I highly recommend that musicians/engineers allow time for musical training with their hearing protection. Musicians and audio engineers learn to adapt and acclimatize to the sound of speakers and rooms. The same can be said for hearing protection. If you take the time to practice with your hearing protection your brain will relearn what is “normal”. This is important regardless of occlusion.

The Etymotic earplugs are reusable, so you can wear them whenever you want. However, if you use them frequently, it’s recommended that you replace them every 3-6 months; otherwise, they’ll lose their elasticity and effectiveness.

The Happy Ears are the most compact earplugs for music

These Vater Earplugs are made from high-quality materials to ensure a high level of comfort and hearing protection that is essential for drummers. ETY•Plugs use a tuned resonator and acoustic resistor to replicate the natural response of the ear canal. This unique construction, combined with Etymotic’s proprietary sound path, reduces sound levels evenly across the frequency range without changing the sound quality. Result: Music and speech remain clear, but quieter and safer. ER20XS earplugs are discreet and have the identical response of ETY Plugs through 4 kHz. Above 4 kHz they have improved high-frequency clarity without compromising protection. –Etymotic Research There is a red indication for the right ear and a blue indication for the left ear. With the fit of your ear, the Earasers come in four sizes, extra small, small, medium and large. ETY•Plugs provide almost equal sound reduction (20 dB) across the range of hearing. Foam earplugs reduce the high frequencies, resulting in muffled speech and music.

If you are looking for more custom solutions, we recommend Elacin ER custom-made hearing protectors. Who’s it for? on these musician ear plugs produces a good seal in most ear canals, yielding accurate performance and a comfortable fit for nearly everyone. (These plugs are also known as Elacin ER 20s ear plugs in Europe.)

Custom Earplugs

The plugs themselves are made of medical-grade silicone and are based on one of the most widely used hearing aid tips in the market. They also feature an open canal shape which allows sound waves further into your ear before they hit the filter and are attenuated. The Earasers are designed to fit tightly into the ear canal and essentially remain invisible once in. The problem is I found to be really difficult to use them when I play the trumpet or while singing because of the strong occlusion effect and boomy sound of my inner voice. I read it is possible to avoid it with a vented design (Alpine vented design does not help enough: the inner sound of the trumpet is still way louder than the sound of the other band instruments) or with a VERY deep occlusion

The average range of sound reduction for earplugs is between 15-30dB’s. Fit; are they snug, like, soooooooo snug? years ago, the BBC posted an article with the results of a survey stating “eight out of 10 young people who go to clubs and pop concerts regularly” were unconcerned about their auditory health.Ears have some ability to heal themselves but only up to a certain point. The regeneration rate is determined by multiple factors including genetics and overall health. You risk permanent damage to hearing when the ears aren’t given themselves the time to heal. Noise damage accumulates over extended periods of time when the repair process can’t keep up with the ongoing rate of damage. The aim of the design is simple: to reduce volume while preserving sound quality. So, the ear plugs turn down the volume without compromising on musical quality. Now let’s talk sound quality – I’m impressed but also feel it’s an unfair advantage. I am testing these in my acoustically sound music studio through some excellent monitor speakers so I decided not to compare them to any of the other earplugs in this article for the sake of candor.