- In this video, I'm reviewing
the Eargasm High Fidelity Filtered Earplugs.
Coming up.
(upbeat music)
Hi guys, Cliff Olson, Doctor of Audiology,
and founder of Applied Hearing Solutions in Anthem, Arizona,
and on this channel I cover a bunch
of hearing related information
to help make you a better informed consumer.
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Maximum amounts of hearing protection are awesome
and highly advised if you find yourself in noisy situations
particularly if you want to prevent
against hearing loss and tinnitus.
But sometimes using foam hearing protectors
and ear muffs provide way too much attenuation,
particularly if you're trying to appreciate
the sound of music, and if you're trying
to have conversations with friends in a noisy environment.
In these particular cases, using a filtered ear plug
may make more sense.
That's why I decided to check out
the Eargasm High Fidelity Filtered Earplugs
for this video review.
Eargasm is a company that uses its name
that is an obviously clever play on words
to market its flat attenuation hearing protectors.
You may have seen them on Facebook
where they do a ton of advertising.
They have a variety of different earplug options
from their High Fidelity Earplugs to their Gay Pride Edition
to a smaller version of their High Fidelity Earplugs,
and even a transparent version of their earplugs
that use a clear filter instead
of their signature blue filter.
Each have a noise reduction rating or an RR of 16
when worn properly.
The higher the NRR rating, the more they attenuate
or reduce sound, and the more
hearing protection they provide.
Unlike earmuffs and foam hearing protectors
that provide a NRR value between 24 and 31,
filtered earplugs provide a even level of attenuation
to keep things sounding natural just not as loud.
Imagine that you're listening to music inside of your car.
Now most care radios have the ability
to adjust the treble and the bass.
Now imagine that you actually turn the treble
all the way down, and leave the bass up.
This is gonna provide you with a very unnatural experience
when listening to music.
Well this is essentially what you're doing
when you're using a set of foam earplugs or earmuffs.
It doesn't attenuate all of the sound evenly.
It takes down the high frequencies
more than it takes down the low frequencies.
But when you use a filtered earplug,
what it does is it attenuates all
of the difference frequencies as evenly as possible,
so the sound of the music is just lower
but you get the same amount of fidelity.
This is the attenuation profile
of the Eargasm Filtered Earplugs.
You can see that these filtered plugs reduce volume
between 25 and 35 decibels at each frequency tested
from 125 Hertz up to 8000 Hertz.
Now they don't indicate if this scale is in dB SPL or dB HL
which would indicate sound pressure level
versus hearing level, but clearly it would have to be
in dB HL, otherwise it would not provide
perceived flat level of attenuation.
Filtered earplugs also allow you
to understand conversational speech better
when you're in a noisy environment.
The last time that I went to Nashville,
and anyone whose been to Nashville knows
that anytime that you go out, there's going to be
a live band performing wherever you go,
and when I was in those particular environments
I could still understand the conversation of my friends
while the band was playing their music extremely loud.
If I were to take the plugs out of my ears,
it was more difficult for me to understand my friends,
and things were just way too loud.
I also wore Eargasm earplugs when I went
to my friends wedding on New Year's Eve.
That was an insanely loud wedding.
A bunch of music that was being played constantly
through dinner and through the reception.
It was a terrific time, but if I didn't have
my filtered earplugs in, I would have definitely
left that particular venue with ringing in my ears,
and a reduced perception of hearing sensitivity,
but because I was wearing the Eargasm Filtered Earplugs
I could hear everything that was being said to me.
I could have really high quality conversation,
but I didn't leave feeling like I had a hearing loss.
Now their website has a really cool feature
that allows you to simulate the difference
that their earplugs make.
As I switch between no earplugs, Eargasm Filtered Earplugs,
and standard foam earplugs, you can clearly
hear the differences.
Let me play a few sound samples, first at a concert,
then at a restaurant.
(upbeat music)
(noisy crowd talking)
Now if you ask me, I think that those sound samples provide
a really clear understanding of what it's like
to use a filtered earplug versus using a foam earplugs
or no earplugs at all.
That being said, I feel like that is representative
of what my experience has been when using these plugs.
These Eargasm plugs are reasonably comfortable,
and they do a good job of attenuating sound even
in loud environments, assuming you get them
in your ears correctly.
Which leads me to the first thing that I'm not crazy about
when it comes to the Eargasm Filtered Earplugs
and that is that they are huge.
They are way too big for the standard ear canal.
Now I have a larger than normal ear canal,
and I could not use the regular size
Eargasm Filtered Earplugs.
Fortunately they actually have a smaller size of these
as well, which actually fit my ears much better.
Now let me show you the difference in sizes
between these two.
So, the one in my right hand with the little blue filter
in it still, is the regular size one,
and in my left hand is the smaller size.
The smaller size fits my ear much better.
Now I'm gonna show you what they look like
when you put them in.
So I'm gonna try to put the right one in as far as I can,
the regular size one.
So that's about as far as I can get it inside my ear,
and then I'm gonna put the smaller one inside
of my left ear, so I can actually show you a comparison
of what it looks like and what it should look like.
So, my right ear, this is the regular size
Eargasm Filtered plug, and on my other ear,
this is the smaller version of it.
And this is correct, this is incorrect.
If this is how it fits inside of your ear, it is way too big
and is not going to be attenuating the right amount of sound
and you are still at risk for damaging your hearing.
If it goes into your ear like this,
then you know that you have a good fit.
You can clearly see this is an issue even for the models
that they have on their homepage.
Now I do understand that when properly inserted
you can't really see them, but if this is how
these earplugs look inside of your ear canal,
you have way too large of an earplug,
and it will not provide you with the advertised level
of hearing protection.
The second thing that I'm not crazy about is
that there's only one level of attenuation,
when you use the Eargasm Filtered Earplugs.
There are other companies out there that provide you
with a varying level of flat attenuation.
Anything from 16 decibels of flat attenuation to 20,
or even 25 decibels of flat attenuation,
so depending on the environment that you find yourself
in and the amount of protection that you need
in that environment, you can pick out
the correct level of attenuation.
You can't do that with the Eargasm Filtered plugs.
That being said, as long as you can wear
the Eargasm Hi Fidelity Filtered Earplugs correctly,
you should be able to protect against hearing loss
and tinnitus, while still being able to appreciate music
and talk to your friends.
That's it for this video.
If you have any questions, leave them
in the comment section below.
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I'll see you next time.
(upbeat music)