What sort of things do you bring on board a plane when you travel?
Excluding gum and travel pillows, the use of certain travel necessities, namely electronics, will probably be accompanied with the need to use earphones of some kind.
For me, this is easier said than done.
Cue all crying babies… now.
Whenever I board a moving vehicle of any public nature, particularly for long voyages, I’m pretty sure there is an all-call announcement for any parents of small, fussy children to please gather around me and commence making noise. Also, loud talkers and snorers will sometimes fill in the gaps if there are any open seats near me that have not been taken by tantrum-throwing toddlers.
Since I knew we were going to be on lots of flights and trains, etc., I decided to go ahead with some noise canceling earbuds. I got them several months ago and tested them out immediately. I was amazed at what I could hear… (music), and not hear… Korean middle schoolers screaming their way down the hall. I even periodically missed bells and would be startled to look up and find my students had already begun entering the classroom. The earbuds I chose were the Audio Technica ATH ANC23. The price was right at about $70 US.
One problem: when listening to long e-books or on trans-Atlantic flights, my ears started to hurt from the shape and weight of the buds. Noise canceling earbuds, at least the kind we have, come with a two inch block in the middle of the cord to switch the function on or off. The silicon tips on the ear buds weren’t cutting it. The weight of the switch would occasionally pull from my pocket or shirt and tug the earbuds out of my ears, which was not pleasant and constantly having to reseat my earbuds was super annoying.
When Griffin ordered his earbuds, he experienced the same. So, we began looking for some more comfortable tips to bridge the gap between peace and pain.
We found the answer in Comply Foam, super comfortable foam tips to fit any buds.
There are several different options when it comes to Comply Foam tips. Do you want cylindrical shaped or spherical? Color or wax guard? Griffin and I both landed on the cylindrical shaped tips with a wax guard to keep them clean.
The tips feel a lot like your standard foam earplugs. They squish to get them into your ear and then slowly expand for a tight fit. The greatest thing I found about the Comply Foam tips is the added noise canceling effect. By providing a tighter seal inside my ear, less outside noise gets in, letting me enjoy more of the sound quality I was missing before.
They are extremely comfortable and don’t hurt my ears, even after long hours of usage. And, when something tugs they don’t pop out of my ears, allowing me to keep listening with no need to stop what I doing to put my earbuds back in.
As a matter of fact, my luxury item, if you will, while trekking to Everest Base Camp, was my iPod. Having some music to listen to relaxed me during the tough hikes and kept me from stressing. It may have also saved my husband’s life by keeping me from throwing him from the mountain for dragging me up there. On more than one occasion, my entire iPod would be worked out of my pocket and drop to my feet during a steep climb, but the Comply Foam tips held steady and I never even needed to adjust them. With Comply Foam, I feel like the earbuds work how they were intended, and maybe even a little better.
So, the next time a loud-talking mother and snoring father with a screaming baby surround me on a plane, I’ll just squish in my Comply Foam tips and cancel them right out of my world. Ahhh…
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