[labelbassist]

I've been using Hearos "ultimate softness series" earplugs to protect my ears during very loud band practices, but I have the feeling they aren't giving me a lot of protection against lower frequencies. They are 32dB isolating. I'm looking for some ear muffs that give around 30dB of protection with minimal deficiencies on any portion of the spectrum. I can't find any websites that show a graph or table of how many dB their product protects against at specific frequencies aside from 20dB "hi-fi" earplugs. I've been looking at some hunting muffs, but I don't know if those are going to provide protection across the spectrum. Any suggestions, would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Trippytiger]

Peltor has quite a few different earmuffs, and some fairly detailed information on the attenuation that each of their different earmuffs provide at different frequencies. Worth a look.

 

[KYTGuy]

I worked in the harbor, on the docks and on ships for many years - lots of noise with cranes lowering huge hatch covers onto the dock - great booms you can hear over two miles away! Worked inside the engine rooms of 60,000 SHP turbodiesels, 120,000 SHP steamships, w/huge reduction gears three stories tall, 500 HP pumps and 175 HP air compressors. Noise generators all!

For protection I wore David Clark headphones (nr 23 db), and EAR foamies (nr 30 db. They are not good at reducing LF, as you suspect. For LF, I suspect the new Active Noise Reduction units may give you a little more protection, but that in the interests of low energy use and keeping the transducers small, they probably roll off before you get to the really low freqs. Only thing left is to limit your time exposed.

You are being smart - I know too many men who can't hear their grandaughters, or even their wives! Many are approaching deaf.

 

[labelbassist]

Custom-molded ear plugs are not out of the question if I can't find any ear muffs or disposable ear plugs that can provide adequate protection against low frequencies. I'm willing to take the plunge if all my alternatives are exhausted. All of the graphs I've seen only go down to 125Hz and since my e string is roughly 40hz that leaves me with some guessing/extrapolation. Thanks for the Peltor graph link Trippytiger, those were one of my considerations. From the graphs and tables I've seen now, it looks like the ear muffs(at least the peltor ones) taper off pretty steeply into the lower frequencies, while the graph of the custom-molded Westone AQ stays relatively flat from 2kHz down to 125Hz, with the drawback of cutting off a lot of the highs (Plus the Westones provide 10 more dB of isolation than the highest rated peltors @ 125Hz) Thanks for the suggestions, keep 'em coming.