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|FAQ|Home|We offer great products for your listening enjoyment from
the best names in
the audio listening business. Whether you just need a good pair of inexpensive ear
buds, isolation earphones that let you enjoy your music on plane trips, or top
of the line in-ear monitors for stage performance or sound engineering, the Ear
Plug superstore can help. This guide will cover the basics of choosing the
audio listening solution that fits your needs. Need a little extra help? We have experts
standing by with advice and answers.
Isolation Earphones vs Noise Cancellation Headphones
Isolation earphones and
noise cancellation
headphones are two means to the same end--good sound without
outside interference. Here's the difference: isolation earphones
physically block outside noise, while noise cancellation headphones
electronically cancel out unwanted sound.
Cancellation headphones work by examining outside noises like mechanical
engines or other music and creating an inverse sound, a reverse sin-wave
of noise designed to perfectly interfere with the ambient noise around you.
In other words, noise-cancellation headphones actually add sound that turns
outside disturbances into blank white noise your brain can easily filter out.
Unwanted sound still reaches your eardrums, but you never realize it's there.
Sennheizer offers a full line of cancellation phones that can provide about 10db
of noise cancellation. These headphones are all supra-aural: they cover the
outside of the ear, meaning nothing is actually inserted into your ear.
Isolation earphones, on the other hand, provide passive sound from an in-ear
source. There is no extra, added sound; instead, they rely on the
basic noise-blocking technology you find in earplugs. Where cancellation
earphones operate from the outside of the ear, isolation earphones are all
earbuds, which must be inserted in your actual ear canal in order to work.
Isolation earphones create an acoustic seal inside your actual ear canal, so the
sound from your earphones stays in your ear while outside noise can't get in.
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Acoustic Sealing
An acoustic seal is the target of all isolation earphones. When an
acoustic seal is achieved, sound projected into your ears by in-ear earphones cannot
escape and is channeled directly toward your eardrums--while disturbing
external noise has no way of getting in. Acoustic seals are air-tight, so
when you've got it right, you can feel the difference: pulling gently on an
acoustically-sealed earphone or earbud will create a gentle tugging sensation inside your
ear canal.
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Earbuds
Earbuds are in-ear earphones--tiny speakers designed to rest in the outer
part of your ear canal. By reducing the distance between the sound source
and your eardrum, you receive a louder, clearer sound quality while creating the
potential for an acoustic seal.
Basic low-cost earbuds
can sometimes be uncomfortable, however, especially for individuals with smaller
ear canals.
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Silicon Tips/Sleeves
All our isolation earphones come with
silicon tips or sleeves to create a
tighter, more comfortable seal. These tips are made of soft, thin silicon
rubber that contours to gently seal the earbuds against your ear canals. A basic
single-flange silicon tip like the one used in
Shure's earphones will provide
about 10db of noise-isolation; a dual-flange tip can offer about 15db of isolation, and the triple-flange tip design can provide 20-25db of isolation.
Foam tips are also
available for a few models of earbuds, and can provide isolation ranging from
15-25db, depending on the size and quality of the foam.
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Custom Molds
Custom molds
are soft rubber tips created in the exact shape of your ear canal to ensure an
exact fit and provide a whopping 25db of isolation. The absolute best in
sound isolation, custom molds are compatible with all our isolation
earphones--and in the case of all of our
Full-Custom Earphones, custom molds are
required. Rather than using a silicon-tip flange system to seal the
sound source to your ear canal, custom molds allow a perfect fit and
virtually guarantee an excellent acoustic seal. These
individually-created tips are made specifically for you by lab experts and are
available in virtually any color you'd like. For more information on how
the custom mold process works and on how to get a pair of custom molds for your
isolation earphones, see our Custom Fitting FAQ.
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