Good noise reduction and fits smaller ears comfortably
I am an orchestral musician and use ear plugs almost every time I play with a large ensemble. I have had trouble finding earplugs that are comfortable-I think my ears are a little on the small side. I have used Etymotic earplugs in the past, and am still very happy with them, but I was looking for a lower profile option, which is why I tried the Downbeats earplugs.<br />I also tried the new etymotic earplugs with the shorter stem, and found them very uncomfortable (too large and with a sharp edge), and the eargasm high fidelity earplugs, which felt way too big in my ear. I then found the eargasm smaller ears version, which I am pretty happy with.<br /><br />Overall, the downbeats are more comfortable than the eargasm smaller ears earplugs, but the eargasm are a little easier to remove from my ear<br /><br />The etymotic with the longer stems are the easiest to place correctly in my ear and remove, and are about the same comfort level or slightly more comfortable than the downbeats, but the long stem can be a problem depending on what you want to use them for (higher profile, the stem is uncomfortable to sleep in or have headphones on over top of-I know that sounds weird to have headphones on top of ear plugs, but in places like planes that are very loud, I have to raise the volume of my iPod in order to hear, but that passes the safe level, so if I want to listen for longer at the higher volume, I have tried it with earplugs underneath the headphones)
Rating: 5 stars