How strong are your earmuffs?

[Ickathu]

I don't know if I should be posting this in the OABQT, because I want more than 1 answer.

Anyway, how much sound do your earmuffs block out? Yesterday I picked up some 23dB earmuffs and was trying them out. They muffle most sounds, but I can still hear people talking, etc. It completely blocks out whispers, but even a normal talking volume can be heard.
So I was wondering how strong everybody else's are, to see if I was just expecting a vacuum of silence and just get used to it or if I should return these and get stronger ones.
I think the "average" sound level of a normal household is ~45dB

 

[applemobile]

Have you considered putting ear plugs in under your ear defenders?

 

[Goosly]

I'm not sure how much it is in dB: my earmuffs block whispers but not normal voice volume, just like yours. They are good enough for BLD in competition, and only costed about 5 euro.
I feel like my ear plugs don't block any sound at all. Decent ear plugs should be made tailored (not sure if that's the right word) but I don't need those since it might be quite expensive.

 

[Mike Hughey]

I'm not sure how much it is in dB: my earmuffs block whispers but not normal voice volume, just like yours. They are good enough for BLD in competition, and only costed about 5 euro.
I feel like my ear plugs don't block any sound at all. Decent ear plugs should be made tailored (not sure if that's the right word) but I don't need those since it might be quite expensive.

If you're using the spongy earplugs and it seems like they don't block sound at all, you're probably not inserting them correctly. They have to expand so that they fill your ear canal. I find it a real problem to get them in correctly in the few minutes before I start a solve in a competition. But if you get them in right, the good ones should block 31-32 dB, which should definitely be quite noticeable.

 

[Noahaha]

Mine are like yours. All ambient noise is gone, but sharper sounds are still audible. Good enough for comp.

 

[Ollie]

Practice with music on, and you won't ever need them again

 

[Stefan]

NRR or SNR or some other rating?

And where can you get 40+ ones?

 

[cubernya]

29 db earplugs, plus 35 db earmuffs on top of it (so 64 db?)

Earplugs: $7.46 for a 50 pack here

 

[Stefan]

29 db earplugs, plus 35 db earmuffs on top of it (so 64 db?)

No. It doesn't work like that.

 

[cubernya]

No. It doesn't work like that.

I wasn't sure, which is why I didn't vote yet. What would I vote for? 35?

 

[Ickathu]

NRR or SNR or some other rating?

And where can you get 40+ ones?

I don't know. I'm sure you can get them somewhere though

EDIT: http://www.amazon.com/Sensear-SM1xS...e=UTF8&qid=1340828032&sr=1-1&keywords=earmuff

 

[Mike Hughey]

29 db earplugs, plus 35 db earmuffs on top of it (so 64 db?)

Earplugs: $7.46 for a 50 pack here

No. It doesn't work like that.

An interesting discussion on this:
http://www.thehighroad.org/archive/index.php/t-520608.html

 

[Stefan]

I'm sure you can get them somewhere though

I'm pretty sure you can't.

EDIT: http://www.amazon.com/Sensear-SM1xS...e=UTF8&qid=1340828032&sr=1-1&keywords=earmuff

What about it?

And you forgot to answer the SNR/NRR question. How are we supposed to vote if we don't know what rating we shall use?

 

[shelley]

Practice with music on, and you won't ever need them again

Music is pretty easy to tune out. So is a low but constant level of noise typical at most competitions.

I do use earplugs for big cube blind. These events are typically held in a separate quiet room. Which sounds great at first, until you start solving and realize that every little sound, every whisper from a judge across the room, every click of the door latch as someone comes in or out, becomes that much more distracting because it just stands out against the background of silence.

I remember at Worlds 2007 when the 3x3 BLD event was going on onstage, the emcee had the idea that the room had to be COMPLETELY SILENT for this event. When the ambient noise level got too high, she would go "SHHHHHH!" into the PA system, which was so much worse than the ambient noise.

 

[Ickathu]

What about it?

It says it blocks 85dB

And you forgot to answer the SNR/NRR question. How are we supposed to vote if we don't know what rating we shall use?

NRR. I'm not too sure what the difference is. The box on mine says NRR though, so we'll do that.

 

[drewsopchak]

Anything over 50 is overkill.... unless your shooting a minigun or something inzane.

 

[masterofthebass]

It says it blocks 85dB

Uses active noise cancellation for sure. No way can you use that in competition.

 

[Stefan]

It says it blocks 85dB

No it doesn't. It "allows ear muff to ear muff communication beyond 85dB". It doesn't "block 85dB". Reading skills much? It has NRR of 24-25 dB.

Try another?

Anything over 50 is overkill....

You also think 50+ ones are available/possible? Please show one.

Same goes for everybody voting higher than 31-40dB.

 

[jonlin]

30 Db

 

[drogg]

Excuse my ignorance. I have never seen a BLD solve or done one. Why do you need earmuffs?