Originally Posted by
LanceFanBoy
I use earplugs to sleep, but i think the foam one's i use for that would drown out too much of the surrounding sounds (i do a lot of suburban traffic riding before i can reach the countryside) are their different decibel types that maybe the plugs would block the wind noise but allow the traffic and talking noise to come through better?
I've gotten two different kinds of plugs through my workplace, where we often hit 105-115 dB. One is a custom fit Westone ES49, where they take a mold of your ear canal and produce an exact shape with an attenuation filter insert. Pricey, but they work -- but they start to suck when your ear canal changes shape.
The other kind -- which I've
lost! -- are Etymotics "high fidelity" earplugs. Much, much cheaper, snug fit, and they allow sound clarity (plenty of "s" sounds) while knocking a good bit off of the total sound level.
If you really want to go the earplug route, I'd say to go with the Etymotic plugs.
http://www.etymotic.com/ephp/er20.aspx