Ear Plugs

[workbased 2000]

I Guess the reason I promoted this topic is to help make folk aware of hearing loss from whistles/flutes or whatever!!

Hearing loss, to any degree, is non reversable and forever!!
I play whistles and flutes, and am these days very aware of the volume of sound I produce.
With the flute the sound is very loud in my right ear, pariticularly the high A & B notes.

With whistles, both ears similarly feel the vibrations.

I've never had a decible test done to confirm these feelings-hearings, but it's my opinion that damage will result with sufficient exposure to these high notes.

All I am advocating is to consider/ wear musicians ear plugs to preserve your hearing. Once it's gone.....It's too late to undo the damage.
I always travel to gigs with a set of Musician's earplugs.
I also take a pair to any concert I attend, as these sometimes break the sound barrier.!!!

Don't go for cheap!!!
There is a reason that Musician's earplugs cost a lot more.

For your info I have no shares or interests or particular desire in promotiong Musicians earplugs. Just judge for yourself

[Craig Stuntz]

Sometimes my ears ring for a day or so after shows, but wearing ear plugs would spoil the fun.

I think you'll find that going deaf will also spoil the fun, permanently. If you are ears are ringing after a show, then you are already harming your hearing, even if it "seems" to recover later. Buy yourself some good in-ear monitors, and you'll still be able to turn up the volume, feel the bass, and hear the music, without destroying your hearing. You can read more at this rock-oriented site.

[charlie_butterworth]

I'd be interested to know why "cheap" ear plugs are not the way to go, especially for those of us who are not professional players.

What I am thinking of are the kind of plugs that give 30 to 60 dB attenuation that can be purchased for when using power tools. I have some that I use when doing woodworking, they are some kind of foam, my other pair are a fancy shaped plug. Anyway, they cost around $20 at Home Despot.

I expect that the reason for having specialized musician earplugs is mainly due to either the ability to charge more money for them OR because of the degree of attenuation across the audible frequency spectrum. I simply don't know.

I did a quick Google search and landed here: http://earplugstore.stores.yahoo.net/profmusearpl1.html

These ear plugs are inexpensive. Maybe if I were a professional musician, I would want really, really good plugs, but recommending expensive earplugs may actually deter some folk from using them, and I would advocate that (within reason) cheap earplugs are likely better than none. Of course, I could be wrong.

As it happens, my whistle only sound piercing to me when I play high B. My Burke DAN is a quieter whistle. I expect that when I finally obtain a louder, session capable whistle, then I may seriously want to consider earplugs for practice sessions.

AND, I agree about it being better to avoid any kind of hearing damage, even if it is fun to play music loud and finish with ringing ears - I am reminded of going to Motorhead and Hawkwind concerts in the 1980's - the old Manchester Apollo could really rock!

Charlie

[workbased 2000]

Here are a couple of links I found after Googling "Musicians earplugs."

http://www.health.auckland.ac.nz/audiol ... cians.html

www.hearnet.com/images_site/erme_brochure.pdf

[charlie_butterworth]

Thanks for the links. I did find a supplier of the ER20's which are less than $25. That was why I questioned the necessity of purchasing expensive ear-plugs. In fact, my Home Despot earplugs are very similar in design to the ER20's.

I certainly don't think that anyone would think you "uncool" because you wear earplugs at a session. Mind you, they may be risky in a pub because you wouldn't here the guy saying "the next round is on the bloke with the earplugs"

Charlie

[azw]

I've wondered about the supposed differences between the cheap and expensive ear plugs, too. I've read that the expensive ones have a flat attenuation over a large frequency range, whereas the cheap ones may attenuate part of the range more than other parts.

I've never been able to tell the difference between high fidelity sound equipment and my cheapo Sony boombox, so I suspect that the expensive earplugs would be wasted on me, too.

I keep sets of AO Safety's yellow foam plugs all around (car, shop, bedroom, suitcase, gig bag, etc.). They cut the sound levels well, are easy to use, and are very cheap. I've also used some of the silicon rubber ear plugs with flutes (a series of floppy ridges that engage the ear canal). I find these often irritate my ear canal, so I can't wear them for long.

That's why I prefer to wear the headset style if possible, especially when working with noisy power tools or mowing.

I have tried some Hearos "Ultimate Softness Series" foam and Hearos Rock 'n Roll ear plugs. The foam ones are rated at 32dB noise reduction, but they keep sliding out of my ear, so in truth the noise levels aren't reduced at all. The Rock 'n Roll plugs (NR: 22dB) work pretty well. But they don't reduce the noise as much as the headset style or AO Safety brand's cheap yellow disposable foam ear plugs.

[Adrian]

I have tried a number of earplugs both cheap and more expensive with various degrees of comfort and sucsess. Then another whistler got me to try these:

http://earplugstore.stores.yahoo.net/coreean26.html

I have found these to be perfect for me and they only cost $2!

[Jim W]

I've wondered about the supposed differences between the cheap and expensive ear plugs, too. I've read that the expensive ones have a flat attenuation over a large frequency range, whereas the cheap ones may attenuate part of the range more than other parts.

Etymotic is the maker of the sound-attenuation portion of a good number of musician's earplugs. They sell the ER 20 plugs for $12 (plus shipping, I imagine.) http://www.etymotic.com/ephp/er20.aspx

The expensive plugs have a custom-molded part, with molds taken by an audiologist, made very similarly to hearing aid ear inserts. These are much more comfortable than the generic plugs; I find I'm much more likely to use these than the ER 20, which I also have.

As I understand it, both of these plugs have flat attenuation over the audible range. At $12 per pair, most of us can no longer use cost as a reason to not wear plugs.