For those dense traffic situations where the semi tires are screaming in my ears I have found mellowing comfort using foam earplugs. I can still hear the radio, but the high frequency traffic noise is muted to a much more tolerable level. Open road, no plugs. Anyone else doing something similar?

 

I've kept a pair in my car since day 1, but can't say i've ever used the earplugs. Guess I just suck up the noise and hope to not go deaf.

 

I have a pair of custom muscians plugs that I wore when I had my single exhaust on the car.

 

Earplugs for long highway trips....

 

i need ear plugs for my exhaust

 

I have a pair of custom molded earplugs with speakers I use both on my motorcycle and in the S2K. I had a line out added to the car audio and plug in the speaker/plugs when I'm going on longer than 1/2 hr highway trips with top down.

This works great, good sound and lots of noise reduction.

 

I guess none of you guys are with the Hell's Angels!

 

is it legal to use earplugs while driving? i guess you can always just take them off if you're pulled over, but i always thought you could only have at most one ear covered while driving (i.e., you can use a mobile phone headset but not a walkman or iPod headset)

 

Yep... as others have said, I have plugs in the car, but it's for the exhaust... not "normal" noises. When I'm in the S, I don't spend a lot of time in traffic, so the noises you mention don't really affect me. It would just be wind noise that would be a problem.

By the way, there's an interesting thread around here somewhere in which someone did measurements at speed (both with the top up and top down) and posted the resulting dB's. I believe there was also a link to the OSHA standards for hearing protection/noise pollution exposure. The conclusion was that if you're going to be driving very long with the top down, you should have hearing protection in or risk hearing loss.

 

I had heard something about this, too, but deaf people are allowed to drive, right?