Best ear plugs for concerts,clubs?

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Anyone here go to concerts and or clubs on a regular basis? If so,what are the best ear plugs to use?
 
I like the Green or Orange(they come in different dB levels) foam ones that you squeeze & roll and stick into your ears. Youtube on how to use them properly. I use'em all the time for everything from indoor/outdoor concerts & pubs, to outdoor power equipment(OPE) around the home. Also, I used these in construction & manufacturing over the many years when I worked in those fields. You can also use the foam type in conjunction with a set of the earmuff/headphone style to cut down on even more noise. But, if you're going to a concert, you'll want the foam type and not the headphone style.
 
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The crummy ones block 29 dB and the good ones 32. Hardly a difference. Go with what's comfortable. The purple shaped ones work better for me-- they're softer than the squared off E-A-R brand.
 
Not concerts or clubs, but we were required to buy and wear the Surefire EP4s for the mk153 SMAW shoots during training. They worked but they sure don't stop the concussive blast!
 
Originally Posted by eljefino
The crummy ones block 29 dB and the good ones 32. Hardly a difference.

That's double the sound energy, a significant difference. Every 3dB is a doubling(or halving) of energy and 10dB is 10x. 20dB is 100x. Log base 10.

The decibel scale is an arbitrary scale based on human hearing, named after Alexander Graham Bell. 0dB is absolute silence, 1dB would be a mosquito flying 3 meters away from you in that silence, if you had perfect hearing like a10 year old boy.
 
Originally Posted by LotI
Originally Posted by eljefino
The crummy ones block 29 dB and the good ones 32. Hardly a difference.

That's double the sound energy, a significant difference. Every 3dB is a doubling(or halving) of energy and 10dB is 10x. 20dB is 100x. Log base 10.

The decibel scale is an arbitrary scale based on human hearing, named after Alexander Graham Bell. 0dB is absolute silence, 1dB would be a mosquito flying 3 meters away from you in that silence, if you had perfect hearing like a10 year old boy.


Compliance in wearing them all of the time vs most of the time has a bigger impact.
 
I have been to a ton of heavy metal concerts in my life (some of them had my ears still ringing two days later!), and I listen to my music loud in the car and loud on my headphones all day at work, but I've been extremely lucky that I still have amazing hearing at age 50. In fact, there is a small portable vacuum that we have at our house that emits this high pitched sound when it's charging and I'm the only one in my house who can actually hear it.
 
I have used both the shooting muffs + foam ear plugs when target practicing . With LOUD calibers .

If not so loud , I prefer the shooting muffs . But , yes , they would look very odd at a concert .

Easy answer , stay home .
 
IIRC, Lowe's carries the same plugs we use at work, orange Howard Leight ones. They've got a 33dB NRR, which is among the better ones I've seen. But like skyactiv said, they muffle quite a bit... but they will protect your eardrums. If I use those under my Howard Leight shooting muffs, you can't hear any regular noises, and feel more of the muzzle blast (from a brake) than you really hear the actual crack of the gunshot.
 
Before my wife and I had kids, we'd go to concerts all the time; at least 6 per year. We still go to them occasionally if it's a band we really want to see. We just saw Snoop Dogg over the weekend (wife's a big fan). Most of the concerts we went to were loud heavy metal acts. We ALWAYS wear ear plugs at every concert. We usually use this rubber type, made by 3M and others. I never had any ringing in my ears and could always hear everything perfectly fine right after the show.
[Linked Image from envirosafetyproducts.com]
 
Originally Posted by LotI
Originally Posted by eljefino
The crummy ones block 29 dB and the good ones 32. Hardly a difference.

That's double the sound energy, a significant difference. Every 3dB is a doubling(or halving) of energy and 10dB is 10x. 20dB is 100x. Log base 10.

The decibel scale is an arbitrary scale based on human hearing, named after Alexander Graham Bell. 0dB is absolute silence, 1dB would be a mosquito flying 3 meters away from you in that silence, if you had perfect hearing like a10 year old boy.


You got it. Human hearing's sense of loudness behaves not on a linear scale but on a logarithm scale. That 3 dB (intensity level) difference represents a doubling (or halving) of the total sound energy that reaches your eardrum. That's especially important when dealing with very loud sounds that damage the inner ear if presented long enough (ex., in industrial work, very loud concerts, etc). A 3 dB improvement in ear plug efficiency can allow its wearer to safely endure very loud sounds by twice as long without damaging his inner ear (cochlea).

But eljefino is also correct. In the sense that 3 dB is hardly significant in terms of LOUDNESS PERCEIVED. Because growth in perceived loudness follows a logarithm curve. In fact, many people can hardly tell the loudness difference between two sounds of the same frequency that differ in intensity by 3 dB.

And, oh, just a bit of fact. 0 dB is not absolute silence. It just means that a sound of 0 dB is the average threshold of human hearing, the softest sound a normal ear can just detect. Many audiometers (electronic machines used to test hearing sensitivity) generate -5 and -10 dB test sounds(softer than 0 dB) for the occasional person who happens to have a wee bit better hearing than the rest of us.
 
Originally Posted by aquariuscsm
Anyone here go to concerts and or clubs on a regular basis? If so,what are the best ear plugs to use?


Ear plugs at concerts? Why? Don't you go there to LISTEN to the music? That's kinda like turning on your radio but having the volume on mute. What's the point?
 
Originally Posted by Patman
I have been to a ton of heavy metal concerts in my life (some of them had my ears still ringing two days later!), and I listen to my music loud in the car and loud on my headphones all day at work, but I've been extremely lucky that I still have amazing hearing at age 50. In fact, there is a small portable vacuum that we have at our house that emits this high pitched sound when it's charging and I'm the only one in my house who can actually hear it.


I'm about the same age and background! Oh the ringing and hearing loss for days afterwards...

I got lucky as well given my employer runs us through hearing tests from time to time due to the loud nature of my work and my hearing is normal.

In regards to hearing protection, I wear it for much of my 12hr shifts and prefer Howard Leight MAX ear plugs.

Like said, the key to ear plugs is getting them in properly.
 
Originally Posted by Triple_Se7en
Shooting plugs block overall sound. Concert plugs work to block instrument and voice range decibels. I have one pair-each, depending on activity.


Would shooting plugs block the absolute most sound? That's what I'm looking to do.

Also am looking for some that I can just walk into a store and buy vs ordering online.
 
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