Why earplugs are the new urban survival gear

Ignored in the hustle of everyday life, our hearing is often a silent casualty to honking traffic, loud coworkers, barking strays and partying neighbors who treat midnight like prime time—not to forget excessive exposure at music concerts or louder-than-necessary bars, many of which seem to have a personal vendetta against your ears.

Silence is a luxury, and if it were a streaming service, most of us would happily pony up for the premium plan. Ergo, earplugs, and not the garden variety you may have used in the past, but purpose-built solutions like those on offer from Loop and Sennheiser, no matter whether you’re looking to block out ambient noise (or snores) at night or for cutting out harmful frequencies while maintaining as much fidelity as possible at the next concert. Less gadgets, more survival gear, if you ask me.

If you think that’s overstating the issue, consider this—constant exposure to noise, even at moderate levels, keeps the brain in a constant state of being alert, triggering the release of stress related hormones like cortisol and, over time, impacting concentration, sleep quality, mood and even heart health. Of course, exposure to higher levels exceeding 85dB (heavy traffic) or clubs/concert venues (100+ dB) over prolonged exposure just fast tracks your ears towards permanent hearing loss. You’d be surprised at how loud most outdoor city environments get—just use an app on your phone or a smartwatch like an Apple Watch to check how loud the ambient noise levels are at home, your commute and at your next weekend outing.

Bear in mind that earplugs are no replacements for active noise cancelling headphones or earbuds, so they’re meant to co-exist with your favorite pair of buds and be worn for longer durations, when music isn’t the priority.

Loop Switch 2

Loop has been in the earplug game for nearly a decade, and its portfolio now covers dedicated options for travel/commute, socializing, sleep and concerts/sporting events. Yet, the Switch 2 ( ₹4,999) is the one to rule them all; by letting you choose how much outside noise you want to block. By utilizing a rotating doughnut-shaped circular loop connected to a silicone ear tip (the latter available in four sizes for the snuggest fit), you can select between three levels of sound filtration, all while the earplugs are still in your ears, simply by rotating the outer half of the loop till it satisfyingly clicks into place.

There’s Quiet, which provides the highest noise reduction, Experience for concerts and other loud environments, and Engage, which allows you to hear the people you’re talking to in noisy environments. These settings reduce noise by 20dB, 23dB and 26dB respectively, and true to Loop’s advice on the settings, I found the Experience setting excellent for a live band performance recently, taking enough of the edge off the volume while still allowing the details of the guitars and the higher notes through. Even at its lowest level, the Switch 2 was able to bring a 100dB venue down to something that’s safer to stand in.

Quiet goes all in on noise reduction, so it’s great for commutes or for wearing when you’re sleeping, though if you’re doing both together, I’d recommend picking up the Loop Link cord (Rs. 1,799), a lanyard that attaches to each earplug and secure clips the two magnetically when they’re not in use. Way better than having to fish around in the pocket/bag for the ultra-compact case each time. The plugs themselves are available in black, silver, emerald and gold, and a McLaren Papaya orange for F1 enthusiasts.

Sennheiser SoundProtex Plus

Sennheiser takes a slightly different approach with the SoundProtexPlus ( ₹2,990)—while the soft silicon tips (S,M,L) ensure a secure, comfortable fit, by themselves, they don’t provide any significant protection. The decibel reduction levels are adjusted by swapping out tiny round acoustic filters on the outside of each plug—low, medium, high and full—depending on the level of sound dampening you need. For instance, the low-block filter (10dB) is preferred for acoustic, non-amplified concerts, or for offices and restaurants, while the medium-block (17dB) is suitable for festivals, events and traveling. Choosing the high-block (20dB) is suggested only for loud music events, motorsport events and while using power tools, and while Sennheiser doesn’t disclose a value for the full-block filter, the aim is to make it air and water tight, which means it should eliminate as much noise as possible, and that you can wear these in the pool as well. Just bear in mind, the full filter might dull out sounds well enough for you to miss the phone or the doorbell!

Having carried both earplugs for the past month, I tend to favour the fit of the SoundProtex Plus, but the music that piped through was more bass heavy/favored the deeper frequencies, so there was a bit of fidelity loss when compared to the Loop Switch 2. Also, I much preferred Loop’s rotating loop to switch between modes over the swappable filters on the Sennheiser—not that the process takes long on the SoundProtex Plus, but the tiny filters aren’t the sort I want to fiddle around when walking into a darkened night club. Plus, you’ll have to remember to pack those in the bundled pouch before you head out, which gives the Loop’s built-in approach the upper hand. There’s the aspect of pricing, so you’ll have to weigh that against the convenience, higher sound filtration and slightly better acoustics of the Loop.

But why not disposable earplugs?

Disposable earplugs have been around longer than both Loop and Sennheiser, and fancy sporting venues sometimes even hand you a pack…or you can pick a whole pack of ten for under two hundred rupees. But if you’re going to be wearing earplugs on the daily, picking up a reusable pair like the ones above make sound sense for a couple of reasons. First off, the bog-standard earplugs lack any acoustic filtering of any sort and are absolute garbage when audio clarity is concerned. Second, variable sized ear tips will ensure better sound isolation and more effective moments of quiet, which really is the point of these things. And hey, it’s better for the environment, since the foam tips in most disposable earplugs are biodegradable or recyclable.