Looking for recommendations for good ear protection during concerts. I want ear buds that don’t just muffle all the sound but limit higher unsafe frequencies while allowing you to still enjoy the music. I did a search and came up with a bunch of different kinds and varying reviews on amazon, I also asked my friend who is in the live audio business and he said I needed custom molded IEMs but that seemed a little over kill for me, even if it’s the best way.
This Site shows the common ones I’ve seen.
Thanks!
EDIT: thanks everyone for the reaponses, I will go through and look at each of the recommended solutioms works best for me.
Go to a local music shop and look for musician’s earplugs with a rated dB reduction. At least -8dB, but a bigger reduction won’t make your experience worse, it’ll just make things even quieter.
I have some from a major guitar manufacturer that I’ve been using at the infrequent shows I go to for a decade. They were $10 then, and it looks like that’s still true. I clean after using, but I wasn’t really expecting to get this many shows out of them.
They don’t muffle sounds, it just sounds quieter. Without earplugs I need to stand on the other side of the room/field to be comfortable. I’ll still leave with ear pain and feeling exhausted. With earplugs I’m comfortable right in front of the speaker stack, and leave feeling exhilarated.
They’ve been a huge upgrade in my enjoyment of shows and I’m very grateful to my friend for dragging me to the shop and making me buy them.