How much you’ll hear from your surroundings is of course dependent on the kind of noise that you are in.It’s probably good to know that the average human speech is 60-75 db, and the noise levels in for instance cafés is often around 80 dB. That would obviously mean that no earplug with avg 30 dB noise reduction will block out ALL that noise – but it can be enough for you to turn down background noise enough to a comfortable level for calm and concentration. Or just to rest your ears from the noise that we are exposed to daily.Read more about daily recommended limits for decibel exposure from the Center for Disease Control and Prevent.Also, keep in mind that dBud is not designed for complete silence and isolation.Instead, dBud is made to turn down the volume, while keeping as much of the sound quality as possible. Meaning, an attenuation that ensures that harmful loud noises are reduced to safe levels, with minimal distortion to the sound curve.