The repeated claim that Calmer removes distortion isn’t a sensible way of summarising what the product does.

She is a smart home nerd, as well as an advocate for internet safety and education, and has also made a point of using her position to fight for progression in the treatment of diversity and inclusion, mental health, and neurodiversity in corporate settings. Loop’s new earplugs for kids are designed for sound-sensitive children who need help concentrating at home or school, or who become anxious in loud environments. I feel duty bound to mention these Swedish plugs since they are so highly rated by dedicated users, but I couldn’t get on with them.The Calmer earplugs by Flare Audio, for example, claim to “minimise stressful sounds”, allowing you to “focus on important ones.

However, I found my ears attuning even more so to the sound of talking on nearby tables when the higher-frequency sounds were trimmed back – which was a little distracting, to say the least. I was so happy I could actually hear and take part in conversations with people when I was at a busy Christmas market and going on the train and tube etc. Once in, however, they’re very discreet so noise-sensitive kids could wear them to a party, for instance, and no one would really notice. That means the constant mechanical buzzes, beeps, and hums of our modern world scrape through my brain and down my spine. The mixed frequencies mask unwanted sounds at night and, for people who don’t want it playing over speakers (perhaps your partner doesn’t like it), there are now specially-designed white noise earplugs, like the Bose Sleepbuds reviewed below.They don’t get lodged inside your ears like silicon plugs can and they don’t keep melting once they reach your body temperature. I didn’t have a chance to try the Loop Experience at a concert – they’re sensory overload minefields for me – but I can imagine these would be firm winners for festivals and gigs.