has anyone managed to get discounted moulded earplugs?

bbill335

i'm under the hospital's audiology dept for tinnitus and they advised i pursue bespoke moulded plugs. hard to find exact pricing online. guy in the boots eyes&ear desk was surprised when i asked if they'd take moulds.

had a consultation with an audiologist at another place and it's £90 for the moulds (2x45) or £350 all in for moulds and plugs. that's just not cost effective.

i'm a disabled hobbyist musician but i do attend or play gigs several times a month. disposables are ok but the audiologist seemed to think bespoke, quality ones kept clean would help prevent the chronic irritation/infections i have had.

i paid my subs for the MU under the impression i could get steep discounts on this sort of thing but the first thing they ask is "is music your main source of income" which it simply isn't. do i just lie to get these plugs? i'm already on the hook for my MU subs and i can't afford nearly £400 on the plugs, which - let's face it - will probably get lost at some point.

not sure what to do. next hospital appointment is late October and they're running out of things to recommend.

stickyfiddle

That sounds like way too much. I paid ~ £180 +postage for a set from ACS earlier this year. That didn't include cost of getting moulds made as I'm not in the UK, but iirc that can be done fairly cheaply in the UK

ACS will definitely be able to point you to your best local options for taking impressions

guitarmangler

Yes . Use the hearing for musician website to get a discounted ( I think £50?) set of acs custom moulded.

https://www.helpmusicians.org.uk/get-support/physical-health/protect-your-hearing

bbill335

guitarmangler said:

Yes . Use the hearing for musician website to get a discounted ( I think £50?) set of acs custom moulded.

https://www.helpmusicians.org.uk/get-support/physical-health/protect-your-hearing

as i said above, by this website's criteria i don't qualify for a discount. 

Supportact

I ordered the ACS ones not so long ago and pretty sure that the cost of the fitting was included. They give you a voucher to take to your nearest ear specialist to have it done. About £150 as i remember. 

bbill335

bbill335 said:

guitarmangler said:

Yes . Use the hearing for musician website to get a discounted ( I think £50?) set of acs custom moulded.

https://www.helpmusicians.org.uk/get-support/physical-health/protect-your-hearing

as i said above, by this website's criteria i don't qualify for a discount. 

most lines of inquiry have led back here so i have filled out the form and will see what the result is.

Moe_Zambeek

Boots audiology were about £150 last time I got them done, but that was pre Covid. They had a thing calling hearing club you could join and get discounts on future orders at the time.

lustycourtier

bbill335 said:

guitarmangler said:

Yes . Use the hearing for musician website to get a discounted ( I think £50?) set of acs custom moulded.

https://www.helpmusicians.org.uk/get-support/physical-health/protect-your-hearing

as i said above, by this website's criteria i don't qualify for a discount. 

Neither did I but I applied and qualified

mike257

The Help Musicians discount scheme is for people who make their living from live music - working musicians, sound engineers etc.  It gets you a hearing check and a discounted set of ACS moulded plugs.  You have to fill in a form with links to show a professional online presence, and give a couple of references they can contact who can verify you.

If you don't make a living out of it, you shouldn't be eligible for the discount, but the plugs you would get on the scheme are around £150 to buy through ACS directly at normal retail price, so still very reasonable for a custom fit product that should be good for five years of use - your ear shape continues to change with age so it's recommended that you get them replaced (with new ear impressions taken) after four or five years as the fit won't be the same any more. 

Roland

After 55 years of gigs my hearing is severely damaged. No amount of money can bring it back. Fitted plugs are one of the best investments a musician can make. £150 over five years is 8 pence per day.

fretmeister

ACS ones are excellent.

The price includes the moulding process. You buy and get a voucher. You then book at an authorised place and hand the voucher over. They do the impressions and send them off to ACS in Banbury. A couple of weeks later you get them in the post.

You need new impressions every 4 years as your ears will change. ACS will make new ones from the current impressions for that long but afterwards will not.

You can buy additional filters for the ACS ones so you can swap them at home for different environments.

Before doing the impressions make sure your ears are cleaned out of any wax. They'll send you home if they aren't.

stickyfiddle

Roland said:

After 55 years of gigs my hearing is severely damaged. No amount of money can bring it back. Fitted plugs are one of the best investments a musician can make. £150 over five years is 8 pence per day.

I always put it this way. Once your ears get fucked (and they will) you'd happily pay thousands to get them working again, and you can't. Once you realise that it's an absolute no brainer. 

I often only use the 10db ACS filters because my band isn't very loud but even that makes a huge difference - there's nothing worse than having ringing ears after standing too near a noisy drummer

CountryDave

Agree with the comments above.
At some point in my mid 20’s I noticed some loss in my top end hearing. I’d been gigging weekly since 16.
Started wearing some off the shelf plugs. Whilst not ideal, as they altered the sound significantly, I persevered.
Eventually going for a set of ACS moulded plugs a few years ago. These are a massive improvement over the off the shelf stuff.
I figured £150 spent on that rather than a new drive pedal (to add to the other 5 or 6 pedals in the cupboard) might be a good idea.
I am serious that I think it’s the best money I’ve spent on anything music related.
I even take them when I go and watch other gigs.
Yes, the attenuated sounds are slightly altered, but I’m 53, still gig weekly and still have reasonable hearing left, which I’m convinced wouldn’t be the case had I not used plugs.

YorkieBarre

I’ve been motorcycling for 27 years and for 26 of those I’ve used EMTEC Noisebreakers because they are super comfy inside a crash helmet and VERY good at suppressing the frequencies encountered when biking. I currently have two sets each costing me about £100 including the audiologist fitting process (just before covid the last set). The  are fairly simple, slimline moulded silicon style plugs that can be customised to have speakers built in or gromits which allow gas to escape for divers etc. Their website says they’re suitable for music applications, but exact dB attenuation at different frequency levels is not easy to find. A diving test found suppression between 13.9 and 40db at different frequencies divers encounter, not sure what the tests would show for gig situations but may be worth a look? https://www.noisebreaker.com/