For air travel noise: Foam ear plugs with built-in speakers
 

I picked up a pair of very basic foam ear plugs at the pharmacy recently, and have found them to be awesome for reducing the noise in-flight (without having to have a bulky noise cancelling headset clamping on your head). But it's a pain to have to switch back and forth between these and my regular ear buds to listen to music/movies/etc.

Does anyone know of a good solution that has the foam ear plug but with built-in speaker so I have the best of both worlds (noise reduction and being able to listen to audio)?

There are a lot of expensive foam earplugs that are used in recording studios ,

I would like to find some that are $10-$20

One solution is to order some for your own favorite pair of in ear buds.

I've relied on Audio Technica ANC23 noise canceling ear buds for years. With moderate travel, they can go months on a single AAA battery. Every few months I strongly consider upgrading to over-ear Bose/Sony headsets, but can't justify the cost and extra volume they take up. Plus, I can turn my head to the side and sleep while wearing the earbuds.

I prefer earbuds and edit a podcast so need "in ear monitors" according to Transom who aspires to teach people how to do audio journalism which I guess a podcast is. Through some internet tip or other, I was taught to take those great comfy foam cheapie earplugs from the drug store and whack at them with a craft knife until I could make my own version of the Comply foam tips that was posted above. A quick x in the middle and then cut to length. Then turn the tip over so that the raw length-cut is facing the body of the earbud et viola. The cost is whatever a pair of cheapie foam plugs from the drug store is (mine came in a bag of 50) and a minute with a sharp knife.

The quality would never fly with an audio engineer, but it is good enough for my purposes.

If you could find small enough earbuds speakers could you just put them in your ear first and the foam ear plugs next ?
maybe even make a small slice in the foam for the speaker wire .....

the personal earphone category has rocketed in the last decade, and there are endless companies offering in-ear speakers that are noise isolating.

most have interchangeable tips that are either foam, silicone, or triple-flange silicone. all 3 can be very very effective. and all are more effective than the bulky ear-isolating headphones, in my opinion.

the stalwarts are still Etymotic and Shure. these are 2 example products:

SE215 Sound Isolating? Earphones Hear It All. | Shure Americas
https://www.etymotic.com/consumer/he...hones/hf3.html

FWIW, I use TaoTronics ANC earbuds (~$50) + Comply Foam tips. For me, the perfect balance between good ANC and affordability.

Thanks for the suggestions in this thread! I see that there are different' types of Comply tips, are there any recommendations on which ones are better for longhaul flights? Isolation sounds great in theory but that's a long time to be wearing buds, so comfort might be better.

That's really a personal thing, and hard to say which will be better for one person.

Traditional earbuds are uncomfortable because it is a large shell/pod with a thin cover. In-ear phones are a stem covered by thick foam cover, which should conform to the shape of ones ears.

In my experience most Etymotic are extremely comfortable. The only ones ice had issue with were Ultimate Ears, where the stem is really large and simply did not match my ear canal

I used to have custom in-ear monitors, but they cost me $1300 at the time. I say used to because someone stole them to my dismay, not sure what the thief can do with them seeing they are custom fit. But they block out just about all the noise even if I don't have anything playing and when they do it's like I'm in my own studio.