MO Tested: Eargasm Earplugs Review
Silicon plug(s) for him and her
I hate earplugs. I find shoving cheap bits of foam in my ears, which usually want to fall right back out, discomforting. Both to my ears physically and to my belief that they will actually do something to protect my hearing as they slowly push themselves back out of my ear canal, they provide little comfort.
Of course, as a motorcyclist, I’ve been told since day one that I should be riding with ear plugs. Those people are right. At highway speed, the decibel rating inside of almost any helmet is going to be over 85 db, enough to cause permanent hearing damage, and more likely to be up near 100 db, which causes irreparable harm to one’s hearing in only 15 minutes. I’m told motorcycles typically idle around 85 db, so any way you slice it, hearing protection is, at minimum, a good idea.
If bright orange foam earplugs leave you wanting more, you’re not alone. I decided to do a bit of research into options for more advanced earplugs after MO’s own Evans Brasfield scribed (typed) a Best Motorcycle Earplugs article. Evans’ article does a great job of showcasing earplugs from the fluorescent foam end of the spectrum to custom-fit-to-your-ear-hole jobs and many things in between. One of which, I had heard of before and decided I’d give a chance to turn my auditory misdeeds around.
I’d heard the company’s name somewhere before. Ah, that’s right, Big Boi of Outkast said it thusly, “Drip, drip, drop there goes an eargasm.” I’ll let you Google the rest of the lyrics so we can keep it PG here on the pages of Motorcycle.com. Eargasm Earplugs. I’d spent my whole life without ever having Eargasms. The closest I had been was that tingling sensation one gets from jamming a Q-Tip into their ear canal. You know the feeling, eyes starting to roll back, but not quite an eargasm.
Now that all of that sexual innuendo is out of the way, I can say that stuffing these medical-grade rubber silicone silencers into my ears was a pleasurable experience. The soft silicone makes for an instantly comfortable fit. A far cry from the lesser foam plugs I had attempted to make work before. A little too girthy for you right out of the box? You’re in luck, each set of Eargasm earplugs come with two sizes of silicone shells which you are able to swap the noise filter between.
Speaking of the noise filter, just how much noise are these filters filtering? The company claims a 21 db attenuation while the NRR (Noise Reduction Rating) is listed as 16 db. Eargasm is quick to mention that they believe the NRR has “vastly understated the capabilities of their earplugs” and to expect a 21 db noise reduction.
I can attest to the use of these plugs while riding. I have no issue slipping on even the tightest of lids with these earplugs as they are tucked nicely out of the way with a small silicon tab ready for you to use to pull them out. Riding with these earplugs is like being wrapped in a sound deadening blanket. After using them for hours on end of freeway speeds on the way to California from Colorado, on a bike with a rather small windscreen, I couldn’t go back to riding without them.
A key feature of higher quality earplugs like the Eargasm are the fact that the filter works to give the user the full spectrum of sound while reducing decibels to safer levels whereas a foam earplug reduces decibels, but also distorts sound quality making it more difficult to hear specific sounds.
The Eargasm earplugs come with a water and dustproof metal carrying container. On my last few long rides, I used the keyring on the container to fasten it to my luggage for an easy place to stow the plugs when off of the bike.
Do Eargasm ear plugs work?
Did the Eargasm earplugs change riding for me? To an extent. I still have to get myself in the habit of grabbing them each time I hop on the bike. Particularly so for the long droning highway stints. Will these earplugs save you from hearing loss if you’re running straight pipes and balk at any speed below triple digits? Probably not. But, like motorcycling as a whole, it’s all about risk mitigation. For $34.88 on Amazon, they’re definitely worth trying out. What’s your hearing worth? I said, WHAT’S YOUR HEARING WORTH?!
Shop for the Eargasm Earplugs here
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Ryan’s time in the motorcycle industry has revolved around sales and marketing prior to landing a gig at Motorcycle.com. An avid motorcyclist, interested in all shapes, sizes, and colors of motorized two-wheeled vehicles, Ryan brings a young, passionate enthusiasm to the digital pages of MO.
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Never had any problem with foam plugs falling out - roll 'em up into a small tube, tug on the earlobe to straighten the canal, stick 'em in, done.
The Eargasms look pretty good for dirt bike riding. I wear foam jobs on the street with it's endless wind noise, but they are too much sound attenuation for the dirt bike, where the speeds are far lower so not as much wind noise, and I need to hear the engine well. I also wanna be able to talk to buddies at stops, so I ride off road without plugs. Will give the Eargasms a try for off road.
The Mrs. is always looking for $30ish gift ideas. This is a good one.
If foam plugs are falling out of your ears, you're either inserting them incorrectly, or you have unusually large ear canals and need a larger style of foam plug to fill them. Probably more likely is that you have unusually small ear canals and can't get the foam plugs to insert fully and properly.
Also, unless I'm trying to listen to music through them (which I only do at concerts, for which I have a set of musician's ear plugs), the distortion introduced by foam plugs (or other non-musician's flanged silicone plugs) is of little matter to me - I can still hear sirens, car horns, etc, just reduced in volume along with everything else.
The 16 NRR is a little low for my tastes.