Foam Earplugs Fitting — How to Avoid Bass Vibrating off of Them?

[Farah]

Hi guys,

Not sure if this happens to everyone, but thought I'd ask. So I've noticed with foam earplugs that sometimes bass vibrates off of them depending on the position they're inserted. How do you avoid this?

I insert them as deep as instructed (nearly all the way in with just a little sticking out so I can pull them out) and yet sometimes, I'll be at a bar and the bass will vibrate off one of them or I'll be walking down the street and a motorcycle passes by and one of my earplugs starts to vibrate and it's really uncomfortable and dangerous because it's loud too!

How the hell are you supposed to avoid this?

Last time it happened, I went into a toilet and took the plug out and reinserted. After, everything was fine, yet it looked and felt exactly how it had been inserted just before?

 

[Deamon22]

Do you use 3M 1100 foam earplugs? That never happens to me and I use foam plugs all the time.

 

[chaLLas]

I also have not yet experienced this. Maybe there is some wax forming a gap between plug and ear canal?

I also use 3m 1100 plugs. They are fitting very tight (yet have a soft feeling) and they seem absorb wax. I always put them in as deep as possible so I can still grab them on the edge and pull them out.

What earplugs do you use? Maybe they are of poor quality and therefore have a bad fit? Or are the plugs too small?

 

[Farah]

@chaLLas @Deamon22 I've never used 3m 1100 plugs but have used good quality ones, such as Quies Foam Earplugs. However this has happened with other brands too. I don't know what's going on. I think I'll try the ones you both mentioned as it actually puts me off wearing foam earplugs.

 

[linearb]

Foam can make you more aware of bone conduction; additionally, deep bass sounds are not very well blocked by earplugs of any kind (because of the physical properties of soundwaves that deep, they are very long) -- so shows with lots of bass can do plenty of hearing damage through plugs.