Noise cancelling earplugs: which are best?

Noise cancelling earplugs reduce volume in crowded places, but can you still have a conversation? Is that even possible?

For many autistic people, sensory overload is the most distressing part of our condition, with noisy environments being more likely to send us into shutdown (or meltdown).

A good pair of noise reducing earplugs will greatly improve our (and other noise sensitive people's) quality of life, so I look at 4 types to see which I like the most for everyday use.

(DeepSleeps moldable silicone, mentioned briefly)

#1 Generic silicone

#2 Party Plugs

#3 Vibes

#4 Loop

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[queen_of_flatulence]

I wish my parents understood how loud sounds bother me

[EagleRue]

Love the kitty in the background. House panther love!

[LeaskleineWelt]

I actually like the feel of the loops in my ears, and this might sound really weird, but they hurt a little bit and for me that is like a safe stim that no one sees and doesn't actually hurt me... If that is understandable somehow

[stuartcoyle]

The best earplugs I used were the industrial foam ones. There is a method to putting them in: roll them up small, pull your earlobe down and put in. The plug then expands to fill the ear canal nicely. I worked in the entertainment industry for years, having earplugs was great. Even when I didn't need them for hearing protection the cut down high frequency enabled me to understand conversations much better and feel more relaxed.

[blck.bne]

Thank you so much for this! I’ve been having a lot of trouble with sensory overload in public places recently and I’m so glad I’ve found a starting point for easing it. I’ll most likely be trying the vibes 🖤

[gwincondon]

Watching your black cat's stillness and occasional movements made this video so much better!

[LifeinBonnieland]

"I personally love a good cup of tea and an early night." 🙌💜 Spoken like a true autistic woman!!

[jinmunsuen]

Thank you for taking the time to review all these. I had come across the Loop earplugs on an ad, and was very hyped at first but wasn't sure how legit their claims were.
I will probably go for the vibes as I'm quite picky about sound too :)

[Ronnie_Roy]

I have the first kind, work really well as I live next to a train station and car doors slamming and engines idling are a real pain plus, and a quick tip, if you pull your ear lobe down while inserting them the deeper they can fit into the ear canal and the more sound you can block out hence the long pull tab. Hello silence my old fried ✌️❤️🇬🇧

[CinnaBlaez]

I am recently self-diagnosed and your videos helped me so much. When I went to look for noise reducing earplugs I was delighted to find your review. I was thinking about loop, but I’ll be getting vibes.

[graceface]

Thanks for this video, Sam! I've been considering options for sound reduction and your comments were very helpful in deciding which set I would actually be able to tolerate using.

[salvadordali]

‘Flare Audio Isolate Pro Titanium’ - my favourite by far.

[cassandra]

I got myself custom made earplugs with a 22 db filter and it's the best investment i made they reduce a lot of background noice. Sound like you are under water sound and they are so comfortable .

[Stormbrise]

I want total noise cancelling earplugs or headphones because I want silence!

[lorrainechica]

I was focus on your review then your cat moved and I was like - oh, it moved OH IT'S ALIV-IT'S A CAAAAT 🤩😍 and it's sleeping ♥︎ - oh wait, let me replay

[glenrose]

I'm not sure if anyone else has experienced this but I found the loop quiet seems to help me slightly with audio processing disorder (self diagnosed) and as a parent. I often found that when my 2 young kids meltdown and are both screaming the fact that I could hear both myself think and speak softly, is extremely beneficial. For reference I am autistic (diagnosed) and also don't like the sound of my voice but the loop quiet did help me able to speak as someone reasonably sound sensitive. I did find after wearing these for several hours straight in a quiet-ish home environment that it was a relief to remove them so these are best for when noise is loud and swap out for other ear plugs that have much reduced self volume when in less noisy situations. I found the quiets do bring close external noises down to what I'd consider a 'normal' volume level and have had a normal conversation with people, and distant/quiet noises (except cicadas!) are heavily reduced. But that's just my own experience and I did have to work with headphones echoing my voice (which is horrible) so I might be less bothered by earplugs raising my voice volume because of that past job. With APD I did find it slightly easier to hear what the teacher was saying in a room full of kids speaking every where at once as immediately compared to my unplugged ears. Hope that helps.

[xoxoLeony]

Ah, just looking at that sleeping kitty calms me down so much. Thanks for the reviews. The Vibes sound perfect - I would like something to drown out the worst noise but still be able to be part of my surroundings (aka 5 and 7 year old

[Plu]

Thank you !! I work in a kindergarden and im on the autism spectrum, so sound can bouth get really distracting and loud, ill defently cheack these out !

[anni]

Thanks for your tip about trying sizing up rather than down with Loop earplug tips, it was a game-changer for me. I wear Loop Quiet every night for sleeping and I wear Loop Engage Plus when I have to engage out in the real world

[XquinlanX]

Thank you!! None of the videos I was finding were addressing what I needed them too and even finding comparisons was tough.