ACS ear protecton

[goingdownslow]

I went to Specsavers and got Elacin 25s after wearing generic 15s that didn't seem to do anything, I even have some cotton wool stuffed in them to stop earwax getting in. I wouldn't play or go to a gig without them. Everything is always too loud for me. I do have mild tinnitus in my left ear but I can ignore it.

Last week I surprised myself at my local railway station, whilst I was waiting for the train there was an elderly gent sitting on the opposite platform and I shouted over had he just dropped something, he looked at me as if I was taking the p1ss, I said I thought I heard a jingling sound, he got up and found his keys had fallen out of his pocket behind the seat.

[mcnach]

2 hours ago, Kevin Dean said:

On the last gig I used Pro 17  They cut 15 db  across all the frequency range ,   I had been using Pro 10s they cut only about 5db on the lower range & 15db on the higher .The guy that fitted them at spec Savers said that He played in bands & preferred these . 

 

I haven't tried the Pro 10s, I have the 17s and I can hear the hi hats, that's for sure.

After going to the trouble of getting custom moulds etc, I found I actually prefer the Isolate plugs... they're just a bit of some soft pliable black foam and a metal core. No hi-tech by any means... and I dismissed them for a long time because they just could not possibly work and the response graphs I had seen were not promising (and tellingly they 'disappeared' from their site very quickly to be substituted by some bs marketing blurb). One of my guitarists loved them, and I decided to give them a try, if anything they'll be handy when I have to share room with another guitarist in out of town gigs (snores like a tractor)

To my surprise... I prefer the low tech isolates. They reduce sound quite a bit more than the Pro 17s, but for some reason I find them very clear even in the worst muddiest stages, I can hear everything but I feel as though there may be a bit of a bump in the low mids that suit my bass a lot, which means that it's as if I get a stage mix with "a little more of me" without needing to turn up higher onstage. They're only about £25 and very comfy... so I thought they could be a backup or just to help me against snoring bandmates while travelling... but now the ACS Pro17s are my back up.

[mcnach]

3 hours ago, Kevin Dean said:

I went for a test & it's fine apart from the fact I've had mild  tinnitus for the past 3 weeks since my drummer wacked a drum right in my ear when setting up .

 

ugh... I hate that... You have the earplugs all through a gig/rehearsal... and when everything is safe a cymbal drops right by my ear. 

I hope your tinnitus will go away soon.

[Skinnyman]

Like many, I’ve played in bands with a stupidly loud drummer and correspondingly stupidly loud guitarists (ironically, since I left my last band, they’ve apparently learned that louder isn’t always better from the punters’ perspective and they’re now trying hard to get volumes under control - but I digress...).

I used to ride a motorbike and was well used to foam plugs of various sorts but found that they didn’t work for me when playing - too remote and too hard to hear myself.

After reading other threads on here, I got the ACS plugs and, unlike some, had a good experience with getting the mounds taken in Boots (the chemists, not the footwear). I initially got the 17s which worked well once I’d got used to them but I still had that sense of “distance” that I’d got from foam plugs, albeit to a lesser degree. After a period of getting used to them, I swapped the 17s for 10s and found them perfect. Enough noise comes through to stay involved but not that much that I can’t think properly. I wouldn’t gig (or rehearse) without them. I find them much more comfortable to wear than any of the foam ones I used to use on the bike and well worth the investment. 

Now that I’m between bands, I’ve put the 17s back in and use them as ear protection when I’m shooting clays.