I got my Westone ES49 Custom Musician's Earplugs today

[gixxerjasen]

So those are made so you can snap your earphone of choice into them? How far do they stick out of your ears in that case and how easily does the earphone become dislodged? I've seen at the motorcycle shows where some audiologists are there doing the custom stuff and will mold the earphone into the mold but this seems to be different. My concern is difficulty of getting the helmet on over top of the earphone sticking out of the plug.

 

[Aasland]

This is the model that interests me, the Westone "Mulitpurpose Style 40", NRR of 29, and an average attenuation of 40.

Are you planning on using them with a communications system? NRR of 40 might be too much.

I've got a pair of custom-molded plugs (i.e. no speakers) (not made by Westone) which are uber-comfy. I use them on the long intercontinental flights (or when riding with buddies who snore). They attenuate more than the 34db MAX Leight's, which means I cannot use them with Sena speakers - they simply block too much noise. I cannot understand people when they talk to me, other traffic, and barely even the Highway blasters on my own FJR.

I have a box of Flent's Push-in earplugs which attenuate at 19 db. That's about perfect to use with the Sena's, but it does let a fair amount of wind noise in and I cannot use them with some helmets, on long trips, or with the stock FJR windshield.

The reason the Style 49's are so appealing is that they promise to block the harmful sounds while allowing the "good" ones, i.e. people talking etc. I'm just debating if it's worth $190 ...

 

[Aasland]

So those are made so you can snap your earphone of choice into them? How far do they stick out of your ears in that case and how easily does the earphone become dislodged? I've seen at the motorcycle shows where some audiologists are there doing the custom stuff and will mold the earphone into the mold but this seems to be different. My concern is difficulty of getting the helmet on over top of the earphone sticking out of the plug.

None of these appear to be for earbuds. They block varying degrees of sound. If you want to incorporate speakers, the CR-1's or other's might be better alternatives.

 

[bramfrank]

The Westone 4r is an earbud that is truly astonishing...

The 4/4R ARE amazing, but at $500 are too pricey and in any case too large for my helmet - I ride with UM2s - half the price and more than good enough for non-professional work.

Westone has been beefing up their product line of late.

 

[gixxerjasen]

So those are made so you can snap your earphone of choice into them? How far do they stick out of your ears in that case and how easily does the earphone become dislodged? I've seen at the motorcycle shows where some audiologists are there doing the custom stuff and will mold the earphone into the mold but this seems to be different. My concern is difficulty of getting the helmet on over top of the earphone sticking out of the plug.

None of these appear to be for earbuds. They block varying degrees of sound. If you want to incorporate speakers, the CR-1's or other's might be better alternatives.

Ahhh, I think I was confusing these with some others I saw that work with the westone earphones. Thanks.

 

[russperry]

So those are made so you can snap your earphone of choice into them? How far do they stick out of your ears in that case and how easily does the earphone become dislodged? I've seen at the motorcycle shows where some audiologists are there doing the custom stuff and will mold the earphone into the mold but this seems to be different. My concern is difficulty of getting the helmet on over top of the earphone sticking out of the plug.

Jason - I may be wrong, but looking at their website it looks like they sell noise protection earplugs like the ES49 or 4RT, and "monitors" which provide sound attenuation AND embedded speakers.

I have the Sena SMH10 and also think that the audio is pretty good (or at least good enough for me) so am curious to see if these Westone versions will perform better, both in music fidelity and wind noise reduction, than the Howard Leight 33DBa plugs I use now.

ES49 linky

Monitor Linky

Looks like I should have read the whole thread before responding - Aasland beat me to the punch!

 

[stevet]

This is the model that interests me, the Westone "Mulitpurpose Style 40", NRR of 29, and an average attenuation of 40.

Are you planning on using them with a communications system? NRR of 40 might be too much.

I've got a pair of custom-molded plugs (i.e. no speakers) (not made by Westone) which are uber-comfy. I use them on the long intercontinental flights (or when riding with buddies who snore). They attenuate more than the 34db MAX Leight's, which means I cannot use them with Sena speakers - they simply block too much noise. I cannot understand people when they talk to me, other traffic, and barely even the Highway blasters on my own FJR.

I have a box of Flent's Push-in earplugs which attenuate at 19 db. That's about perfect to use with the Sena's, but it does let a fair amount of wind noise in and I cannot use them with some helmets, on long trips, or with the stock FJR windshield.

The reason the Style 49's are so appealing is that they promise to block the harmful sounds while allowing the "good" ones, i.e. people talking etc. I'm just debating if it's worth $190 ...

I currently use the Howard Leight Max Lite greenies https://www.howardleight.com/earplugs/max-lite and they work very well, especially for a narrow ear canal since they are softer than the orange plugs. I'm guessing that describes me, because I can't use their regular orange Max plugs, bad pain within minutes. And although I can wear a pair of Max Lites for over 12 hours at a time, I'm not able to do that again the next day at all. After several hours I can feel the greenies pressing out against my ear canals but they don't hurt, other than on/off of my helmet which causes some momentary aching. The Max Lite have a NRR of 30, one point higher than the Westone Model 40 at NRR 29. Howard Leight shows the sound charts for all their products on pages 42-47 of this catalog- https://www.howardleight.com/uploads/File/pdf/Product_brochure/HLI101_Howard_Leight_Product_Selection_Guide_2008.pdf I don't ride with music/communication devices and until that were to ever change in the future I think I'll be in good shape with the Westone 40s. With the greenies I am aware of car horns and sirens, etc, so I think sounds I want to hear will be similar with the Westone units. I've been happy with the greenies, buy them off Amazon for around the low-$20 range for a 200-pack box, they last me a couple years of recreational riding. I've got a 15 minute ride to work, half on city streets, so I don't use them there, but I do on any ride longer than 20 minutes.

 

[Poolboytoo]

I just got my ear mold's done today and am looking into westone CR-10 or AC-10 or AC-20 custom models and hope someone will have some insight on which ones would work best for the sena 20s , sr-10, and zumo 665lm. I'm sure they will sound great and hoping they block wind noise. Also, will it matter if the cord is the type that wraps behind the ear. The AS-10 and AS-20 provides up to 25dB of ambient noise reduction and have the ability to replace the cord if it would break. Anybody have any opinion on these.