Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/03/16/these-earplugs-are-engineered.html
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Unless they can provide a chart showing dB reduction across the audible frequency range demonstrating that these have a flat response they are crap for preserving music. Most earplugs (even fancy ones) are wildly variable attenuation across audible frequencies.
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My ears are ringing right now!
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I have no idea if these things work as advertised but as an aged sufferer of tinnitus who enjoyed a misspent youth with my head in various bass bins and in the front rows of regular excessively loud gigs (Deep Purple - the loudest band in the world among others) - PLEASE pay attention to the underlying message. If your ears ring AT ALL afterwards, you’re doing it wrong! To this day I wince when seeing builders using brick saws and the like with zero ear protection.
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Different brand but these are similar (I use these Etymotics): https://www.etymotic.com/er20xs.html
Technical specs tab shows the dB attenuation at various freqs.
Yeah, some are better than others, but no earplug is going to be perfect.
Does this lead to an kind of arms race between amplifiers and earplugs? Bands must play louder because everyone is wearing earplugs.
This, 100%. It’s too late for me too but I’ve recently started wearing Ear Peace plugs for gigs and they seem pretty good so far.
But I think the real damage may have been done during DIY so I have some big fat ear defenders too.
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One might ask one’s self: “Why am I going to a concert where I need ear plugs to hear less of the music?” It’s kind of like visiting the art museum wearing welder’s goggles.
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You might be going to a club to meet with friends and dance. I have been to a few nights out when the music was too loud, and one occasion when it was painful to be in the same room as the speakers.
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If any of the art pieces could mess up your vision if you looked at it, then sure.
Otherwise its a spurious comparison.
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Highly spurious! Practically mendacious!
Yeah and I’ve done that, years ago. I love music, and we all lose hearing ability in the higher frequency ranges as we get older. Many, like me, also develop tinnitus, which in my case is like a low buzz that I hear constantly when there’s no other noise. My message, stripped of the sarcasm, is: take care of your hearing. You’ll want it later.
I saw Lizzo last year and it wasn’t the loud music that was the problem, it was the teenage girls screaming. Seriously, I swear something broke inside my ears at one point.
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