Pinlock Earplugs?.....feedback appreciated.

[Fred W]

Yeah, I've been around and around on those silicone rubber triple flange type of ear plugs. They just don't work for me at all.

It may be individual anatomy differences, but nothing works as well, or is as comfortable for all day rides, as an expanding foam ear plug for me. I really wish that it were not so, as I'd love to have ear speakers rather than helmet speakers if I could make them work. But no, nothing but a good 33 dBa foam plug will do for me.

To compound my problem I have rather large ear canals, so not any old foam plug will do. I had to seek out and find the 3M E-A-R soft Grippers. which I've found to work the best for me. I then bought a box of 200 pairs on Amazon, which knocked the price down low enough (42 cents a pair) so that I offend my Yankee Frugal sensibilities by tossing the pair after a day or two when they get grungy.

At one point in time you were able to get them un-corded, but now I can only find them with the blue plastic cords, which I just snip off before using. The cords are a PITA and just cause them to be dislodged when you are donning your helmet, which is counterproductive to the whole thing. I've still not figured out a good recycle of the circumcised blue cords, but if someone comes up with something clever please let me know before I overfill the local landfill with my blue cords. Maybe they could be braided together and making a climbing rope to make your next assault on K2?

edit - I forgot to mention... that the ridges do indeed bring pleasure.

 

[FJReady]

I've been using the S-plugs wired into my Sena 10 for a couple months now. So far so good. The S plugs do a decent job of knocking down the ambient noise, maybe a s good as the 33db Howard Leight foam plugs I like. The real benefit to the S-plug is hearing the Sena output. Its much better than helmet speakers through foam ear plugs for intercom use. Even better is the quality of music. I was always disappointed with music quality through head set speakers. S-Plug ear buds fixes that.

Ok I realize this thread is about ear plugs not ear buds, but they do attenuate ambient noise effectively.

 

[Uncle Hud]

FJReady posted: I've been using the S-plugs wired into my Sena 10 for a couple months now. So far so good. The S plugs do a decent job of knocking down the ambient noise, maybe a s good as the 33db Howard Leight foam plugs I like. The real benefit to the S-plug is hearing the Sena output. Its much better than helmet speakers through foam ear plugs for intercom use. Even better is the quality of music. I was always disappointed with music quality through head set speakers. S-Plug ear buds fixes that.

Ok I realize this thread is about ear plugs not ear buds, but they do attenuate ambient noise effectively.

What he said. Ear BUDS attenuate ambient noise, allowing you to hear your music/podcast at a lower volume -- which also serves to protect your hearing.

Only drawback is that it takes an extra minute to 'get dressed' for the ride.

 

[Bill Lumberg]

I love my n-coms. Once you go wireless it's hard to go back. I wear foam plugs. Great combination but it still doesn't capture the zen I got using Shure monitors.

 

[Fred W]

Ear BUDS attenuate ambient noise, allowing you to hear your music/podcast at a lower volume -- which also serves to protect your hearing.

I do not think that conclusion is correct. We've had this discussion before, but it seems to be one of those things that people just have a tough time wrapping their brains around. Let me see if I can explain it:

For the minute, let's assume that ear buds and ear plugs are equally effective at attenuating sound (which is not actually true). For simplification let's say that they both provide 30 dB of attenuation of all outside sound. Also assuming that the road noise source is exactly the same, that means that the acoustic sound power of the music would have to be exactly the same at the ear drum to be equally perceptible / discernible. In other words the output from the in ear speakers would have to deliver the same exact sound power level that the helmet speakers do after being attenuated by 30 dB, (which is a factor of 1000:1)

But, as most people who have tried both methods can attest, that is not the case. Generally people who use helmet speakers and earplugs are barely able discern the music over the noise at higher road speeds. This is mostly because the output from those speakers needs to be very loud before the 30 dB attenuation of the ear plugs, which is not easy to do with a small speaker. And running speakers at higher power levels (if you can achieve it) results in more undesirable distortion.

On the other hand achieving that same acoustic power level with a driver inside your ear canal is easy, and because the power level is so small results in far less distortion, so it sounds much better. The natural tendency is to increase the sound pressure output from in ear speakers to a higher level of perceptibility because it's easy to do, there is less distortion, and the result is more pleasurable.

If the two were attenuating the outside noise the same, and you can hear the music more clearly over the background noise when using the in ear speakers, then you are delivering more music sound pressure power to the eardrum, and that is all that matters to hearing preservation. It doesn't matter that the helmet speaker is putting out 30 dB more sound power or that is sounds distorted, if it is being attenuated before it gets to your ears by 30 dB.

To make matters worse for your hearing preservation, most in ear speakers actually attenuate significantly less than a good set of earplugs. Which means that there will be a higher level of wind noise to overcome to reach the same level of perception at the eardrum.

I'm not knocking the use of in ear monitors. They can be carefully used and not create hearing problems, and the sound quality experience is much better even with a cheap pair. I wish I could work out a way to use them myself with my oversized ear canals. But, do not believe that they are better from a hearing preservation standpoint because that is not true. In a best case scenario they would be the same. In the real world they are worse.

 

[Niehart]

Fred, I disagree.

My custom Big Ear Custom plugs are best. And, truest me on this, I have tried way to many combinations.

With Sena 20s, it's easy to use the ear bud's, just the helmet speakers or the helmet speakers with ear plug.

 

[Fred W]

Which part do you disagree with?

 

[Uncle Hud]

FredW, I cannot argue with your numbers, I can only say it this way ....

I listen to my podcasts at low volume; let's call it 'conversational level'.

As you said, it is not possible to achieve this with helmet speakers and earplugs. There is a lot of ambient noise inside the helmet, and my helmet speakers cannot produce a loud enough sound for me to hear the storyteller speaking on the podcast. With earplugs, and the volume turned up fully on my Sena, I can't hear well enough to follow the story line. (That's almost true without earplugs.)

With earbuds, I can hear the storyteller quite clearly, and at half-volume. (Well, half of the rotation available on the volume knob.) When the inevitable happens and the Sena battery dies, I am left with earbuds generating no noise, and the in-helmet noise is almost silent. That's why I say the earbuds also provide some hearing protection.

That's why I have reached my conclusion. Not mathematically, but empirically.

 

[rogdeb]

Not about the Pinlocks here, but if I can add a comparison ....

Been using the NoNoise plugs for about a year now, and like them a lot. But after a previous post about the Eargasm plugs I thought I'd try them.

Been a couple of months and I can say they give me slightly better noise reduction than the Nonoise, but, are more difficult (for me anyway) to insert and remove.

Jus' thought I'd throw this in the mix.

 

[Fred W]

FredW, I cannot argue with you numbers, I can only say it this way ....
I listen to my podcasts at low volume; let's call it 'conversational level'.

As you said, it is not possible to achieve this with helmet speakers and earplugs. There is a lot of ambient noise inside the helmet, and my helmet speakers cannot produce a loud enough sound for me to hear the storyteller speaking on the podcast. With earplugs, and the volume turned up fully on my Sena, I can't hear well enough to follow the story line. (That's almost true without earplugs.)

With earbuds, I can hear the storyteller quite clearly, and at half-volume. (Well, half of the rotation available on the volume knob.) When the inevitable happens and the Sena battery dies, I am left with earbuds generating no noise, and the in-helmet noise is almost silent. That's why I say the earbuds also provide some hearing protection.

That's why I have reached my conclusion. Not mathematically, but empirically.

I intentionally did not present any figures or math, just logic. To reiterate: If the earplugs and earbuds both attenuate the noise exactly the same (which we know they do not) then for the in-ear speakers to be heard so much more clearly above the (same) background noise means the sound pressure they are sending to your eardrums are higher.

 

[Analoguekid]

FredW, I cannot argue with you numbers, I can only say it this way ....
I listen to my podcasts at low volume; let's call it 'conversational level'.

As you said, it is not possible to achieve this with helmet speakers and earplugs. There is a lot of ambient noise inside the helmet, and my helmet speakers cannot produce a loud enough sound for me to hear the storyteller speaking on the podcast. With earplugs, and the volume turned up fully on my Sena, I can't hear well enough to follow the story line. (That's almost true without earplugs.)

With earbuds, I can hear the storyteller quite clearly, and at half-volume. (Well, half of the rotation available on the volume knob.) When the inevitable happens and the Sena battery dies, I am left with earbuds generating no noise, and the in-helmet noise is almost silent. That's why I say the earbuds also provide some hearing protection.

That's why I have reached my conclusion. Not mathematically, but empirically.

I'm with you on the earbuds, that way music and speech is not being filtered by the plug, it takes less concentration to listen to it when it's clearer too, I also have any music and speech at a low level, I would say the same as my hifi playing at 80db peaks in room at my listening position, so well within safe limits for prolonged use, I can still hear the wind and engine noise, much like you can in a car, and I have tried plugs and earbuds (sans music) and there is little in it in terms of noise blocking, perhaps I'm lucky and I have the perfect shaped ears for one of the 4 sizes available in earbud tips with my IEM's. So potentially I COULD damage my hearing more with earbuds, if I was stupid enough to play the music loud enough to drown out all other noises, we should not look for total silence, all plugs do is filter out the volume, not block it completely, and because I can hear things clearly I'm not having to listen to intently, ergo earbuds all the way for me, I use mine with my Cardo Packtalk, I wouldn't ride without them.

 

[Fred W]

I'm not saying earbuds aren't better sounding, or shouldn't be used. I use them for listening to music myself. They are safe to use when used in a quiet environment where they can be turned down very low. But people should know that it is very easy to raise the volume high enough to the point of causing damage without them distorting and sounding bad or any discomfort to the wearer. And that is before you introduce any background road noise to be over-ridden.

All I'm saying is that there is no way that they provide better hearing protection than wearing good earplugs, and that there is more possibility of hearing damage using the in ear monitors . There are a lot of people under the false impression that because you don't have to crank up the music source that this equates to lower sound volume at the eardrum.

We are all adults and can make our own choices. But I would think people would want to be well informed to make those choices.