Good thread!
I booked marked the ETY plugs.

I recently installed aftermarket engine/trans/diff mounts, but purposely went with Spoon for minimum NVH, which isn't bad. For a 4-5 hour road trip I can easily imagine the slight increase in noise being fatiguing.

 

I've used Etymotic Research plugs for 5 years now and started using them for daily driving a year ago. They make a world of difference!

 

That seems like an overly simplistic view.

 

Right. Its how much your eardrum moves. No movement, no damage. You have one waveform of noise. You have another waveform of opposite direction. When they collide, they literally cancel each other out. It does indeed make the sound, and its energy, go away so it doesn't hit your ears.

Speakers can make noise, but they can also make quiet.

 

@Rpg I can only speak personally; main purpose was to be isolated from the bad NVH drones in general from the car tire/wind/exhaust drone (the big one). So adding an exhaust or other self inflicted noise generators persay isn't too much of a problem as the phones I have in particular gets rid of all bad NVH drone but keeps all the good sounds.

Awesome posts, thanks guys; peace of mind for NC users. It appears we're indeed cutting a lot of damaging noise to the ear drum any time you're in loud or annoying constants (wind, booming, generators, vacuum cleaners etc.)
From wanting to cut noise. Personally, my unit in particular allows me to hear everything necessary AND can hear different notes that the engine/exhaust produces to a significant degree since as mentioned the drone/boom is cut out but the rest of the progressive noises still available. That is what I was aiming for for and just wasn't sure if the magic was faux or real. Seems that it's real with the recent postings and readings. anyone else got some posts go for it.

I'll still be purchasing a set of ETY with my next amazon haul though, for various other purposes and testing.

 

I stand corrected -- I suppose I learned something new today about noise canceling headphones canceling out sound waves before they reach your ear.
https://ask.metafilter.com/283162/Ar...ing-my-hearing

Being somewhat of a luddite, I suppose I'd still prefer my musicians earplugs to cut off the damaging decibels (and just turn the stereo up higher while top down).

 

Well, there are some clear advantages to old school earplugs:

- Passive, not active. More reliable, no batteries to keep charged, nothing to break.

- Cheap. No fear of losing them, etc.

- They attenuate all sound, not just the recurring drone type. Will protect your ears better from short, sudden blasts that active noise cancelling don't. Downside is also blocks sounds you do want to hear. Horn, that dump truck barreling down on you, etc.

 

 

I just ordered a set of QC-35 as well as ETY plugs from ETY directly. Should be here next week. They have a set designed for motorsport use that I wanted to check out, and just FYI - they were not available through Amazon!

 

Musicians ear plugs don't do that. You hear everything, just not at damaging sound levels. I can hear passengers talking, horns, road noise, etc. The loud stuff, however, is much reduced.