Ear Plugs to Block Low-Frequency Bass?

Q.Our neighbour plays his radio loudly in the garden. The bass is incredibly low and we can't escape inside or out. Are there any earplugs that help? It would be nice to deaden it whilst still being able to talk to each other and hear normal sounds.

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A. When it comes to coping with low-frequency bass, the bones in your head are betraying you, and ear plugs probably won't help much - but tricking your brain may provide some relief.

First, why won't ear plugs work well here? Well, as it turns out, those especially irritating low-frequency bass sounds can be nearly impossible to block to any appreciable degree. The reason behind this might surprise you. While good ear plugs - when used correctly - can completely seal noise out of the ear canal, low-frequency sounds like a heavy bassline can actually travel through a secondary pathway to reach your inner ear: your bones.

Called "bone conduction," this is the process by which soundwaves travel to your inner ear via the bones in your skull, instead of entering the usual way (traveling through the air in your ear canal). The fact that you can actually hear sound through the bones in your head is pretty fascinating, and even a little cool... but it gets a lot less charming when you're missing sleep thanks to neighbors playing abnormally loud music while you're trying to have a normal conversation.

So unfortunately, great as they are - and we're big fans! - ear plugs probably aren't the answer to the question of how to deal with low-frequency bass. (Thanks for nothin', skull.) Now, you could still certainly try a high Noise Reduction Rating foam earplug to see if it gives you any benefit - they are inexpensive, so an experiment to give it a shot wouldn't cost much. Still, it's likely that you will end up blocking out voices and normal sounds well before you block out any of the bass.

That said, my recommendation to you would be to try using a background sound designed for noise masking. Playing white noise could help mask some of that bass. White noise is comprised of all frequencies audible to the human ear - that's the proper definition of white noise, it's not just "random TV static!" - including both very high and very low frequencies. And instead of trying (and failing) to remove the unwanted low-frequency noise, you can add white noise to your environment trick your own brain into not hearing the bass. Or at least not hearing so much of it.

Here's how it works. When you listen to white noise, you'll be perfectly aware of that trademark hissing/fan sound... at first. But that awareness fades surprisingly quickly, until you don't really notice any sound at all unless you try to focus on it. This is because while the sound itself is still noise, and you're definitely still hearing it, it contains no actual information. Your brain is always looking for meaningful information - familiar faces, objects out of place, valuable nuggets like words and voices - and in order to tune in on that prime content, your mind has to simultaneously try to distinguish the important pieces of data from all the unimportant background noise. It's the same thing your brain does automatically when you have a one-on-one conversation in a crowded restaurant. So because white noise is blank and free of any useful information at all, your brain rapidly just tunes it out: without even trying, you forget the white noise is there.

Noise masking, then, involves adding a low-information white noise sound to your environment to literally trick your brain. The key is that when you partially cover an irritating, unwanted sound with white noise, when your brain filters out all that low-information sound, some of the high-information sound gets filtered out with it. It's a little like hiding the elephant in a perfectly white room under a perfectly white tarp. It's still there, you can reach out and feel it any time, but it's a whole lot easier to ignore. So when blocking out the noise just isn't an option, noise masking is usually the next best thing to actually turning down the volume.

Fortunately, trying white noise masking is an even easier experiment than trying foam earplugs: you can probably try white noise for completely free! If you have a smart phone handy, you can download a whole range of free white noise apps and try it out. Playing it through a good speaker or at least some earphones will give you the best test. Pick a sound to try (some offer mashups that combine white noise with soothing sounds like rain, or crickets, or... even distant train whistles and foghorns, depending on your tastes), and if you think you might like it, give it a few minutes to play. Let your brain have a moment to adjust. You may find that the white noise is helpful in masking some of that unstoppable low-frequency bass.

If white noise seems like a good solution for your situation, you can move up to a white noise machine when you're ready for more relief. High-quality white noise machines are designed to produce rich, room-filling sound, so not only will having a good white noise machine free up your phone, it will also greatly enhance the quality of your noise masking solution. A high-end white noise machine with all the bells and whistles will give you a full, customizable suite of white noise sounds, ambience, and superb audio quality, but even the tried-and-true Marpac Dohm single-speed white noise machine - which is essentially just a fan in a box! - could be enough to create a much more comfortable atmosphere for pleasant group conversations.

Until next time, be safe and do the right thing.

Tom Bergman, Vice President
Ear Plug Superstore

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Comments

[Janis]

Thank you for this great information. But what if you just want QUIET....😳🤦?

[Tracy Ann Thomas]

HAVE USED WHITE NOISE OF VARIOUS KINDS; A biker BAR 1/4 MILE AWAY FROM OUR HOUSE ACROSS A PARK! WITH LOTS OF TREES-- AND STILL HAVING PROBLEMS WITH POUNDING BASE!! TIRED OF CALLING 911 AND MY ALDERMAN TO GET THIS BAR- IN A RESIDENTIAL AREA! TO SHUT OFF THE BASE- CAN'T GET TO SLEEP UNTIL after 1:00am!!
Earplugs make my ears itch! None of the white noises I have are working!! Help!!

[Ellery]

My neighbors constant bass for over 12 years has now given me low frequency hum tinnitus...It is very difficult to live with. Please, a warning. If your neighbor plays bass every day or even twice a week intermittently, sell and leave. Move out before it's too late. The govt in your locale will not help, nor the police. Just move before you get hit with low frequency Tinnitus. it's a machine or club speaker bass hum in your ear non stop. You have nowhere to run to it's in your head. Move out of your home, Don't fight it, just move out and find a new home.

Ellery