First of all, I'd like to remark that I'm not speaking about headphones.

In order to protect my hearing when I go to concerts (I have enough tinnitus by myself to make things worse exposing my ears to loud music), I'm considering buying some "musician" or "hifi" earplugs. They are supposed to block sound (about 20 dB) but they are designed to give a flatter attenuation curve than "conventional" earplugs.

The top models are custom molded for the user's ears (like hearing aids). Cheaper ones are pre-molded (like swimming plugs).

Googling around, I have seen several positive remarks about Etymotic ER-20 earplugs:

http://www.etymotic.com/ephp/er20.aspx
http://earplugstore.stores.yahoo.net/profmusearpl1.html

Has anyone here any experience with this kind of plugs, from Etymotic or other brands?

Thanks in advance,

Carlos

I own and use a pair of the ER-20's, and they are wonderful to have. I bought them from a guy on e-bay very inexpensively, and they are the way to go. I think I paid about $13 USD a pair or something along that lines, but don't quote me on that.

For very loud environments (big rock concerts, or near speakers in nightclubs) it makes it far easier to discern the music and conversation being screamed directly into your ear canal. I would guess that the custom moulded ones are a bit better, but they are over ten times the price, I would reckon, so don't bother unless you are a musician who uses them twice a week or something.

The only thing I don't like about ER-20s is the way they stick out of your ear. I'm a tad self-conscious that I'll look like a dork or whatever, but on the other hand it makes a visible statement that I'm intelligent enough to care about preserving my hearing. One neat thing about these is that you can grab the thing sticking out of your ear and adjust them so you can have it block the full 20db, by getting a good seal and deeply inserting it, or you can pull it out so it's just barely sitting in your ear if you only want to take the harsh edge off of the sound. It's like having a volume control knob on your ears!

Sometimes my ears get crackly in high-volume environments, and the noise is intolerable, which is very frustrating when I'm DJing, so I carry a pair of ER-20s on me at all times. It's not too expensive, so if you don't like the feel, or the sound, at least you aren't out much.

I have a pair or the ER20 earplugs and they work just fine. Initially you tend to think they aren't working well because they do not muffle sound like most plugs. I use them when riding my motorcycle and I chose them because they are pretty durable and they wouldn't cut out potentially important sounds. I'm not convinced about the 20dB claim (they are officially rated at 12dB) but it's enough.

Hope that helps...

[Edit: grammar]

I think they can block 20 db, but only if they are perfectly inserted (deeply), and maybe only with a certain shape of ear canal. Like I mentioned, you can "adjust" how much sound they block by how they are inserted.

Apparently they are only rated at 12db because they way they are rated allows for them to not be inserted all the way or something. Either way, 12db is less than half the perceived volume, which should be plenty unless you're working behind aircraft jet engines or something.

Any comments on the quality of sound that gets through? I might want to use one when practicing the violin but obviously I wouldn't want the sound to be altered.

I used to use them for practicing drums. I didn't think violins got that loud!

Uhm... my subjective perception is that the sound is okay, but you will lose some clarity on the highs. Not nearly as bad as conventional earplugs though, which completely muffle anything high or even midrange, so speech, for example, is hard to hear. With the Ety's it's fairly easy to hear speech if you're already in a loud environment.