This full-featured set blends the best of size options with a sturdy, comfortable build. Plus, the carrying case is pretty heavy duty. We spent about a week, and a loud concert or two, with our pair and here’s how they shaped up.
Design: In line with the rest of the industry
The tiered, almost traffic cone-like shape of the Eargasm earplugs is a pretty well-trodden design for plugs of this category. Many other brands give you a two-tiered conical shape, but eargasm has made theirs a three-tier design. We actually found that these three “levels” made it easier to find our fit. The outer silicone shell is a translucent color, while the inner “filter” system is a much brighter blue. This does stand to make the earplugs a little more attention-drawing when being worn, unlike the all-clear design employed by other brands. This could be a bad thing if you want something that isn’t obvious when you’re wearing them (we found that a bit of blue peeks out when you can see someone’s ears from the side), but in our opinion, this ends up being a positive because if you drop them on the floor, it’s a little easier to find. The blue is also helpful for masking a bit of the somewhat inevitable earwax buildup that occurs inside these small filters. Finally, the case itself is a bit larger than most earplugs in this class, which isn’t great for portability, but is helpful for making them easier to take in and out of the canister.
Comfort: Top-notch and virtually non-existent
We loved how these earplugs felt, especially for long listening sessions at concerts. The three-tiered cone shape made it easy to “mold” the earplugs into our ears, because the multiple tiers actually locked snugly into the right resting point. The headphones are made of the standard medical-grade, super-soft silicone, but for some reason with these, in particular, sweatiness and grease wasn’t as much of an issue as it is with other earplugs. This is probably thanks to the fact that Eargams has found the right middle ground between silicone that is too soft and pliable and rubber that is too hard. It is important to note that Eargasm touts that the silicone is hypoallergenic, which is technically true, but so are virtually all other consumer-grade silicone. So you aren’t getting anything special here. Finally, Eargasm has included a second set of earplug shells right in the box, a move normally reserved for earbud-style earplugs. It’s nice to see that if the standard set of shells are too tight for your ears that you can put in a smaller pair.
Durability and Build Quality: Just about right
A difficult balance to strike with earplugs is to find the right level of softness, without sacrificing durability. Eargasm has done really well in this regard, in our opinion. Some other earplugs in this category feel really good in the ear, but also feel like they will tear after a lot of heavy use. The elongated flap that Eargasm has included on the end is actually thicker than most, so it feels like it would take a lot to wear it away. What’s more is the silicone, while soft, has just enough rigid structural integrity to also feel really durable. The case is also much more heavy-duty than other versions in the category. All of this amounts to a really nice purchase, even if it is a little pricier than some of the other options. These should hold up really well for concert goers.
Performance and Effectiveness: An excellent level of attenuation
First and foremost, we were very impressed with just how much sound these little earplugs block out. The marketing materials state they lower volume by about 21dB, which is among the most effective of all the earplugs we tested. This is important because, at about 100dB (the average rock club), you can’t stay listening to music for more than about 20 minutes without permanent hearing damage. Lowering this by 21dB will go a long way toward making a loud concert safer to listen to for its entirety. But, like most other earplugs that cost more than $20, there’s also an effort here to mold the sound that’s being attenuated. Most foam earplugs will effectively lower sound, but they’ll muffle the spectrum of that sound by blocking a lot of highs and mids. The internal filter of the Eargasm earplugs aims to give you a flatter attenuation of sound, which will ultimately make these earplugs more effective options for concerts. We were able to hear the unaffected sound much easier at a concert while also effectively just lowering the volume to safe levels. We were impressed with the performance and can safely recommend these if sound quality is important to you.
Added Features and Accessories: Middle of the road, nothing special
Some earplugs at a price point like this tend to try to do a lot more with accessories—including lots of ear tip sizes, other types of sound attenuation filters and even bringing accompanying apps into the picture. Eargasm even has a fancier model of earplugs that has a slider that activates and deactivates the attenuation. The Hi-Fi earplugs here aren’t particularly featured in that regard, as they include only an aluminum carrying case and one extra size of ear tips. To be fair, this isn’t the worst thing, as many other accessories end up being superfluous and gimmicky, but it’s important to keep in mind that if you want lots of bells and whistles you won’t find it here.
Price: A little high, but probably worth it
Competition: A few different brands
These are great earplugs, almost full stop. The only drawbacks are that the case is a bit large, the price is a bit high, and they are blue so they might be noticeable while being worn. These are very small gripes though, and in almost all the other categories (the ones that count, like fit, finish, effectiveness, etc.), the Eargasm wowed us.
