allergy testing or allergy shots.

other details: the stuffiness seems more apparent in the summertime. i notice the stuffiness about 30-60 minutes after waking up, and is lasts for a stretch of the day and seems to disappear around the evening-time. i wear an earplug each night (just one, in the ear that doesn’t touch the pillow) and often switch the earplug back and forth when i switch sides while i sleep (i know, i should probably just use two earplugs). also, and this may be pretty important, i use qtips almost every day (once per day), similar to this person. i would characterize it as a qtip addition, (although i don’t hear my pulse like this person did). that said, i don’t think i have any wax build-up. i’ve tried wax-removing techniques (a storebought kit, including some oil and a squirty bulb) as well as warmed olive oil and hydrogen peroxide. i’ve taken a few different kinds of allergy pills, none of which helped. i’ve used a Neti Pot on and off, and have just recently started using it twice a day. i also have a lot of gunk in my throat, and am constantly clearing it and sometimes coughing. this may be related. i also have asthma, which i have under control (i use 100/50 Advair twice per day).

i visited the doctor about two years ago to discuss this problem, assuming it was allergy-related. she checked for wax, didn’t find any, and said that because the stuffiness was only in one ear, it couldn’t be allergies. so she gave me an antibiotic and let me go. i don’t remember this helping at all, and here i am years later with the same problem.

it's really annoying! and i know that i shouldn't be using qtips (maybe my first step will be to cut the qtip use). any suggestions, hive mind?

Cockadoodle STFU!

@homer — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 05:13:43 -0800

I need some earplugs to block out rooster crows while I sleep. Help! The neighbors a couple houses over decided it would be just dandy to have a rooster. The damn thing crows day and night. I did talk to the neighbors and they don't care. They got the rooster to have fresh eggs. Yeah, dumb as a box of rocks.

What kind of earplugs would block out the crows? I've tried the orange foam plugs fom Walgreens and some 3M earplugs that looked the same and worked about as well which is to say not very. While low frequency sound is blocked the high frequency stuff comes through pretty loud and clear. Clear enough that I wish Hawkeye was here with his powers of persuasion.

Does anyone have any earplug recommendations so I can sleep again?

buzz off

trig — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 02:44:21 -0800

I live in an apartment that gets a lot of street noise, so sometimes I use earplugs when it gets to be too much. The problem is that when I use them I hear a constant buzzing noise that's really distracting. Any ideas on whether this is because of cheap earplugs (and hence avoidable with better ones), noise that isn't being blocked out, or just the way brains work?

Best Earplugs/Earmuff for sleeping with a snorer?

beezy — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 21:38:33 -0800

What's the best set of noise cancelling apparatus you can get and sleep in? Earplugs? Noise cancelling muffs? I love my husband more than life itself, but I will smother him in his sleep if he wakes me up with his hear-it-in-the-basement loud snoring. He's been to a sleep apnea clinic, and he's waiting for his CPAP. Meanwhile, we're going on a 5 day roadtrip, with hotels, where I cannot set up an air mattress in the basement. I MUST SLEEP!

What gadgets can I get my hands on FAST that will help muffle the monster? I've ordered a passle of earplugs, but is there something better?

I wash my ears regularly, I swear...

allkindsoftime — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 11:59:23 -0800

How do I wash / clean foam earplugs (specifically, these ones) without completely ruining them? I have a hearing "problem" in my right ear (see here). Thanks to it, I've been carrying foam earplugs for years (these kind, not the ones above). I usually cut them about in half and only use the rounded end in my problem ear. When they get too grimy from use, I just toss them, because they are cheap.

The ones I linked to in the headline, however, are not cheap ($25 / 10 pair). And for some reason they seem to be of lesser quality than your average foam earplugs. These ones are sleeves for my Shure E4C headphones, and as I use them frequently, it seems I have to replace these more often than once / month, which seems rather fast to me. I'd like to be able to clean them somehow, but to date, scraping them off with my fingernail to get an extra couple wears out of them seems the only way to go.

As I know from years of finding "washed" earplugs that I left in my jean pockets when they went through the laundry, earplugs absorb all the liquid and then lose their pliable shape and are basically useless when you try to wash them with soap / water.

I realize this one is a stretch, but if anyone has any other ideas, I'd love to hear them...

Shure SE310 vs. Etymotic ER6 with a catch.

Evstar — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 13:21:11 -0800

I've been given a pair of Shure SE310 earphones for Christmas. This is fantastic. However, Etymotic makes the ER6s which can be fitted into custom earplug molds. I happen to already have the custom earplug molds for my musician's earplugs. Should I keep the Shures or exchange them for ER6s? The impression I'm under is that the Shures are probably superior earphones. Also, my musician's earplugs are kind of offset. By that I mean that the tunnel from the attenuators to the inside of my ear isn't straight, they extend outside the ear canal and fit into the upper part of my ear lobe. Will that have an effect on how the sound travels to my inner ear? (If you can't make sense of that description I can supply pictures.)

I would appreciate any input on this, thanks.

Any Advantage to Custom-fitted Earplugs?

Danf — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 11:05:04 -0800

Are custom fitted noise-reducing earplugs any better than cheaper off-the-shelf ones? There is a person who works in my organization that is insisting on buying (on my company's dime) some custom-fitted "musician quality" earplugs to deal with what he feels are hearing loss issues posed by his job.

Leaving alone my skepticism about his actual exposure (I will be evaluating this soon), I cannot find any reason to buy him custom fitted plugs (at over $100 a set), when there are a number of very inexpensive comfortable ones available in the 20-25 dB noise reduction range, which he would need to do his job and still hear some stuff. And there is the added concern that the 50 or so people in his job class my then clamor for their own.

As a hearing aid wearer, I know from earmolds and custom fitting, and I rather have a pair of these off-the-shelf plugs in my ears than the earmolds that I wear.

Does anyone have any direct experience with this, from a noise reduction standpoint?

blu tac earplugs

parallax7d — Fri, 05 May 2006 07:28:07 -0800

I use that Blu Tac stuff for earplugs every night. It's that blue (or sometimes yellow) adhesive that you use to stick posters to the wall. It's very cheap, and blocks sound better than any earplug I've tried. You never have to wash it which is a big bonus. Since it's so maleable it doesn't hurt your ear canals by pushing on them like foam ear plugs do. I can wear them all night and my ear canals aren't sore like other ear plugs.

1. Is it ok to be putting a (mild) adhesive in your ears? I don't stuff it in that far.

2. Is it ok to seal your ears in this manner? The physical act of stuffing the stuff in there slightly hurts my eardrums due to pressure changes. Once I stop pushing they don't hurt any longer, but I can tell their is a pressure differential in the ear canal. Is this hurting my drums?

3. Since it creates an airtight seal my inner ear feels wet after using them for a while. I guess your ears need to breath out of your head or the water just collects. Will this cause infections? It's not much water, it seems to mostly evaporate after a minute. Should I put hydrogen peroxide in my ears before sealing them?

4. Those of you with custom fitted plugs, do your ears feel sore after a night of use?

Quiet, ye dogs! Looking for earplugs.

socratic — Thu, 07 Jul 2005 20:01:47 -0800

Can anybody recommend some good earplugs? I'm taking the bar exam in 20 days, and I'm looking for some good earplugs. I hate the moldable foam plugs, and I'm looking for something soft and comfortable that I'll forget about. Sony's soft earbud headphones (note, I'm looking for earplugs; these are just for comparison) generally do me right and seem to be about the right size for my ears.

I can Google for earplugs all day, but I'm looking for some personal recommendations, esp. if you've used the 'plugs for a major test like a bar exam.

Earplugs for concerts

maledictory — Thu, 09 Jun 2005 23:10:41 -0800

Has anyone had any experience with buying earplugs for use at concerts? I've only started going to live shows recently and I find the inevitable ringing in my ears afterward disconcerting. I know I don't have the greatest hearing as it is, and would like to keep what I've got, so I've been wondering about earplugs. These Etymotic ones claim that they won't muffle the sound so much as reduce the noise level equally across the board. Has anyone used these, or similar, and can speak to their effectiveness?

Oh yes: while I value my hearing, I'm not sure I really want to be 'that guy' wearing the large orange ear muffs in the corner. So style is an (albeit minor) consideration.

Is frequent use of earplugs/earphones bad for my health?

skallas — Wed, 13 Oct 2004 15:54:10 -0800

Does frequent use of earplugs and earbud heaphones mean I'll get sick more often? I suspect so but havent found any research to back this up. I've noticed that I get severe but short head colds, sometimes along with flu-type symptoms after I go to a concert. I think when I'm rolling my earplugs to compress them I'm covering them with whatever germs are on my hands and shoving them into my ear canal. Same with wearing ear bud headphones on the train. I've touched all these public surfaces and then I touch my ear buds in the process of getting them out of my bag and putting them in my ears.

Is this making me sick? I think it is.

Of course this can be coincidental, but it seems to be true.