[wcs531]

Thanks for sharing your experiences, I think I will go the custom route since I was planning on getting my IEMs reshelled in a custom mold at some point down the road...just another excuse to expedite that process.

 

[Nancy Pollard]

I too wish I had an off switch for my ears.  I don't like to be bombarded by distracting crappy music wherever I go be it shopping or at work or driving in traffic.  I mostly find music to be annoying.  I know it's unpopular to be this way but geeze.   I came here looking for a solution better than the foam plugs I am currently using.  I tried a pair of industrial headphones worn with the foam earplugs and was surprised to find that both worked well by themselves but both worn together did not double the effect. I'm going to try some earbuds with white noise next.

 

[castleofargh]

  I too wish I had an off switch for my ears.  I don't like to be bombarded by distracting crappy music wherever I go be it shopping or at work or driving in traffic.  I mostly find music to be annoying.  I know it's unpopular to be this way but geeze.   I came here looking for a solution better than the foam plugs I am currently using.  I tried a pair of industrial headphones worn with the foam earplugs and was surprised to find that both worked well by themselves but both worn together did not double the effect. I'm going to try some earbuds with white noise next.

there is no magic trick sadly, I guess if it's only to get rid of distracting sounds, a pair of very isolating IEMS, playing some low level noise, and over it a good noise canceling headphone, would be the effective on a wide range of sounds. but it's not perfect. the strenght of having some noise or music is that our ears doesn't try to increase it's sensitivity over time as it does with plugs. when in a silent place at some point even our own body becomes annoying as hell with all the noise. so it's good to have a default sound to keep our sensitivity reasonable.
 
and passive isolation can only go so far, the cause being how db are a log function. to make the sound 50db lower you have to cut it's power by 100000. so not the easiest trick to perform.  and that's not counting all the low frequencies we can feel with our body. that's why we tend to go with music as it's an always changing distraction, it doesn't really cover much, but it takes our concentration away from the noises.
 
some people are fine with sounds of waves crashing on the beach or whatever. I go mad after 10mn of this when I really love that sound, but that's me. maybe you need to find your sound.

 

[thune]

I've recently been wearing the Howard-Leight Max-Lite foam earplugs. The "Max-Lite" are listed as being for small ear canals. I don't have small ear canals, but they still fit snugly while exerting almost no pressure. The small size, superior foam, and "T-shape" make deep insertion simple. For me, the Max-Lite are very comfortable and easy to forget. A larger version of these "T-shaped" plugs, the 'Laser-Lite', are available if the Max-Lite are too small.