Best Ear & Hearing Protection for Live Music Concerts

How Does Attending Live Music Concerts Affect Your Ears and Hearing

Noise levels around a stage at a music festival can reach to over 110dB. Ever had the feeling your hearing was a little lower than normal after a concert, or the day after? Found your ears ringing? These are both reactions of your ears after being exposed to loud music. 

Music Induced Hearing Loss

After exposure to loud noise your ears can go into what is known as Temporary Threshold Shift (TTS) to protect themselves, once back in a quiet place your ears will start to recover and this can take several hours. 

Constant exposure to the loudness level of music causes damage to the inner ear hair cells especially those responsible for high frequency hearing. This however is not a temporary measure a noise induced hearing loss is permanent and measures should be made to reduce the occurance of it. The good news is if prevention methods are put in place this kind of hearing loss is completely preventable. 

Keeping Healthy Hearing Whilst Attending Live Music Gigs

  • The best accessory you can take to any live music concert or festival are a set of ear plugs, whether these are disposible or reusable, make it one of the first item you pack
  • Dont stand close to speakers
  • If you are a regular concert goer look into getting specific custom made ear plugs that give balanced sound reduction with little disruption of sound quality. 
  • Concerts are held in building with specific acoustics that allows listeners at the front or back to enjoy the music, to relief your ears of unessasary loudness take a seat at the back
  • If you have a whole day or weekend of music planned, make sure you take regular "listening breaks" away from music too. 

Best Ear Plugs for Live Music Concerts and Gigs

With most live music concerts sound levels going over 100dB this means you are technically only able to enjoy this concert for 15 minutes before potential damage to your hearing can occur. With most concerts lasting two to three hours, you are not going to get your money's worth if you leave after 15 minutes duration.

When it comes to protecting your ears at a live music concert you don't want to be there wearing a huge piece of head gear or head phones. Your looking for something small yet smart that you will still be able to hear excellent quality music. Noise cancelling ear plugs are a great way to reduce unwanted noise levels as well as reducing the volume down just a tad to make it comfortable for your ears to listen to as well as reducing the occurance of ringing in your ears afterwards.

EarPearce High Fidelity Ear Plugs

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EarPeace ear plugs are a well researched and designed product. They are made from a medical grade silicone that is hypo allergenic, reusuable and easy to clean. There ar two flanges and a tab to pull out of the ear. They are very comfortable to wear.  They come in a fairly small red aluminium case which you can fit up to three ear plugs in there, meaning you have the option to carry a spare for yourself or friends.

There are medium (which are tan coloured) and high level (which are red coloured) attenuation options which is a great addition, providing up to 20dB SNR, I have tended to stick to using the higher of the two. These are very discreet ear plugs that come in a number of skin tones to make them invisible.

They do not have a wax filter which makes them prone to getting the noise filter blocked up if you tend to get wax build up. However the filter being removable means it is easy to replace with another as you get a pack of 4 and with no noise filter in the ear plug has a hollow hole which is easy to clean through of wax and debris before using again. The quality of the sound is particularly clear with these, not diminishing the sound quality.

 

 

 

Live Music! Ear plugs

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Live Mus!c Hear Safe ear plugs are small natural soft silicone ear plugs with three flanges. They come in two different sizes, two sets of unqiue ear plugs. They contain a precision filter with varied strengths, this reduces background noise and high frequency attenuation. You will need to push them in a little more deeply than others due to their long profile, they do come with a handy lanyard that attaches both together incase one does fall out.

The first attenuation filter is a green one and comes with a NRR of 23dB and the second is a white filter and this comes with a NRR of 29dB. The different strengths allows for different loudness performances or varied types of music concerts. These are particularly great for rock and metal gigs, due to the sudden increases in loudness levels.  You will still be able to hear conversations. These ear plugs are also EN352-1:2006 and EN352-2:2002 certified and you are likely to be able to get at least a year or two of use out of these.

 

EarDial ear plugs

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EarDial Ear plugs are made from a soft hypoallergenic material which makes it very comfortable to wear in the ear. There are two flanges making it low profile in your ear so it does not stick out at all except for the easy to pull tab to remove it. The material is highly transparent, even the filter is transparent making it almost invisible in your ear. Which is a nice feature in comparison to other ear plugs.  The silicone material is strong and very flexible so you should be able to reuse and reuse again for many years.

There is only one choice of size, being a one size fits all. The noise filter is a high fidelity flat attenuation noise filter blocking out uncomfortable decibel sound without you sacrifising the sound quality. Tested under both EN and ANSI standards. They have a SNR of 20dB and a NNR of 11dB.

What is a helpful additive to these ear plugs is the wax filter to the front of the ear plug, this is normally seen on 'In The Ear' hearing aids due to prolonged use inside the ear it can block up with wax so seeing this on such ear plugs is a nice addition to help prevent them from getting blocked up and damaged.

Comes the smallest aluminuim carry case we have seen, this will attach to your keyring or fit in your pocket very easily. There is also a companion app for these ear plugs. EarDial have also produced an app that will tell you the sound level pressure in the area that you are currently being exposed to and how long you can stay in that environment,once you click a switch to say you are wearing EarDial ear plugs it will then tell you how long you can stay in the same environment with them on, it is a very interesting comparison and one that does help encourage you to wear them. This app is free of charge. EarDial also send 5% of the profit to charities fighting hearing loss and tinnitus.

 

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Quick Tips

To hear with a hearing aid on the phone, hold the telephone near the hearing aid microphone, if you have a behind the ear hearing aid this will be behind your ear.