In the past, earplugs have had a reputation for being detrimental to sound quality and making it hard to simply chat with mates. But today, with our clever little filters, that’s all changed.

Our filters work by attenuating (reducing the force of) the harmful intensities and frequencies in sound.

In other words, they filter out the ‘bad’ noise, leaving you with the sound you want to hear and none of the damage.

With many existing earplugs on the market, a combination of poor design and cheap materials causes over-attenuation and discomfort. It's primarily this unequal reduction of frequencies across the sound spectrum that results in muffled speech and unnatural sound when wearing low quality earplugs.

It leaves you with a sub-optimal sound experience that many are not willing to compromise on.

But with the range of high quality, expertly designed filters and hearing protection that we have carefully chosen, this is no longer the case.

In the specifications of each of our filters you will see that they have a Single Number Rating or ‘SNR’. These numbers can be used to compare the level of noise attenuation offered by different filters.

To determine acoustic pressure (the force of a sound on a surface area) on your ear drum, you subtract the SNR value from the average noise level of the environment you are in.

For example:

• The sound system in a club measures an average of 100 decibels.
• You are wearing 'The 110' Filtered Hearing Protection which has an SNR of 20 dB.
• Thus, the acoustic pressure on your ears is on average 100 – 20 = 80 dB.

The higher the SNR, the higher the level of noise attenuation provided by the earplugs.

See our Sound Safety Guide infographic for a better idea of the average decibel levels in different environments.

Lasting ear damage begins at approximately 85 decibels for an exposure of 8 hours.

So, all our filters are designed to bring dangerous noise/music levels back down to that safe zone.

For example, that’s why you’ll find our 110dB filter has an SNR of 25.

110 - 25 = 85
= Healthy ears for up to 8 hours!

There are three dimensions to understanding how sound causes hearing damage: the duration and frequency of exposure; the distance from the sound source; and the exponential decibel scale, which means that a small reduction in dB equates to a large reduction in the sound pressure perceived by your ears.

The risk of hearing damage typically begins at 85dB, when exposed to a sound averaging this intensity for more than 8 hours.

• At 88dB the safe exposure time is 4 hours
• At 91dB it is 2 hours
• At 94dB it is 1hour
• At 100dB it is 15 minutes
• At 106dB it is less than 4 minutes

Each increase of 3dB halves the safe exposure time.

Put another way, each increase of 3dB doubles your risk of hearing damage.

And if you double the distance from a single sound source of a sound, then you reduce its level by 3dB.

Explore the Sound Safety Guide infographic below to compare how dangerous noise works at different levels, and where our seven filters fit in to help protect you. Alternatively, just enter your protection requirements into our filter choice menu, and jump straight to the product you need.

Sound Safety Guide infographic