The sole caveat is if you lose or gain a significant amount of weight and the change alters the shape of your ear canal—in this case you may need to get new impressions made. Foam ear plugs would protect your hearing, but they would also block some of the sound frequencies that you want to enjoy when listening music.

In addition to doing the hands-on testing, we wanted to gauge the attenuation of each earplug in an objective way that took the human element out of the process.As you can see in the measurement chart above, they still have the same dip in the highs that the other universal earplugs do, but our testers felt that these earplugs provided a slightly clearer, crisper sound than many of the competitors. The earplugs vented design reduces "occlusion," which is the effect of hearing your voice booming inside your head due to the blocking of your ear canal. If you’re looking for hearing protection for the occasional concert, club, or sporting event, affordable universal-fit earplugs like the Loop Experience Earplugs are an improvement over foam plugs. The first step in getting custom earplugs is to find an audiologist, ideally one who specializes in working with musicians.

The soft, stretchy, adjustable headband strap will make sure that the earmuffs stay snug without squeezing delicate craniums.

On rare occasions, mistakes in the impression or manufacturing process may mean you’ll need to have the shape of the earplug tweaked a bit, and you’ll need to know how much time you have to come back to fix issues.

The evidence from the ISVR measurements shows that these earplugs can attenuate sound by about 7dB over a frequency range of 2-10kHz. These aren’t “invisible” like the brand claims, but as they’re relatively small we could actually barely see them when wearing.

Earplug manufacturers Blox have the market covered when it comes to providing a range of low-cost earplugs for different functionalities. The headband offers a good amount of adjustment, so these earmuffs should fit a wide variety of ages. The impression process can involve a few different methods (including lasers), but the traditional one involves brightly colored goo. This is vital if these are going to be worn for more extended periods and not prove to be prohibitive for socialising or staying safe.