Earplugs for raves and techno: how to choose a pair

🔊 What your ears actually take

The French decree of 7 August 2017 sets the limit for any venue playing amplified sound: 102 dB(A) on a rolling 15 minute average, and 118 dB(C) on the low end. That second threshold was added precisely because music changed and bass carries more weight than it used to. A detail few people know: the text covers open venues as well as enclosed ones. An open air is not a free zone.

Now the number that puts that ceiling in perspective. According to the World Health Organization, fifteen minutes at 100 dB exposes you to as much sound energy as eight hours of work in an 85 dB environment. The rule behind it is simple: every extra 3 dB halves the acceptable exposure time. Eight hours at 85, four at 88, one at 94, fifteen minutes at 100.

Which means the loudest a club is legally allowed to run burns your whole daily allowance before the first set ends. And 102 dB is an average across the room: pressed against the sound system you are above it, and the peaks are higher still.

The good news is that all of this is handled by an object costing under thirty euros that fits in a jacket pocket.

🎧 Foam or filter: what actually changes

Yellow foam plugs mostly cut the highs. You know the result if you have tried them: voices go muffled, hi-hats vanish, the kick stays. The music sounds like it is playing in the next room, and nine times out of ten you pull them out after twenty minutes. Protection you remove protects nothing.

Filtered plugs aim for the opposite: bring the whole spectrum down fairly evenly so the mix keeps its shape, just quieter. You still hear the hi-hat, the bass does not swallow everything, and you can talk at the bar without shouting. That is why they stay in all night, and it is the only criterion that really counts.

🛒 What to get, based on how often you go out

Three families, from stopgap to custom. The right pick depends less on your budget than on how many nights a month you do.

Loop Experience 2

Rated at 17 dB of reduction, flat filter, ring shape that shows and owns it. These are the ones you see most in queues over the past two years, and they ship with several tip sizes, which fixes the real problem with earplugs: badly seated, they do not protect at the level printed on the box. The sensible pick if you go out two to four times a month.

Alpine PartyPlug

Certified at 19 dB SNR, with a non-linear filter that attenuates the highs slightly more than the lows. The Pro version goes to 21 dB. Careful how you read those figures: an SNR is an average, it says nothing about the curve. Two pairs rated 17 and 19 dB are not comparable the way two exam marks are; what matters is how evenly the attenuation sits across the spectrum.

Custom moulded plugs

Made from an impression of your ear canal by an audiologist, with swappable filters. Distinctly more expensive and it takes an appointment, so it only makes sense if you go out weekly, if you play, or if you work in a club. At that rate they pay for themselves fast: the others get lost, these last years.

🌙 The habits that change everything

Put them in as you walk in, not when it starts to hurt. The dose builds from the first minute and nothing you do afterwards erases it. That is the most common mistake, including among people carrying earplugs in their pocket all night.

Step back from the speaker wall for the heavy kicks. A hard techno night runs loud and fast, and the three metres in front of the sound system are not at the same level as the rest of the floor. At an open air the trap is different: because the sound scatters and there is no reverb, people drift up to the speakers without noticing.

Take a quiet break every couple of hours, ten minutes is enough. And count the after: if you carry on until midday, the night is not six hours long, it is twelve, and your meter keeps running the whole time.

For the rest of the bag, we went through it in the first techno festival guide. And if you are looking for somewhere to put all this to the test, this month's nights are up to date.