Earplugs have one main purpose: to reduce the volume of sound. Whether that is to offer protection from potential hearing loss, or to block out distracting background noise, the effectiveness of earplugs are often focused on how much noise can be blocked. And while this is important, there are multiple other important factors as well. In this post, we will compare custom and foam earplugs to help you decide which is right for you.

Foam earplugs block out all sound, no matter the frequency. This creates the “occlusion effect”, which causes the wearer to hear an echo-like “hollow” or “booming” sound from their own voice. This can be useful if you are in a loud environment and need to block out everything, but can quickly become a hindrance when trying to communicate with someone or need to hear emergency ques. 

Custom earplugs use advanced filters with an exact level of noise reduction. Depending on the filters you choose, you can decide on how much noise reduction you want, which goes anywhere from all sounds to just extremely loud sounds like gunshots. This is particularly useful when you are trying to protect your ears but still want to hear people and your surroundings. Depending on the custom earplugs you purchase, you could still receive crisp sound quality and only eliminate the dangerous levels of noise.

Additionally, custom earplugs can be more effective at noise reduction, due to the secure custom fitted shape and large range of filters.

Foam earplugs are a lot cheaper, but you can only use each pair one time (to avoid ear infections). High quality earplugs are roughly 50c per pair. If you need to use them every day for work, that would be 50c times 5 which is $2.50 per week. Times that by 50 weeks, and it is roughly $125 per year. 

A standard pair of ACS custom earplugs are $300 and last 4 years. After 2 and a half years, it becomes more cost-effective to purchase custom earplugs, with the added benefits of better sound quality and more comfort. Also, you will help protect the environment by eliminating the waste of 1,000 foam earplugs. 

If you or your team uses earplugs full time, or you care about quality and comfort, then investing in custom earplugs is the right choice.