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I'm a drummer. Fortunately before I destroyed my hearing my dad forced me to wear ear defenders. since then it's been a habit. These look nice and all, but bas

I'm a drummer. Fortunately before I destroyed my hearing my dad forced me to wear ear defenders. since then it's been a habit. These look nice and all, but basically all you really need are ear plugs. http://www.thesafetysupplycompany.co.uk/p/449062/howard-leight---laser-lite-disposable-foam-ear-plug-uncorded---box-of-200-pairs---hw-3301105.html?gclid=COjc2c7u59ACFekp0wodkRoLsg http://www.thesafetysupplycompany.co.uk/p/449062/howard-leig... comfy, snug and 32db (depending on version) of attenuation. That means that you can go to a loud gigs (95db) without the risk of tinitus. same goes for bars. Loud noises are draining, have your hearing shattered by someone shouting in your ears is a pain. Yes, if you choose the colourful ones its obvious. there are natural colours. Bose makes a lot of song and dance about how you can adjust for noise, your ears do that already. The advantage of normal ear plugs is that you still retain some of the dimensionality that earphones loose. Sadly I've had a child, and all that shrill screaming has basically killed off 10db of sensitivity of my hearing. but I'm 10db up form most of my musician friends

owlninja 10y ago
These are not just earplugs...they can enhance conversation in loud places as well.
- KaiserPro 10y ago
  Don't get me wrong, for those of us who have to use hearing aids this is a godsend, it allows directionality that previously was impossible. However, for people with "normal" hearing, this will be a step down in usability. The earlobe is shaped like they are to allow your brain to pickout and isolate sound in three dimensions+. Firstly this is automatic, you've been doing it since before you were born. Secondly, the design of the era plugs completely remove the "shaping" sound of the earlobe (for want of a better term. This is why stereo records still sound flat, they don't have the extra metadata the deformities of the earlobe provide. hence binaural recordings.) Yes that means you can remove the background noise completely, and replace it with the "what's in front of you" but that is a 2d (if you're lucky) image, so good luck differentiating between two people close together. Ear plugs _shouldnt_ mess with the "metadata" because they should be in the earcanal. All they are doing is attenuating the signal, not re-writing it. However I can't state enough how much this is going to improve people who are dependant in earphone's lives. For the rest of us, ear plugs are most likely far superior + Experiment: Stereo is sort of 2d. However, its complicated. you can describe a horizontal circle of noise, crudely by altering the two channels. However depth is replaced by loudness. (in the same way size of an object for 2d photos) Now, you know that in real life you can differentiate vertical sounds as well. edit: ex sound engineer, so none of this is scientific. Please research binaural, and 3D sound. Criticism welcome
  - iaw 10y ago
    I'd argue it depends on the methodology by which they're implementing the technology. They could be using the directionality to amplify the "target" signal and identify the signals that the wearer desires to mute and then run a fast algorithm to reduce that sound.
    - KaiserPro 10y ago
      Without a probe, they are almost certainly altering the phase of the each channel to remove background noise You can do this with at matched pair of mics and a desk that can flip the phase of channels. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Out_Of_Phase_Stereo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Out_Of_Phase_Stereo
  - e40 10y ago
    However, for people with "normal" hearing, this will be a step down in usability. A step down from using ear plugs or without anything in the ear?
    - KaiserPro 10y ago
      both. However earplugs give a longer lasting effect :)
adrianN 10y ago
Laser Lite earplugs are the absolute best. They work so much better than all the other plugs I ever tried, I can wholeheartedly recommend them.
dmalvarado 10y ago
This is great. My wife has meniere's disease, so we need to protect her hearing in all moderately loud situations, (bars, music venues, movies). In advance of SXSW one year, I bought her a pair of these: http://amzn.to/2gK8qZv http://amzn.to/2gK8qZv "Musician's earplugs", so-to-speak, they attenuate all frequencies more evenly than standard foam plugs would. In effect just turning down the volume of the world a bit, not muffling it. I don't have meniere's, but do get drained by bars and loud music. I hate to seem lame by wanting to leave a party/bar early, so I bought a pair for myself recently. They're just fantastic. Highly recommend.

owlninja 10y ago

These are not just earplugs...they can enhance conversation in loud places as well.

KaiserPro 10y ago
Don't get me wrong, for those of us who have to use hearing aids this is a godsend, it allows directionality that previously was impossible. However, for people with "normal" hearing, this will be a step down in usability. The earlobe is shaped like they are to allow your brain to pickout and isolate sound in three dimensions+. Firstly this is automatic, you've been doing it since before you were born. Secondly, the design of the era plugs completely remove the "shaping" sound of the earlobe (for want of a better term. This is why stereo records still sound flat, they don't have the extra metadata the deformities of the earlobe provide. hence binaural recordings.) Yes that means you can remove the background noise completely, and replace it with the "what's in front of you" but that is a 2d (if you're lucky) image, so good luck differentiating between two people close together. Ear plugs _shouldnt_ mess with the "metadata" because they should be in the earcanal. All they are doing is attenuating the signal, not re-writing it. However I can't state enough how much this is going to improve people who are dependant in earphone's lives. For the rest of us, ear plugs are most likely far superior + Experiment: Stereo is sort of 2d. However, its complicated. you can describe a horizontal circle of noise, crudely by altering the two channels. However depth is replaced by loudness. (in the same way size of an object for 2d photos) Now, you know that in real life you can differentiate vertical sounds as well. edit: ex sound engineer, so none of this is scientific. Please research binaural, and 3D sound. Criticism welcome
- iaw 10y ago
  I'd argue it depends on the methodology by which they're implementing the technology. They could be using the directionality to amplify the "target" signal and identify the signals that the wearer desires to mute and then run a fast algorithm to reduce that sound.
  - KaiserPro 10y ago
    Without a probe, they are almost certainly altering the phase of the each channel to remove background noise You can do this with at matched pair of mics and a desk that can flip the phase of channels. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Out_Of_Phase_Stereo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Out_Of_Phase_Stereo
- e40 10y ago
  However, for people with "normal" hearing, this will be a step down in usability. A step down from using ear plugs or without anything in the ear?
  - KaiserPro 10y ago
    both. However earplugs give a longer lasting effect :)

adrianN 10y ago

Laser Lite earplugs are the absolute best. They work so much better than all the other plugs I ever tried, I can wholeheartedly recommend them.

dmalvarado 10y ago

This is great. My wife has meniere's disease, so we need to protect her hearing in all moderately loud situations, (bars, music venues, movies). In advance of SXSW one year, I bought her a pair of these: http://amzn.to/2gK8qZv http://amzn.to/2gK8qZv "Musician's earplugs", so-to-speak, they attenuate all frequencies more evenly than standard foam plugs would. In effect just turning down the volume of the world a bit, not muffling it. I don't have meniere's, but do get drained by bars and loud music. I hate to seem lame by wanting to leave a party/bar early, so I bought a pair for myself recently. They're just fantastic. Highly recommend.