Flare Audio Calmer | Noise Reducing Ear Plugs Alternative

I was hesitant to buy these because of the mixed reviews. I'm glad I did now. I'm not autistic, but i struggle to focus in noisy environments (I might have a touch of ADHD, but who knows?) Like in a busy restaurant, I would struggle to stay focused on a conversation. These things are comfortable to wear (if worn correctly) and do a great job at attenuating (taking the edge off) sounds in the peak of your hearing range, making other sounds less distracting. If you put them in incorrectly (which is easy to do at first) then they are uncomfortable and the little prong will catch on things like hats. It feels like a some reviewers were expecting these to cure their misophonia. Yeah, that's not going to happen, but they do make it easier to live with.

I'm neuro-typical, but I am very intolerant to loud noises. I have an irrational frustration towards people playing music, screaming children and, whilst I'm not autistic, I do seem to demonstrate an intolerance of sounds and noises consistent with the relevant autistic traits. I do suffer with Misphonia, in particular the sound of breathing, or someone chewing, swallowing or slurping. My sister is autistic and thinks these are great. I however, found them completely useless and a waste of £20. We attended a large and popular soft play centre with my nephew. The noise was unbearable and I had a pounding headache and felt really anxious and irritated. We went back yesterday afternoon and I tried a pair of the standard sized plugs when the owner decided to block the screaming kids out by playing loud RnB music throughout the building. They made absolutely no difference whatsoever - well that's not true, they made it more difficult for me to hear my own voice when talking - but made no difference to environmental noise such as screaming children, loud talking and loud music. They were comfortable, they simply did not work in any way and I left feeling like I had another axe in my forehead. A complete waste of money. Zero impact at all. I'm going to ask my doctor about Hyperacusis, it seems like it might be relevant to my experiences. Don't recommend these at all. Sorry.

These do work, albeit subtly. I haven't liked any noise reduction earbuds that I've tried, but these are the best for taking the edge off high-pitched sounds. You don't really realise that they're working until you take them out and the high-tone noises assail your hearing again. I don't like how small and fiddly they are, but they're the most useful I've found.

I was concerned they wouldn't work for me. I tried the standards and they were very uncomfortable and made my ears itch like mad. Tried the soft minis and they are brilliant. Tricky to notice much of a difference to start with but definitely notice it over time. They are designed to reduce only certain mid-high frequencies only so these wont work for generally loud environments but if you have noise sensitivity like me they are great.

Seems like Calmer is very individual thing. For the reference I have autism + misophonia. It definitely works on some sounds - especially low volume machinery hum, there were cases where it almost fully zoned them out. It also made wet sounds of people eating /chewing nails more tolerable. However Calmer made some of the other sounds worse. And it was especially unsuitable for watching TV. I was very conflicted whether Calmer makes my life better or worse. In the end I decided that price paid did not justify the performance. I have tried the entire Calmer range however haven’t found my perfect match. But like I said, this is very individual as not everyone is sensitive to same sounds. Also the level of comfort will be individual too. Some people liked their softer ones, other liked firmer ones. Personally i think these specific ones are quite comfortable if you get the right size and don’t push them too deep. Do I recommend Calmer? I think they are worth trying. They have a good return policy even when purchased directly from the website. It’s risk free and they definitely change how we hear.

I was slightly dubious about the claims however they do seem to work surprisingly well, I have quite bad hearing in one ear and sadly as a consequence sensitive hearing at higher frequencies (police sirens, crying babies etc.). After trying the Calmer Pros out I must say that these sounds seem to have less "ring" to them, they're reasonably comfortable to wear for long periods and I've bought a second pair in white hoping they'll be less noticeable. I have to say going into loud environments is much more bearable and I'm very pleased with them I can still hear conversations as they don't block the volume of the sound coming in, it just makes them less piercing.

Well they just didn’t do anything for me other than make me feel as though there was something in my ear causing pressure which gave me a headache, I’m sure they do work for some people just not me! Do come with a lovely drawstring carry bag and fast delivery though. I suppose you just have to try them, they’re not that expensive that you would be upset if you bought them and they didn’t do anything for you!

These are fabulous for reducing sound around you but still allowing you to hear ok without the muffled sound you get with earplugs. Expensive but they work.

Wow - these are life-changing. I can hardly believe the difference they make.

Reason for purchase; misophonia and auditory hypersensitivity associated with autism and sensory processing disorder. Before getting these things, I was reluctant to spend the money and deeply skeptical of how effective they would be for one reason; most of the product literature on Flare Audio's website and their advertisements were fairly vague about the details of what they did and how they worked in a way that set off snake oil alarm bells. When an explanation is vague as to why you should stick rubber tubes in your ear to alter your mood, my skeptic sense tingles. I can't help it. I'm a scientist. Nonetheless, I decided to give them a try. I have enough of an acoustics knowledge and well-trained enough ear to be able to hear in detail what exactly they're doing (if they're doing ANYTHING), so I'm not exactly going to be tricked easily by a placebo effect in this area. Over the last week or so my skepticism has been replaced with admiration and delight; these things work, they work well, and they work for very good reasons. There's a few things going on here; 1. They're bypassing the external anatomy of the ear, making hearing more directional and a hair less sensitive 2. They're altering the internal acoustic properties of the ear canal Let me break this down a bit further; Our ears act as acoustic collecting dishes, in particular the hollow adjacent to the ear canal. If you're bypassing that, then less sound is being directed into the ear canal in general, and this also has the effect of making hearing slightly more directional without amplifying in the way something like an ear trumpet would. So how does this help? When you have an auditory hypersensitivity from a processing disorder, you can't filter out environmental sounds normally, and by making hearing more directional you're cutting out a huge percentage of the sound reverberation your ears are picking up. Every echo in a room adds to the auditory chaos around you, so by removing a measure of that from your awareness, and slightly deadening sounds coming from behind you, it becomes a lot easier to decipher and focus on sounds in front of you that you're trying to give your attention to. The best way I could describe the shift in auditory sensation is that it's like suddenly all the surfaces in the room are covered in sound-dampening acoustic foam. As for altering the acoustic properties of the ear canal itself, it's also deadening sound reflection. This has an effect not unlike turning down the gain on an amplifier. A lot of high frequency and upper midrange sounds are dampened very slightly. Electrical hum and buzz is really effectively notched out. In general audiophile terms, it makes the sound profile "warmer." In a relatively quiet room, the differences in your auditory perception will be fairly negligible. The louder and more chaotic your environment, the greater degree of difference will become apparent. I didn't even grok how effective they were until I'd been wearing them to the grocery store a few times, and then took them out while shopping. I'm telling you, the sudden auditory assault when I removed them legitimately stunned me. I wasn't even cognizant of how much auditory input they were notching out until suddenly it all came screaming back. I honestly wish Flare Audio did a more effective and detailed job of explaining the functioning of these things on the website. As it is, it sorta took trying them myself to understand the principles they're operating on. That being said, these things are amazing, worth every penny, and I'll probably never go anywhere without a pair ever again. These are a shockingly effective tool to counter sensory overwhelm, so I guess I shouldn't have been so skeptical of sticking rubber tubes in my ear.

These help so much in noisy environments to take the edge off. They are easy to wear.

Pour moi c'est parfait ça réduit le bruit sans qu'on ne puisse pas entendre quand quelqu'un nous parle, c'est super discret dans l'oreille. Ça fait vraiment la différence dans mes journées quand je suis trop submergé

J'ai acheté ce produit sans trop y croire, souffrant d'acouphènes variables en intensité dans l'oreille gauche (sifflement). Ils gagnent en intensité quand je suis exposé à des sons aigus et puissants. Je travaille dans un environnement parfois très bruyant (école). Après avoir utilisé ce produit pendant plusieurs jours, j'ai remarqué qu'il me protège efficacement de ce genre d'agressions sonores. J'ai même acheté la version "Pro", qui restitue encore plus finement les sons. Mes acouphènes se sont atténués progressivement, à un point tel que je ne les remarque plus avant de m'endormir. Pour moi, dont les acouphènes sont provoqués par des pics d'agressions sonores, ça marche vraiment très bien, et je suis très content d'avoir testé !