The sad thing is, the yellow 3m earsoft version (https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/p/d/b00017636/ https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/p/d/b00017636/) would probably have been

The sad thing is, the yellow 3m earsoft version (https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/p/d/b00017636/ https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/p/d/b00017636/) would probably have been fine in all cases. I've been using those for nearly 20 years. I wear them to sleep, for yard work, shooting, and even a brief stint in aviation. Typically get a year of use out of one pair before I have to change out.