Regardless if you’re a musician or not, hearing is one of the senses that needs to be protected. Decibullz makes some interesting ear plugs that offer up a custom fit.
First off, it’s not one of those “open the bag, and insert in ear” type deal. Included are two sets of left and right moldable ear pieces, along with a pair of Decibullz ear filters. Included are six sets of ear inserts (3 foam sets, 3 silicone) of varying sizes for the individual to fit in their ear canal.
There’s a bit of a process to putting these all together. First, the ear pieces need to be molded to your specific ear shape. This involves boiling water to get the pieces pliable enough to insert into the outer ear. This is kind of a pain in the neck, considering all of the steps — boiling water, letting them soak for 5 minutes, then waiting for them to cool down enough to mold them to your ear. The key is to make sure you have a good seal that’s comfortable, and molding these to your specific ear shape makes a difference.
Thank goodness we are given two sets of outer ear molds, because the first set turned into an unusable glob while we were trying to get them fitted, which was frustrating. They’re rated to handle 102dB, which should cover a lot of musical situations — for reference a leaf blower is about that same level. These can certainly handle high sound level environments. However, even after getting them into our reviewer’s ears, they were so distorted physically, and yet still didn’t feel comfortable no matter how many times we re-heated them to fit better. If they’re not comfortable, they’re not gonna get worn, which kind of defeats the purpose.
So, are they really worth it? Well, we have personal experience with inexpensive drug store bought ones, as well as some more expensive music-specific sets. With those kind of ear plugs it’s simple; find the right size, stick in the ear, and that’s it. The process to get these fitted just seems overly-complicated and overpriced when there are other options out there that are far simpler, cheaper, and more comfortable.
PROS:
moldable to individual outer ear
CONS:
complicated process of fitting, expensive.
STREET PRICE:
$99