NoNoise Ear Plugs

[Maxified]

I choose to wear ear plugs when I ride and usually use a foam plug. After receiving an email ad from Twisted Throttle for the NoNoise ceramic filter ear plugs I decided to use my accumulated Twisted Throttle dollars and try them. For my 160 mile test ride I found the plugs to be comfy and work as promised: they attenuate the "bad" noise while permitting the "good" noises to pass through the ceramic venturi. It was a pleasure to be able to hear my riding buddy at a traffic light without straining to listen. Wind, road & engine noises were reduced. While I like their efficiency, I do not like the cost: $30. My wife says she want the ear plugs that filter out sleep noises, like I snore or something. Yes, they actually make those, too.

http://www.twistedthrottle.com/nonoise-motorsport-precision-noise-filtration-hearing-protection

 

[creggur]

I've used silicon earplugs for years with great success, but always hated the clogged ear feeling. I usually have an earache at the end of a long day as a result. If they work as advertised without the "clogged ear" thing I'll lay out the $30 for them.

Hell, if they last a year they'll be well worth it to me. I've spent way more than that on different ear plug ideas over the years that were a COMPLETE waste of $$$$.

Gonna give 'em a go. Thanks for the review!

 

[markjenn]

The spec page for this product indicates that high-frequencies are most damaging to hearing. I really couldn't find any good confirmation of this with a little searching, although it is well-known that when your hearing is damaged, the first thing to go is the high frequencies.

Looking at their attenuation charts, the NRR of these devices is pretty small at low- and mid-range frequencies and most of the sound pressure from wind/exhaust we experience on a motorcycle is under 2K in frequency where the NRR of these plugs is in the 15-20 range. So I think you have to assume that the NRR of these devices is a pretty big step down from the best foam earplugs. (I use Howard Leight Max with a NRR of 33.) These would still be much better than nothing, of course, and perhaps the tradeoff of hearing things better off the bike is worth it. It wouldn't be to me. YMMV.

- Mark

 

[mcrider007]

The spec page for this product indicates that high-frequencies are most damaging to hearing. I really couldn't find any good confirmation of this with a little searching, although it is well-known that when your hearing is damaged, the first thing to go is the high frequencies.

My first exposure to earplugs was when I was in Navy Flight School in the late 60s and we were taught that hearing damage would result in a hearing loss that would start between 4000-8000 Hz which is the normal range of the human voice (I am just a messenger here and repeating what I remember). I have always worn earplugs when riding and my hearing is still pretty good but probably would be better if I had carried a set of earplugs with me and used them every time I was exposed to loud music.

 

[scott123007]

my hearing is still pretty good but probably would be better if I had carried a set of earplugs with me and used them every time I was exposed to loud music.

That's all good and well, but if you're not willing to share your age it becomes somewhat meaningless....just sayin'.

 

[creggur]

That's all good and well, but if you're not willing to share your age it becomes somewhat meaningless....just sayin'.

If he was in Navy Flight School in the late 60's that's going to put him somewhere in his mid-to-late 60s in age...

 

[mcrider007]

That's all good and well, but if you're not willing to share your age it becomes somewhat meaningless....just sayin'.

I don't know what relevance my age has to do to the factual accuracy of my post or the effectiveness of ear plugs in preventing hearing damage but I am 67 and have ridden 435K miles since I started using ear plugs. I'm sure my hearing is not as good as it was 45 years ago but I am not remotely close to needing a hearing aid but often do need ear plugs in motels to get any sleep.

 

[creggur]

I don't know what relevance my age has to do to the factual accuracy of my post or the effectiveness of ear plugs in preventing hearing damage but I am 67 and have ridden 435K miles since I started using ear plugs. I'm sure my hearing is not as good as it was 45 years ago but I am not remotely close to needing a hearing aid but often do need ear plugs in motels to get any sleep.

Ha! My math was dead-on.

Irrelevant, but I'm happy about it....

 

[Maxified]

My first exposure to earplugs was when I was in Navy Flight School in the late 60s and we were taught that hearing damage would result in a hearing loss that would start between 4000-8000 Hz which is the normal range of the human voice (I am just a messenger here and repeating what I remember). I have always worn earplugs when riding and my hearing is still pretty good but probably would be better if I had carried a set of earplugs with me and used them every time I was exposed to loud music.

The human voice is at a much lower freq, mostly about 300Hz to 3KHz according to a quick online check. Ear protection often given a single number for reducing levels but the reality is that they each have different efficiencies at different frequencies. Supposedly, anything rated over -30b is moot anyway because the bones in your skull will pass the sound at those levels. Still my foam earplug choice has been in the -32+ range.

 

[jaeger22]

FYI, From Wikipedia:
The voiced speech of a typical adult male will have a fundamental frequency from 85 to 180 Hz, and that of a typical adult female from 165 to 255 Hz.[1][2]

 

[mcrider007]

FYI, From Wikipedia:
The voiced speech of a typical adult male will have a fundamental frequency from 85 to 180 Hz, and that of a typical adult female from 165 to 255 Hz.[1][2]

I just did a quick internet search and found numerous voice frequency ranges but also noted that the voice transmission frequencies seem to be in the 4kHz to 8kHz range so maybe that is what the Navy was referring to since its pretty important for pilots to be able to communicate with the control towers.

I think the most important thing is that everyone be aware that relatively low sound levels can cause permanent hearing damage if one is exposed to those levels for a sustained period and the higher the sound level the shorter the period required.

 

[patrickg450]

TT charging $30 bucks for ear plugs? WTF? They can be bought for less than 5 bucks.........


They need a name change, maybe Too much Throttle.

 

[fredz43]

TT charging $30 bucks for ear plugs? WTF? They can be bought for less than 5 bucks.........


They need a name change, maybe Too much Throttle.

I don't think you will find these particular earplugs for less than 5 bucks.

http://www.nonoise-earplugs.com/en/products/motorsport/

Whether they are worth that much is another story.

 

[scott123007]

I don't know what relevance my age has to do to the factual accuracy of my post or the effectiveness of ear plugs in preventing hearing damage but I am 67 and have ridden 435K miles since I started using ear plugs. I'm sure my hearing is not as good as it was 45 years ago but I am not remotely close to needing a hearing aid but often do need ear plugs in motels to get any sleep.

Apologies...my bad, the part about flight school went right over my head.

I'm 61, have never worn ear plugs, and still have good hearing, so I was curious what age I was comparing myself to.

Although I haven't covered as many miles as you have in my 48 years of riding, I can assure you, the miles I have covered, have been faster. Does that count? LOL

 

[patrickg450]

thats a lot of money for a carrying case.

http://www.northernsafety.com/Product/6770/3M-E-A-R-UltraFit-Corded-Reusable-Ear-Plugs-in-Carry-Case-NRR-25


these reduce more noise 25dBM than the ones posted.

 

[markjenn]

Having just had my hearing checked, I can speak to the question about human voice frequencies and hearing impairment. I have flown airplanes and ridden motorcycles for over 45 years and wasn't very careful about hearing protection when I started my careers, but came to realize how important hearing protection was later. I wish I had started earlier when my hearing was still great. What I didn't realize (and you won't realize it unless you're getting regular checkups) is that my hearing was steadily deteriorating behind my back the whole time I wasn't using protection. You still think you hear fine, but you're just adjusting to the impairment as you go along.

My hearing below 1500 Hz is more/less normal, but my hearing response curve above 2K drops like a rock, and I basically can't hear anything above 4K. I don't feel like I need a hearing aid at all for the most part BUT do have a great deal of difficulty following dialogue on TV/movies. Cranking up the volume doesn't help much - it just makes unintelligible speech louder. My doctor says this is due to my high-freq dropoff - while the majority of the sound energy in human speech is below 1K hz, there area all kinds of nuances carried in the higher frequencies that are absolutely essential to intelligibility. And there's the tinnitus. You learn to accept it but it is no fun.

Everyone's tolerances are different and in the same way that one person can eat bacon/eggs for breakfast their entire life and never have a heart issue while another person who has a good diet has a heat attack at 55, so can some tolerate hearing abuse more than others. But if you're riding regularly without hearing protection, you are doing damage. Your ears are just tolerating it.

- Mark

 

[mcrider007]

Mark, sorry to learn of your hearing loss but thank you for your very informative post. As I stated earlier, I was first exposed to how easy it is to have hearing loss when I was in the Navy but I think they mis-stated how that hearing loss is going to impact your life. I certainly do not recall any discussion about hearing loss effecting one's ability to hear transmitted sounds rather than losing the ability to converse directly, but if I read your post correctly, you can still hear the human voice pretty good when standing in front of the speaker but are almost deaf if the voice is being transmitted electronically. Does that mean that we can estimate how good our overall hearing is by our ability to listen to a TV or radio?

 

[markjenn]

....but if I read your post correctly, you can still hear the human voice pretty good when standing in front of the speaker but are almost deaf if the voice is being transmitted electronically. Does that mean that we can estimate how good our overall hearing is by our ability to listen to a TV or radio?

The difference between live and recorded speed intelligibility is not this pronounced. I can follow most dialogue on TV fine and something like a newscast or sitcom is easy to follow. But many shows (e.g., an action dramas with complex plots) have a lot of background action/noise, the actors are involved in things where they don't speak clearly, many have odd accents, etc. - these are the situations where my ability to follow complex dialogue goes way down. And while I have little overt difficulty in engaging in live conversation, I'm sure I don't do as well as I used to.

TV and movie sounds systems are also highly variable in their frequency response curves. If I'm already 40-db down at 2.5K Hz, then a further drop of 20-db in the playback system tips it over the edge.

Here's one description of the problem: "Loss of high frequency hearing also can distort sound, so that speech is difficult to understand even though it can be heard. Hearing impaired people often have difficulty detecting differences between certain words that sound alike, especially words that contain S, F, SH, CH, H, or soft C, sounds, because the sound of these consonant is in a much higher frequency range than vowels and other consonants."

As an aside, I have an elderly father who was in the artillery so he is hearing impaired. A long time ago, I learned that when speaking to him, it was important to look at him directly as I talked. We all secretly become lip readers as our hearing diminishes.

Yes, I think if you're noticing more difficulty in following speech on TV, this is an early warning sign.

I can be preachy on this subject, sorry. But if I can convince even one person who is riding regularly now and thinks they don't need protection to start using it, I'll continue preaching. And I don't know anyone who has started using earplugs say they want to go back to no protection as riding is a lot more pleasant without all the racket.

- Mark

 

[HDFlyer76]

I went to an audiologist for a hearing test a few years ago. While I don't remember the specific frequencies that are impacted I have very minor hearing loss. We discussed my noisy activities, flying, motorcycle, etc and decided to have custom ear plugs made. The audiologist made forms based on my ears and then had the ear plugs made. It appears they are made of some form of silicon. The are great to wear and make a bigger difference than any other hearing protection I have ever used. I now ride with them every time. The hearing test and ear plugs were a few hundred dollars, but in the long run one of the best investments I have every made. You can never get it back if you lose your hearing.

The other thing I learned was wind noise was as bad or worse than exhaust noise. Since I got rid of my two strokes and Harley and the Tenere is so quite wind is the most significant concern.

Whenever you ride, use some form of hearing protection.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[mcrider007]

I can be preachy on this subject, sorry. But if I can convince even one person who is riding regularly now and thinks they don't need protection to start using it, I'll continue preaching. And I don't know anyone who has started using earplugs say they want to go back to no protection as riding is a lot more pleasant without all the racket.

Thanks for the clarification....I really didn't expect there was a simple way for one to administer a self hearing test. I am also on the preachy side when it comes to earplugs. I buy them by the box and offer them to anyone that is not using them and almost everyone who uses them reports positive results.....especially those that still have any hearing left.