protective earphones

hi

i need some protecting earphones for practicing my drums.

someone told me i don't have to get "musicians" headphones that will burn a hole in my wallet. he said i could pick up at the nearest DIY shop (ACE, HOME-CENTER etc) a working-man's protective earphones.

is it true? is this type of earphones good enough? will they protect my ears from damage?

thanks

Yup, they do the same thing. The more you spend, the more comfort you'll get. But a 50 cent set of foam plugs from Ace hardware does the same thing that a $2 set of foam plugs from Sam Ash will do.

If you want "over the ear" ones, the cheap hardware store ones do the same thing as the Vic Firth ones, although the more expensive ones MIGHT have more padding and be more comfortable.

BTW, you can retro-fit hardware store over-the-ear muffs with walkman speakers to make 'noise reduction headphones' for about $20. I think the cheapest musician ones I've seen go for about twice that much.

there are some differences, and not that it matters where you get it, but some will be of a denser foam, and some will just have less of it. You're not sitting next to a jack hammer, so you don't need that much protection, and in the same turn, there are over the ear models that will cause everything to sound like it's in a cave. SOME musical headphones are a little more tuned to reduce volume without removing the frequency's all together. Some will take away the deffinition of the guitars and such.

What it comes down to, is try as much stuff as you can, and figure out what allows you to hear what you need to and will still keep you from going deaf.

If you REALLY care about your hearing and you want to hear everything well, get custom made plugs. You'll spend about $120+ for a set, and some sets have interchangeable inserts that will remove more of a frequency range or more decibles over all. You'll be a lot happier when you take them to a show, and you can hear your fav bands music clearly.

thanks a lot for your answers.