Most people suffer from frequency specific hearing loss. If you did an acoustic survey of your home and work place you could probably figure out what frequencies to look for the most loss in.

I was a sonar technician on a fast attack submarine it was a serious concern.

A good place to look for good hearing protection would be a local shooting range if you have one nearby. The people that work there probably take their hearing pretty seriously.

Switch to weed. Problem solved.

Most shooting earplugs are 26 dB reduction, IIRC. I tend to throw out the backing cards with the safety data on them before I'm out of the store, so I'm not sure. I think I may have seen some up to 30 dB.

I have several sets of plastic ones from various manufacturers. I really don't like the big "headphone" style. They muss my hair too much. ;)

I have a friend who snores something awful, and she's ALWAYS my roomie at conferences, so as a survival tool, I bought some E.A.R.S. These things are awesome in terms of their ability to allow me to sleep nearby a woman who gets complaints from the airport for being too loud.

And you can still hear conversation, fire alarms, and alarm clocks.

I have been, and do currently go to many a bar concert and regular concerts and haven't had any hearing problems. Only problems i got with my ears are from way back when I had ear tubes and swimmer's ear. Still get ear aches from that every now and then, and F do they hurt.

Though i still run with the "old enough to know better, but young enough not to care" crowd. I'll probly learn my lesson in due time.

Thank you! I'll try to look for some good silicon ones. =)