I care a lot about ear protection. When I would not protect my ears I am not able to do any serious sound work. Sound at concerts is often way too loud, so I am always wearing earplugs. I used Dubs earplugs for several years. Recently I heard about Loop earplugs. They are located in Antwerp.

Loops offered me to send me a sample set. If I felt they were good I would write about them.

I used them during a concert last Saturday of Maceo Parker who performed at Paard, The Hague. The sound was not really loud but still too loud for me. I put them in before the concert. I was able to talk to my girlfriend without problems, in fact I believe it’s easier to have a conversation with earplugs in when you’re in a loud environment. The only weird thing with all earplugs is that you hear yourself talking “inside” your head a bit.

When Maceo and his band started playing everything sounded great straight away. I felt all frequencies were lowered with equal reduction (20dB). Simply fantastic!

During the concert Maceo tried to get the audience to sing a bit with him. And so I did. Funny thing though: because you hear yourself singing “inside” your head it’s easier to pitch perfectly.

During the concert it really felt natural, listening with these Loop earplugs. They sit super comfortable in the ears. They come with both memory foam that adjusts to your ear and soft silicone ear tips in two sizes. I have small ears, so I used the smallest ones and they are great. They also look great and come in different kind of colours:

These Loop earplugs are definitely keepers. Go check them out if you’re interested: loopearplugs.com

UPDATE: I received a response from Loop to my comment that you hear yourself talking or singing “in your head”:

The problem is that you close your ear canal, so the sound of your voice can’t go out easily and so it keeps on resonating. This can be avoided by reducing the amount of space in your ear canal and therefore by choosing a longer eartip. Well, if you use the foam eartip, you will be less affected.