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- Locality
- Penrith, Cumbria, UK
I play in a symphonic wind band and in rehearsals I am in front of the drum-kit, timps, mallet percussion, and 9 trombones... This gets to be VERY loud. I have an app on my phone which has a sound pressure meter on it and I regularly get 95db - I don't know what the peak is other than I know it's louder than that (the app times out). Sometimes playng cello can be a challenge depending on where the brass are located (or flutes - sitting next to a flute or worse a piccolo is not a laughing matter).
I decided to get my hearing tested. The good news is that across most of the range I can hear -20db with some slight drop of around 9/10 kHz. This is to be expected and is in fact good for my age eek .I did decide though to bite the bullet and pay for proper custom-fit made-to-measure ear plugs with proper filtration / attenuation. I opted for 15db attenuation.
To make them, a mould is taken of each ear. This is done by inserting a sponge stopper and injecting a putty-like material, which sets in a couple of minutes. You then pull on the cord attached to the stopper and it comes out with the mould. This was sent to a company in Stockport who laser-scan the mould and 3D print the ear-plug. It has the relevant attenuating filter installed (you can have 10, 15, 25, 30 db attenuation). It was interesting to note that the ear canal on my left ear is significantly narrower than my right one. The shape is also quite complex.
Today I went to pick them up and try them out. You have to orient them correctly, but they do go in quite easily, they are secure and come out readily too. You can change the filters if you wish. The cost was £170.
I decided to get my hearing tested. The good news is that across most of the range I can hear -20db with some slight drop of around 9/10 kHz. This is to be expected and is in fact good for my age eek .I did decide though to bite the bullet and pay for proper custom-fit made-to-measure ear plugs with proper filtration / attenuation. I opted for 15db attenuation.
To make them, a mould is taken of each ear. This is done by inserting a sponge stopper and injecting a putty-like material, which sets in a couple of minutes. You then pull on the cord attached to the stopper and it comes out with the mould. This was sent to a company in Stockport who laser-scan the mould and 3D print the ear-plug. It has the relevant attenuating filter installed (you can have 10, 15, 25, 30 db attenuation). It was interesting to note that the ear canal on my left ear is significantly narrower than my right one. The shape is also quite complex.
Today I went to pick them up and try them out. You have to orient them correctly, but they do go in quite easily, they are secure and come out readily too. You can change the filters if you wish. The cost was £170.