Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/10/02/these-invisible-earplugs-are-a.html
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Even with a “companion app” those are fairly pricey. It doesn’t take much digging at all to find a similar product for half the price.
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The EarDials look like they are a lot lower profile than the Hearos (which I have and love). I don’t mind having obvious earplugs though.
Or go to a concert you can actually listen to.
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I think you are doing something valuable by having them. If people are having their hearing damaged by loud concerts (and they are!) by wearing visible hearing protection you are providing positive role modeling for people who might otherwise fear standing out. Rock on!
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That precludes basically all concerts at most of the venues around here. The only exception is the ones that have lawn seating and unamplified orchestras, so long as you aren’t in the first few rows.
I really don’t understand it. The soundguys always turn the knobs up so high you can’t even hear the music anymore, it’s just a wall of distortion. Sometimes you can’t even tell what song they are playing. This is one of the reasons I never go to live concerts unless it’s at the one good venue in my area.
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FYI these are so low-profile I almost got one stuck in my ear, so a word of warning to those with larger ear canals. Otherwise, I liked the job they did.
Me neither.
My parents wear earplugs when they go to their church. For the music, not the sermon.
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You can get even cheaper ones on Aliexpress. Even ones that come in an aluminium case.
I have no doubt. I limited myself to 2 minutes to search for a cheaper example just because I thought the price point struck me as a bit high, even with the discount.
I won’t comment on these, specifcally, but I have a proper pair of artists earplugs I bought about eight years ago when I started going to concerts and I literally can’t cope with a concert without them. Almost panicked a little when it took a while to find them before the last concert, but I’ve since spotted them at a nearby music store. At the end of the concert I take them out and my hearing is normal.
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Invisible?! I can see them very clearly in the picture.
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You know, I wonder if this has anything to do with the “sound wars” of the 90s… like, albums are recorded at a higher level now. Put in an early 90s CD and one from the past 15 or so years, and you can see the difference. I wonder if there was a similar thing with live shows, too, around the same time? We can’t really go back to check the noise levels of concerts prior to the mid-90s, as time travel isn’t a thing.
It’s far from scientific, but I went to a lot of shows in the early '90s (and some in the late '80s), and the sound levels were deafening. I spent way too much time at a few clubs in Atlanta (Masquerade/Wreck Room/Somber Reptile/etc.) and permanently damaged my hearing before I was smart enough to start wearing earplugs. I even wear hearing protection when I vacuum the house now. It’s totally punk rock.
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Ok what the fuck? Even for ad copy this is incredibly ridiculous. I’ve been to probably hundreds of live shows and clubs in my lifetime and never once have I been shamed for wearing earplugs. FFS.
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I like the idea of special flat NR reduction earplugs for music venues and have had some in the past, but so far all the versions I’ve seen have less noise reduction than regular earplugs. It’s not an unreasonable compromise, but I generally want maximum NR whenever I use earplugs even though it means loosing musical clarity 
. Venues really get that loud (and sometimes you can even see the front of house sound mixer wearing earplugs :-0 )
I would recommend paying more attention to the quality of the container then the earplugs.
Even the shittiest earplugs are better then those professional ones you forgot at home, I recommend you look for something like this:
Put it on your keychain and you always have them with you, even when you suddenly need them during work, or during travel.
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The sound guys have to go to these concerts, which is slowly causing them to go going deaf.
They then turn the sound up so it sounds good to them. This then accelerates their going deaf.
Its basically a deaf spiral.
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All those places are closed now, BTW (in case you no longer live around these parts)… I guess technically the Masquerade is still around, but it’s in underground now. I was asking students about the new venue recently, and one student just said the new place is going to be “trash”. He’s likely right.
I’m gonna go feel old for a while now…
I will say that KMFDM always played the masquerade and were loud as shit. But the loudest show I saw back in the 90s was probably the Swans on their “final” tour, and they played over at Variety (still going strong!).
It IS punk rock to protect your hearing!
Overall, the 90s at least were in the midst of the “loudness wars”. And I’d guess location is also a factor - smaller clubs probably are louder, I’d guess, because there is less room for the sound to bounce about and dissipate? (am historian, not sound engingeer).
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