I have been a light sleeper for a few years now. Over the past couple of years, I have been using earplugs to help me sleep better; not because it is loud in my area, but becuase it is too quiet. You read that right.
In the middle of the pandemic, I moved from Delhi to the suburbs of Noida and could not come to terms with how silent the locality was in comparison to where I used to stay. This meant every small sound was amplified at night and I would keep getting up. I started using foam and silicon earplugs to block out noises. They do work to a large extent. But they are not as specialised as the Sennheiser SoundProtex hearing protection earplugs with more than one use case.
The Sennheiser SoundProtex comes in different sizes and you need to pick the one that fits your ears the best. At the back end of the earplugs, there are fins so that you can safely pull them out of the ear canal. Now, this is where these earplugs get different. These come with two filters that you will use according to the situation. One is a full-block filter for when you are trying to sleep or swimming. The other is a mid-filter for flights and concerts which keeps you aware but does not block out noises fully. These membrane filters try to block sounds naturally.
For a few nights I have been sleeping with the full block filter and it does a good job of blocking out loud noises that would otherwise have woken me up. It does not make it completely silent or take you into an audio vacuum. Before dozing off I was aware of the TV playing in the living room and some kids creating a ruckus in the park nearby. What it does is block out any sharp sounds and usually, this is what can wake you up. I also loved the feel of the earplugs in the ear and they did not irritate if you ended up sleeping on your ear. Unlike regular silicon earplugs, you also don’t feel it move inside your ears.
The mid filter is ideal for going to a concert or even most restaurants and pubs which think music can only be played at extremely loud levels. Interestingly, I tried wearing the plugs at one such loud restaurant and could actually be part of a conversation. This one softens the loud music but still lets the conversation through though in a more muted way.
Frankly, I was not expecting Sennheiser to make earplugs with no technology in them. The Sennheiser SoundProtex is all tech when you consider how the German audio giant has used its understanding of sound technology to solve a real-world problem for users. It helps that the consumer tech part of Sennheiser is now owned by hearing device company Sonova.
At Rs 1,990, the Sennheiser SoundProtex is perfect for those who don’t like loud noises because of multiple reasons
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