About 12 months ago i purchased a pair of Er-15’s from Audio Relief. Now i have been recommended a new alternative for anyone that can’t afford the £160 price tag, and i’m pleased to say they seem great.
These earplugs above have been recommended to me by 3 people that are heavily involved with djing, making music, and are all very talented producers. Suffice to say i value their opinions highly, and all 3 recommended these earplugs, so idecided to invest in a pair. Partly curiosity and partly because the other’s are very expensive to lose.
The ones pictured above are made by surefire who are a u.s based company who make illumination tools and tactical products, but i bought a pair for £15 from here. Not aimed in anyway at the music market, but very well suited to loud environments where clarity is needed. One of the 3 producers that recommended these had tried pretty much each cheap alternative to the er-15’s after he lost his set, and he claims that these are by far the best that he has found.
I got my pair yesterday within 2 days and on first 3 listens i’m really pleased with them. They have a great clarity, reduce the level by 16db, which helps us keep levels down to below the safe 85 db levels .They are also very comfortable and come in 3 sizes, with medium fitting most. They also have a feature where by you can plug up the hole if you want to reduce the low level noise further, which I found doesn’t completely shut out noise, but i guess thats maybe not the purpose, (as it does say low level noise).
What plugging up the hole does do though is give you a very good flat attenuation (as much as you can get for an earplug of this price), which is great for monitoring, etc. Opening the plug makes talking easier, and i found you can move them inside the ear to get different varying results of sound.
One of the differences for me between the custom made’s and these, are that with these, you can kinda squeeze the inside of the part of the earplugs which fit in the ear canal, and change the attenuation. This is great for when you want to hear something better, but not take out the earplug entirely. Being able to control the level of your incoming audio is obviously a very useful feature in dj situations, and for me were initially one of the downsides to the custom made ones, in that they are either in or out.
To explain a bit more about that, when i first got the custom made er-15s, i had a 5 hour set, with a really loud monitor. I’d just got the plugs in time, but found in practice for the gig (which was a biggy) hearing the mix out the speakers was not clear (and with any earplugs is something which does take getting used to). Suffice to say i had to leave the plugs out for the whole gig, and was put off from taking them out to the bigger gigs, which ironically gave me mild tinnitus from there on in.
Obviously this was my own fault and no reflection on the product itself, and many high profile djs and local people i highly respect, have taken to them like ducks to water. I wonder if it has to do with how you mix, and how you monitor, but either way for me, taking a solution out with me that i have some control over, makes me a lot more confident to be able to be hearing what im doing, and obviously the price tag is a lot more flexible if you lose them, which are the two main reasons why i recommend that if you havent got a pair you really should buy some as soon as you can.
I should also say that Audio relief do a cheap version earplugs for about a tenner called the er-20s. I havent tried these, but i did read a positive review from someone who said they were great for clubbing.
Either way, whichever side of the p.a you are on, and whichever pair you decide to go for, i feel it is imperative to get ear protection if you visit loud environments. You can talk in them easily (though you will sound like you do to yourself with your fingers in your ears obviously, so be prepared for that one), you can hear the music just as well (sometimes better!), and they are pretty much un-noticeable to the eye. Sometimes its advertised as just like turning the volume down, which, with the more expensive ones or the ep-3’s is true in loud volumes, but with low volumes/practice sessions you have to experiment with that statement.
On that note and the subject of mixing and practicing at home, another thing i found is not to be disheartened by the fact that practice is difficult, and hearing the mix isnt as clear as you might have expected. Obviously when we practice at home we generally replicate the levels of the the club, so take some time to practice with different levels, and adapt your way of working with the mixer in order to get the best monitoring scenario for you. Its much better to be wearing them, than not, and you will get used to them.
I might write a tutorial on how i use the mixer differently in my forthcoming dj tutorials, as even though it was simple, it proved really effective, so is good for me at least to remember. Until then, i hope you have a great festive season and i hope this has been in someway useful in going to get some and try an option out for yourself. The older you grow the more you’ll be glad you did. 
Peace, goodwill and good hearing to you and yours
I’ll be continuing with our
