Post by Bonzo on Apr 30, 2014 16:31:13 GMT -5
I saw the "LIVE" thread today and it made me think of an old e-mail I sent Sound & Vision Magazine many years ago. They never got around to doing what I asked of them, so I never really got my full review I wanted. Since then I've limped along trying out 3 different plugs but never really got too serious. Then today I thought, hey why not post this on the Lounge and see what I get. Here's the original letter....
Hello Sound & Vision,
As a long time Stereo Review & Sound & Vision subscriber, I was wondering if I couldn't put in a suggestion for an upcoming review for your magazine?
Along with your other readers, I'm an avid music lover, and the lover of good sound quality. One of the ways I (and I'm sure many of your readers too) love to hear music is to go see bands live, especially outdoors during warm summer nights. As all show goers know, many times amplified music can just be too loud, causing the dreaded ear ringing syndrome we all hate. Some people don't realize what they are doing to their future hearing ability. No one deliberately wants to have irreparable hearing damage, but some people just don't realize how easy it can be done. Some people even think it's funny or cool when they have ringing the next day. For people who do know better, ear plugs are the obvious answer. But as you all know, we Sound & Vision readers also want good sound quality, and that's where you come in.
Now I've tried various ear plug types, like the foam roll up kind and other push in ones from my local stores, but I've never been satisfied with the sound quality. It's always muffled to some extent, and it can be very inconsistent depending on how well or loose they are in your ear. So I started looking online for "high fidelity ear plugs." What I came across was a plethora of brands and types, all claiming to be the best. The online reviews are mixed and inconsistent, so they weren't helpful in this case. Some plugs don't cost too much at around $10 - $30 (which is what I'm personally interested in), while other custom form ones cost $100 and up. With so many to choose from, a person could spend hundreds of dollars just trying each version out.
To make things more difficult, brands use different terminology describing what their products do and how effective they are. There are acronyms like NRR and SNR and words like reduction, attenuation, frequency and decibels; all being used differently from different manufacturers. It's much like 2 amplifiers being rated at 100 watts, only to find out one rating was continuous at 8 ohms while the other was peak at 6 ohms. And as with audio products, I'm sure sometimes that specific information has little or nothing to do with the end sound quality result.
Since I know you guys actually do know what you are talking about when it comes to "good sound", I thought you would be the perfect people to ask. I was thinking that maybe you could do a multi-brand side by side review. You could buy 10 or so different ear plug models and put them to the test. You could do it in a controlled environment, and with your expertise and equipment, give more than just an average Joe's opinion. It would at least be helpful to narrow down the field to say 2 or 3 that you could easily recommend. With you doing this, you could help many of your readers save their ears at live shows while still enjoying the good sound quality we all appreciate. And if you started now, you could publish your results before the 2010 summer concert series' begin.
Is this something Sound & Vision would be interested in doing? Or perhaps you know of another magazine (say like a headphones review magazine) that would be a better place for me to send this e-mail too? Or maybe you know of such a review that has already been done?
If you do consider this, below you will find a list of plugs I've found by searching online. I'm sure there are even more out there, but these seem to be the most common ones receiving higher ratings. I thought this information would save you some up front research time and help save you some money in the process. I know I've learned a lot over the past week while hunting.
Thanks for taking the time to read this and your consideration in actually proceeding with the review. I hope you find it a worth while idea.
Now back to here and now. Since I wrote this original letter I've tried 3 of the plugs listed below, the Alpine Music Safe, and the 2 sizes of Etymotic Research. (Many of the brands/types have different names but appear to be exactly the same as these 2 brands) The Alpines seemed like a very cool idea because they let you adjust the amount of reduction. Problem is, even the lowest "setting" was too much, and changed the actual sound. They were comfortable enough, but really didn't do what I was asking. I even tried taking the highest "setting" inserts and drilling them out a bit, but it didn't work. So then I tried the Etymotic Research. First off, the large are too big for me. They work, but, they are not as comfortable for my ears. The regular size is much better. As for sound, these were much better than the Alpine, but, they still reduced the sound too much. They might work great for some super loud heavy thrash bands etc, but for normal "just a bit too loud" amplified music, they reduce too much. So, to make them fit and work better, I cut off the smallest "ring" of the 3. This helped immensely making them much more comfortable, and getting the sound more where I liked it. But they still reduce the sound too much. I have thought about cutting off the largest ring on the outside (or maybe the medium ring), but if that fails, I've ruined the plugs. They don't cost too much, so I may wind up doing that. But today I decided I'd try buying a few other pairs that I hadn't seen years ago, and appear to be fairly new to the market, the Earasers and the Happy Ears. The Earaser brand appears to be almost exactly what I'm looking for, with only mild sound reduction and flat natural response. They were a bit more than I wanted to spend, but I figured it's been several years why not give them a try. I also got a pair of the Happy Ears just to see what they were like (since they were cheap). I'll report back here when I get a chance to test them out.
In the mean time, do any of you folks out there have any experience and opinions about ear plugs? If so, please chime in. I'd love to get your opinions.
Thanks, and cheers ---- Bonzo
For starters here's a site that offers many of the brands all at one place.
EARPLUG SUPERSTORE
earplugstore.stores.yahoo.net/nasopl.html
And another place with lots of types.
ENHANCED LISTENING
www.enhancedlistening.co.uk/prodtype.asp?CAT_ID=321&strPageHistory=category
And here are SOME of the specific sites.
Hearos High Fidelity
www.hearos.com/products/high-fidelity
www.hearos.com/products/high-fidelity-ear-plugs-311
Mack's High Fidelity
www.macksearplugs.com/details/musicians-ear-plugs/hear-plugs-ear-plugs
Etymotic Research ETY (was called ER-20)
www.etymotic.com/hp/er20.html
www.etymotic.com/hp/er20hd.html
Alpine MusicSafe Pro
www.alpine.nl/EN/consumer_musicsafe_pro.htm
Health Enterprises ACU-LIFE Impact Music and Concert Ear Plugs
www.healthenterprises.com/noise-reducing-ear-plugs
Earlove
www.earlove.net/spread-love/
Happy Ears
www.happyears.se/en/about/
Earasers
www.earasers.net/Musicians_Earplugs
Ear Peace
www.earpeace.com/products/hearing-protection
Crescendo
www.crescendo-hearingprotection.com/nc/products.html
Dubs Acoustic Filters (just ordered 8/14/15, to be tested later).
www.getdubs.com/
Hello Sound & Vision,
As a long time Stereo Review & Sound & Vision subscriber, I was wondering if I couldn't put in a suggestion for an upcoming review for your magazine?
Along with your other readers, I'm an avid music lover, and the lover of good sound quality. One of the ways I (and I'm sure many of your readers too) love to hear music is to go see bands live, especially outdoors during warm summer nights. As all show goers know, many times amplified music can just be too loud, causing the dreaded ear ringing syndrome we all hate. Some people don't realize what they are doing to their future hearing ability. No one deliberately wants to have irreparable hearing damage, but some people just don't realize how easy it can be done. Some people even think it's funny or cool when they have ringing the next day. For people who do know better, ear plugs are the obvious answer. But as you all know, we Sound & Vision readers also want good sound quality, and that's where you come in.
Now I've tried various ear plug types, like the foam roll up kind and other push in ones from my local stores, but I've never been satisfied with the sound quality. It's always muffled to some extent, and it can be very inconsistent depending on how well or loose they are in your ear. So I started looking online for "high fidelity ear plugs." What I came across was a plethora of brands and types, all claiming to be the best. The online reviews are mixed and inconsistent, so they weren't helpful in this case. Some plugs don't cost too much at around $10 - $30 (which is what I'm personally interested in), while other custom form ones cost $100 and up. With so many to choose from, a person could spend hundreds of dollars just trying each version out.
To make things more difficult, brands use different terminology describing what their products do and how effective they are. There are acronyms like NRR and SNR and words like reduction, attenuation, frequency and decibels; all being used differently from different manufacturers. It's much like 2 amplifiers being rated at 100 watts, only to find out one rating was continuous at 8 ohms while the other was peak at 6 ohms. And as with audio products, I'm sure sometimes that specific information has little or nothing to do with the end sound quality result.
Since I know you guys actually do know what you are talking about when it comes to "good sound", I thought you would be the perfect people to ask. I was thinking that maybe you could do a multi-brand side by side review. You could buy 10 or so different ear plug models and put them to the test. You could do it in a controlled environment, and with your expertise and equipment, give more than just an average Joe's opinion. It would at least be helpful to narrow down the field to say 2 or 3 that you could easily recommend. With you doing this, you could help many of your readers save their ears at live shows while still enjoying the good sound quality we all appreciate. And if you started now, you could publish your results before the 2010 summer concert series' begin.
Is this something Sound & Vision would be interested in doing? Or perhaps you know of another magazine (say like a headphones review magazine) that would be a better place for me to send this e-mail too? Or maybe you know of such a review that has already been done?
If you do consider this, below you will find a list of plugs I've found by searching online. I'm sure there are even more out there, but these seem to be the most common ones receiving higher ratings. I thought this information would save you some up front research time and help save you some money in the process. I know I've learned a lot over the past week while hunting.
Thanks for taking the time to read this and your consideration in actually proceeding with the review. I hope you find it a worth while idea.
Now back to here and now. Since I wrote this original letter I've tried 3 of the plugs listed below, the Alpine Music Safe, and the 2 sizes of Etymotic Research. (Many of the brands/types have different names but appear to be exactly the same as these 2 brands) The Alpines seemed like a very cool idea because they let you adjust the amount of reduction. Problem is, even the lowest "setting" was too much, and changed the actual sound. They were comfortable enough, but really didn't do what I was asking. I even tried taking the highest "setting" inserts and drilling them out a bit, but it didn't work. So then I tried the Etymotic Research. First off, the large are too big for me. They work, but, they are not as comfortable for my ears. The regular size is much better. As for sound, these were much better than the Alpine, but, they still reduced the sound too much. They might work great for some super loud heavy thrash bands etc, but for normal "just a bit too loud" amplified music, they reduce too much. So, to make them fit and work better, I cut off the smallest "ring" of the 3. This helped immensely making them much more comfortable, and getting the sound more where I liked it. But they still reduce the sound too much. I have thought about cutting off the largest ring on the outside (or maybe the medium ring), but if that fails, I've ruined the plugs. They don't cost too much, so I may wind up doing that. But today I decided I'd try buying a few other pairs that I hadn't seen years ago, and appear to be fairly new to the market, the Earasers and the Happy Ears. The Earaser brand appears to be almost exactly what I'm looking for, with only mild sound reduction and flat natural response. They were a bit more than I wanted to spend, but I figured it's been several years why not give them a try. I also got a pair of the Happy Ears just to see what they were like (since they were cheap). I'll report back here when I get a chance to test them out.
In the mean time, do any of you folks out there have any experience and opinions about ear plugs? If so, please chime in. I'd love to get your opinions.
Thanks, and cheers ---- Bonzo
For starters here's a site that offers many of the brands all at one place.
EARPLUG SUPERSTORE
earplugstore.stores.yahoo.net/nasopl.html
And another place with lots of types.
ENHANCED LISTENING
www.enhancedlistening.co.uk/prodtype.asp?CAT_ID=321&strPageHistory=category
And here are SOME of the specific sites.
Hearos High Fidelity
www.hearos.com/products/high-fidelity
www.hearos.com/products/high-fidelity-ear-plugs-311
Mack's High Fidelity
www.macksearplugs.com/details/musicians-ear-plugs/hear-plugs-ear-plugs
Etymotic Research ETY (was called ER-20)
www.etymotic.com/hp/er20.html
www.etymotic.com/hp/er20hd.html
Alpine MusicSafe Pro
www.alpine.nl/EN/consumer_musicsafe_pro.htm
Health Enterprises ACU-LIFE Impact Music and Concert Ear Plugs
www.healthenterprises.com/noise-reducing-ear-plugs
Earlove
www.earlove.net/spread-love/
Happy Ears
www.happyears.se/en/about/
Earasers
www.earasers.net/Musicians_Earplugs
Ear Peace
www.earpeace.com/products/hearing-protection
Crescendo
www.crescendo-hearingprotection.com/nc/products.html
Dubs Acoustic Filters (just ordered 8/14/15, to be tested later).
www.getdubs.com/