Before you skim over this, let me at least say that if you routinely go to shows or bars/clubs, you absolutely need to buy these! I occasionally go out to a local bar. They play music, everyone drinks and dances, and it's a lot of fun. The music levels aren't too ridiculous but I imagine extended periods of being exposed them isn't good for my ears. I've been to shows in the past where the volume levels are so ridiculously loud that it's uncomfortable. The mids and highs would blend together and make parts of the songs incomprehensible. This not only made for an unenjoyable experience, it also made me concerned for the health of my ears. I'm still young but that doesn't mean that I'm not concerned about my general well-being. I bought these earplugs and have worn them to shows and while I've been out. They make such a dramatic difference. You're still able to hear the full range of what you're listening to. Obviously the range is restricted a little bit and everything isn't as loud, but it's a big help. They don't seem to make talking with people any more difficult. When you're not wearing them in a loud environment, it's difficult to hear people because of how loud everything is. When you're wearing them everything is brought down to a bearable level but I haven't had any issue conversing with others near me. I'm 23 and the standard size ones fit me just fine. I think they're pretty comfortable. After a little bit it helps to take them out for a minute or two. This is fine with me since they're not custom fit to my ears and taking a break from loud environments is a good thing anyways. They reduce the noise levels by 12db-20db which is great but depending upon the noise levels, they will only serve to extend the duration that you can safely be exposed to that decibel level. I'd recommend going to Etmotic Research's website page for this product and reading some of the white papers on safe exposure limits for volume levels. I'm very glad I bought these. They're very inexpensive for the benefits they'll give you. Your ears will thank you. You'll notice an immediate difference when you first use them and you'll notice that your ears don't ring or ache as much when you go home. The long-term benefits are great too. I want to have as much as my hearing as I can as I age. Read more
I received these yesterday in the mail--yes!! I ordered myself a pair when I started developing splitting headaches in the evenings as I was getting our five parrots ready for bed. Our Quaker parrot can become particularly cranky if she perceives her bedtime as being "too late" and will just scream and scream. It has been only recently that her screams (and those of the others) have started bothering me. Indeed, as I've already mentioned, I can now develop pounding headaches from the parrots' screams if they reach a certain pitch and intensity. So I knew I had to do something to protect my ears. These ETY-Plugs don't look like 'normal' ear plugs, but they don't function as such, either. They are advertised as keeping sound clear and distinct, yet lowering it to a safer level. I like to think of it as a volume switch for life! And they do work very well in that regard. When I first put them in yesterday, I was afraid they wouldn't work for me: I must have inserted them too deeply, because my ears were instantly hyper-sensitive and ached and were very painful if I even touched the stems of the earplugs, so I CAREFULLY removed the plugs from my ears. What a relief!! Yet I tried again soon afterward and didn't push them in as far, and that seemed to do the trick. I'm glad to see the picture uploaded here at Amazon of what a properly-inserted ETY-Plug should look like. That really helps! This morning before I went in to feed the parrots their breakfast, I put my new ETY-Plugs back in my ears. What a difference it made! The birds were all excited and noisy, of course, but it was nowhere near flinch-inducing and painful for me like before. Later, out of curiosity, I thought to look up how loud a parrot scream can be: At the one end of the spectrum are the Moluccan cockatoos, recorded at 135 decibels (a jumbo jet is 140 dB!). One article reports that, by comparison, the "average" parrot scream is about 100-104 dB. Any sound louder than 85 dB is considered damaging to your hearing. So the ETY-Plugs, which purportedly reduce sound levels around you by 12-20 dB when used properly (Amazon's blurb says 20, the packaging says 12), are a great asset to those individuals who are exposed to loud sound, especially on a regular basis, whether it be from parrots, loud music, or the general background noise of hectic, congested, everyday life. Read more
