The earplugs come in a huge array of colours such as green, blue, red, orange - and come with a range of tips to ensure they are as comfortable as possible.

The audiologist puts a cotton block in your ear to protect your eardrum and then uses a syringe to slowly fill the ear canal with the impression material (see the photo above). While EarPeace's proprietary attenuation filter technology preserves a clear sound and maintains your ability to have a conversation. Coming with three filters - Medium (17db), High (20 db) and Max (26 db) - you can customise your 'plugs instantly to match your requirements. A carrying case: Forgetting or losing earplugs is another major reason why they don’t get used, so we wanted a set with a carrying case that you could keep in a pocket or bag or attach to a keychain for easy access.I was also impressed that they reduced some of the shock of hearing my loud neighbours marching about upstairs – a huge source of stress for me.

The Loop Experience earplugs work by ‘plugging’ your ear canal partially closed with a soft tip – this is the similar kind of design you’d find in other high-fidelity earplugs. As the resident audio experts, Brent and I also spent some time listening to music we know very well at maximum volume through over-ear headphones while wearing the earplugs. Similarly, Loop says its Loop Experience earplugs are “for sensory overload” and “designed to take the edge off noise while keeping sound and speech clear. Most of the pine-tree-shaped tips that we tested sealed out sound well, but they extended so deeply into the ear canal that they felt, as one panelist put it, “almost violating.In addition to doing the hands-on testing, we wanted to gauge the attenuation of each earplug in an objective way that took the human element out of the process. The filter needs to be fitted and positioned correctly into the earplug to achieve the certified attenuation. They all came with instructions on how to use and clean them, and for each of these earplugs, we tried changing the ear tips and cleaning (which was quite a fidgety job).

They also came with silicone ear tips in sizes XS to L, meaning you’ll have no problem finding the right fit, and a case. If you prefer a less-noticeable earplug than the Loop: EarPeace’s Music Pro performed very well in our tests. Most earplugs have a listed noise reduction rating (NRR), which is a government-standardized number that is supposed to indicate, in decibels (dB), how much reduction one might expect from a given pair of earplugs.Providing a flat attenuation level of 24 decibels, the Bollsen Music SoundPro earplugs are a great option if you want a high level of protection without having to break the bank. When we put them in our ears at the depth we thought was appropriate, the Vibes earplugs didn’t seal completely for three of our four panelists. For some cost-effective protection, the SubZero Musician Earplugs are an economical choice that still packs a punch when it comes to blocking out harmful frequencies.