On Wed, Feb 20, 2013 at 12:16:13PM PST, Matt Lawrence spake thusly: > I've just started a new job where I am spending lots of time in a very noisy > datacenter.
This is a special interest area of mine. I spend time in noisy datacenters, in noisy aircraft (as a pilot, when I'm not hacking), and in gyms working out to music. I spend a lot of time with stuff in my ears. I like my Etymotic ER-6i earbuds. But MUCH more important than which particular earbuds you use is how they fit your ear and hold well they seal the noise out. And getting a good airtight seal is the key factor. In my experience the absolute best way to go is with a custom made earpiece from Avery Sound: http://www.averysound.com/ When you place your order Avery will email you a lab order form to take to your local audiologist for the ear mold telling them in medical terms exactly what parts of the ear to make sure the mold covers. I went to a local audiologist such as you might find at a hearing aid store and for $20 got left and right molds made of my ears. That includes ear canal and outside detail. It was quick and easy. Then I mailed those molds off to Avery. They used the same molds to make me three different sets of earpieces which I acquired one by one over the course of several months: 1. Etymotic earbuds for music. Left and right. They fit great. The earbud just pushes into a hole drilled into the flexible silicone-rubber-like (but not actually silicone) material which has a hole in the other side for sound to travel to the ear. Fits very securely. I couldn't make these things fall out if I wanted to. And they seal out noise very well. 2. I own a Clarity Aloft aviation headset which is earbud-style also. Much lighter and more comfortable to wear than the great big ol' traditional ear-muff Dave Clark style headsets. Avery made me molded earpieces to replace the disposable crushable foam earplug style material that fits onto the earbud drivers. Much easier to put in, cleaner, no need to buy new ones all the time, and kills noise just as well. 3. I have a Jawbone Prime bluetooth hands-free for my phone. It is a great hands-free device except that none of the rubber bits fit my ear and it always fell out. This was especially dangerous when driving. I know, I hate using the phone when driving, but it has often been unavoidable if I want to keep my customers happy. Now not only does it fit perfectly but the audio is louder because less sound escapes through a poor seal. The Avery guys caution against setting audio devices too loud due to the better seal. So Avery Sound is the way to go. They generally make earpieces which attach to devices for which they have already molded against. They can do custom if you send them whatever it is you want molded against but that may cost extra, I don't know. The only thing I might ask of them is that they make the earpieces a little larger/thicker to block more sound. But their audiologist I spoke with on the phone didn't seem to think this would make much difference. I wonder if the material is expensive and they like to minimize quantity used in each earpiece. The other thing to be careful of is that since they really do mold to your ear and fit securely if your earbud wire catches on something it will rip the earbud out of the hole in the earpiece which isn't good for either. So secure the wires inside your shirt or something. Some people like active noise cancelling headsets, especially for aviation. But the way I see it they all work by cancelling noise in the space inside the earcup. Earbuds have no earcup and no space. Just sound blocking material and an audio driver closer to the eardrum so active noice cancellation would seem to be unnecessary. Besides, I have two pairs of noise cancelling headsets after using my earbuds I hate their bulk, discomfort (the headband often causes a "hot spot" right on top of the head after about 4 hours), and having to worry about the batteries dying. The only downside to Avery is that it was rather expensive: I paid $150 for my Clarity Aloft earpiece set. The ER6i set was $135.00. And my Jawbone was $79.00. All of these were tax writeoffs for me as business expenses, for whatever difference that makes. These things seem likely to last for many years and I've already gotten my money's worth. I've had my oldest (the Jawbone) for three years now and it is as good as new. I just snapped a quick pic with my phone: http://imgur.com/H3St8Wb The Etymotic earbud earpieces are natural color. Sort of a translucent beige. Color costs around $10 more. I think the colored earpieces (Jawbone and Aloft) do look nicer. I have no stake in Avery. Just a satisfied customer. :) I occasionally go shooting and I've been thinking about getting a set for regular ear protection. I don't really want to pay Avery's price of $89 for shooting ear protection though. Just a week ago I ordered a couple do-it-yourself kits which are far cheaper: Radian: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002C7ZQ58/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 It looks like a two part epoxy dough type stuff you just mix up and then stick in your ear and let it harden then pull out. Similar to that fix-it putty you may have seen advertised on TV but doesn't stick to your skin. You can stick it in your ear then push your earbud into the other side and then drill a sound hole afterwards to make a custom mold for music earbuds. Various youtube videos on how this works here: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=radian+ear+mold Instamorph plastic: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003QKLJKQ/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Not made specifically for this purpose but has intriguing properties which may lend itself well to making ear molds. Videos here: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=instamorph+plastic I haven't yet had a chance to play with either of these yet so I can't report on how well these cheaper solutions work. -- Tracy Reed _______________________________________________ Tech mailing list Tech@lists.lopsa.org https://lists.lopsa.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tech This list provided by the League of Professional System Administrators http://lopsa.org/
