Comments on: Protect Your Hear-Holes: Earplugs at Gigs, and Etymotics ER-20 Review

By: Mort

Mort — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 10:08:54 +0000

Thanks for the advice. It helped convince me to buy two pair. Cheers and all the best mate. Mort from Melbourne.

By: Ben Hetherington

Ben Hetherington — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 12:53:38 +0000

hearos make the exact same ear plug. unless hearos have changed their name to Etymotics….. I swear by them though. although they do protrude your ears quite a lot which is a bit annoying.
Hearos do have other non-disposable ear plug options which don’t do quite as good a job but are considerably cheaper.

By: Jaymis

Jaymis — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 23:16:45 +0000

@Sophie: Yep, the custom ones are the next step up in awesomeness. Apparently considerably more comfortable, and physically safer as well (I’m always worried that some drunkard will bump me on the side of my head and send the Etymotics in to my brain). The disposable foam ones seem to cost around $2 at venues though, so the custom ones would pay themselves off after a couple of years of gig-going, depending on your hardcoreness.
The other advantage of custom moulded ones is that you can use the moulds if you decide to get some In-Ear monitors, which are the ultimate in headphones!

@Stuart: Enjoy Dinosaur Jr. I’d love to be there, but this is an enormous month for gigs, and I had to make some cuts.

By: Stuart McMillen

Stuart McMillen — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 00:26:11 +0000

I agree that hearing protection is something that regular gig-goers should pay attention to. I’ve been using Etymotic ear plugs for about 3 years and they are great.

I will definitely need them when I see Dinosaur Jr. on Tuesday night! It’s really good to get the ‘whole body’ experience of hearing really loud music travelling through your bones, but also good to know that you aren’t suffering long-term damage as a result.

By: Sophie

Sophie — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 00:59:58 +0000

I totally agree. Any frequent gig-goer who doesn’t wear hearing protection should be ok with the reality of being as deaf as a great-grandpa by the time they hit their thirties.

There are places that can custom-mould earplugs for you, as well as calibrating them for the sort of noise you want to protect yourself from. An ex of mine was a drummer in a rock band who also liked going to dance clubs, and he swore by his custom-moulded and calibrated ones. They were pretty expensive ($200-ish) from what I remember, but worth it.