I ordered a 200-ct case of these ear plugs, and they work perfectly and are nice and thick. Apparently I have freakishly large ear canals, and so most other earplugs won't seal my ears properly. Hearos work well for me if I put them in backwards, with the fat end next to my eardrum, but they still don't work any better than the Howard Leights do and Hearos are almost three times as expensive. The Howard Leights block out sound as well or better than any other earplug I've tried, and I've tried at least five different brands before. These earplugs work so well that I actually got depressed for the first couple of days I used them. It was so quiet that I started to think what a bummer it must be for someone to be hearing-impaired, and not be able to simply remove the earplugs and hear better the way I can. But I got over that and now I wear them as much as I can, and enjoy the quiet. When someone is speaking to me with my ear plugs in, I have to be looking directly at them in order to understand what they're saying. The loud, diesel-engined public transit buses that pass by me now only give a little "whoosh". And I have to be more careful when crossing the street, to make sure there aren't speeding cars whipping around the curves waiting to clobber me. I usually can't hear them now until they are within sight, so I just quickly look both ways and then RUN across the street. Homeless guys ask me for change, and I just hear them mumble, point to my ears, and keep walking. These earplugs, like all earplugs, are mostly designed to block out mid-range sounds such as voices. Really low-pitched sounds, which vibrate through the body, can't be blocked out very effectively. This is no reflection on the quality of the earplugs. Really high-pitched sounds, such as police sirens, also come through fairly clearly. This is good since I like to drive with my earplugs in and I don't have to worry about getting T-boned by a police car or fire truck. I plan to use these earplugs as much as I can for the rest of my life, and these plugs are cheap enough for me to do that even if I break out a new pair every day. (They can be reused, but there is some risk of ear infection when they get dirty, and they tend to lose flexibility after just a few uses. Then they can't create as effective of a seal in the ear.) The only downside I can see is if someone had really small ear canals, in which case the plugs would probably cause too much pressure within the ear canals. As I said before, I don't have to worry about that. But if you do have that problem, Mack's earplugs would probably work better since they are fairly skinny. Another minor gripe is that the earplugs stick way out of my ears after I insert them, so at first they would get knocked out when I rolled my head while sleeping. I fixed this problem by simply cutting off the back 1/3 of the plug with a pair of scissors, so the ends of the plugs don't stick out past my ears. I can toss and turn all night, and the plugs stay sealed in my ears. These plugs, to me, would be worth the money if they cost five times as much. I would pay the extra if I had to, but luckily I don't have to since the Howard Leights are bargain-priced. Each pair even comes in an individual bag, so I can give them to my friends to try without getting them dirty. I wouldn't want to be responsible for someone else's ear infection.
