Flare were kind enough to send us at Autistic Nottingham several pairs of their regular Calmer earplugs, so knowing I was bound to have a busy day moving around between the new office, old office and spending some time in a busy coffee shop, I thought it would be a lovely opportunity to test these out over a variety of tasks and environments because Flare Audio is a new brand to me. I’ve worn various earplug types and brands over the years in an effort to help my sensory overwhelm in loud city life with varying levels of success, so I was excited to see how these performed.
Spoiler alert: they’re amazing.
Calmer? Flare? Who are they? What’s going on?
Calmer is the name of the range of earplugs developed by audio company Flare. They’re designed to just turn the volume down of the world around us to help us navigate sound sensitivity better without really blocking it out, instead by directing it better, so calling them earplugs is actually a bit of a misnomer. Still, for ease of description, I’ll continue calling them earplugs.
They’re shaped really specifically to help deflect sound into your ear canals at better angles so that you don’t get too much bouncing around in there which is where many of us get overwhelmed by sound – because there’s just so much going on that our brains can’t easily process the cacophony of input from life rattling around in there.
– This reference definitely puts me in a particular age bracket, however my best comparison is that it’s like that brick breaker game when you get a bonus of loads of balls for a short amount of time, except it’s not balls bouncing at virtual bricks, it’s invisible soundwaves rattling around your ears, leaving us overwhelmed and tired.
On to my day!
I started on the bus, which I didn’t need the earplugs for because I typically wear my regular Sony noise-cancelling headphones, but they would have helped block out some of the bus’s noise if I didn’t have my headphones.
By 10am, I found myself in a very noisy coffee shop. The baristas were banging around, steam wands were hissing, children were screaming, and music was loud. It was a recipe for overwhelm in less time than it took to wait for my drink.
When I sat down, even with my noise-cancelling over-ear headphones, I struggled to follow my virtual lesson. I popped my Flares in to help turn the volume down, and they definitely helped. They blocked out enough of the excessive noise from my environment that I could focus on my learning, which is absolutely what I needed. The Flare’s helped my noise-cancelling actually cancel the right noises.
Lunchtime, I wandered to the supermarket to get a snack and again, my Flare’s turned the beeps and the rattles down enough that I didn’t need my headphones.
As the afternoon progressed, my Flare’s helped me to concentrate on my work with the sound of a busy main road next to me, because empty offices are really echoey!
Then I headed home, I had a 55-minute journey to navigate, so I popped my headphones on over the top of my Flare’s and could concentrate on my crochet project the entire way home without jarring interruptions from announcements of “The Next Stop is….” Sometimes they’re so loud it’s uncomfortable!
As my day went on, I found that my Flare’s helped turn the volume down just enough in the same way I do when I wear my headphones with nothing playing. They’re far less antisocial than my headphones, that’s for sure, but I’ll leave you to be the judge of whether that’s a good thing or not.
How do they stack up in terms of comfort, sound feeling and sound quality? I’ll break down each little section so I can be more specific, but ultimately, they’re great.
How do I rate the comfort?
Excellent. I find other earplugs, either competitors like Loop’s or disposable foam earplugs, feel noisy inside my head, almost like my head’s in a plastic bag or underwater, but these don’t feel like that. Flare’s are lightweight and basically feel like they’re not there, which is really important to me. I’ve had earplugs in the past that have left my ears feeling “itchy” or wet because they’re non-breathable or synthetic. I do have some skin sensitivities, so this might not be a problem for you, but this is just what I’ve noticed through my life.
It was a bit of a learning curve to get them in the correct placement to be effective, but, once I’d got that down, it was fine, they’re really comfortable, I don’t feel like I’m underwater or have my head in a plastic bag, they’re not itchy and they feel really secure in the ears.
I generally have to swap in-ear headphones out to the smaller tip when they come with replacements, just for context on size.
4 out of 5, I would definitely recommend them to a friend.
How does the sound feel?
Often, for me, sound can feel disconcerting when I’m wearing earplugs. I have a hard time knowing how loud I’m talking. Sometimes I can also feel like I’m going through life with my head in a rustley bag because I can hear things moving around – sort of like the rustle of the fabric on a waterproof coat when you have your hood up, which for me gets distracting and can make me lose track of what I’m doing or saying because the earplus are adding to my sound overwhelm rather than helping to reduce it.
When I wear these from Flare, I can hear everything as expected just turned down a notch.
When I wear these from Flare under my headphones to help with outside noise, the sound I want to hear sounds exactly as I expect it to sound.
There was no rustling sound, and there were no struggles with the volume control when I was speaking. Everything just sounded as expected.
5 out of 5. The best earplugs I’ve used in a long time.
How does life sound?
Legitimately excellent. I think the hole in the middle of the plug does a great job of allowing sounds to be accurate and precise while reducing the amount of noise that is registered. It’s like I’ve been able to turn the volume on life down.
Those of us who live in cities and bigger towns have likely noticed that the world is getting louder and the sounds are getting harsher. Sometimes we need to pay attention to our surroundings and listen to what’s going on without drowning out the rest with our own noise, like music or a podcast.
4 out of 5. I’ve really enjoyed using these. Life sounds exactly as expected, just kinder.
So, they’re great?
Yeah, they really are.
They have the best sound quality I’ve encountered of any other earplugs I’ve used, they’re unbelievably comfortable, and they’re generally speaking great to wear long-term.
I don’t get distracted by hearing myself weirdly, and I don’t get distracted by feeling like I’m underwater or in a paper bag with lots of rustling around as I move and exist in life
I usually find that other earplugs make my tinnitus feel significantly worse because everything else is quieter, but these really didn’t feel much different to my baseline without earplugs.
Cons, negatives and would change if I could
When you buy direct from Flare, they do come with a case, but the ones we were sent didn’t. I have a small case from other things that I can use, but not everyone will have that lying around, so make sure you get a case and keep it safe! They’re small and squishy earplugs; it’s going to be easy to lose them!
I’d also consider making the little removal tabs bigger or longer. If I haven’t quite got them appropriately seated, or if you’re someone with dexterity issues, you might struggle getting them in or out properly, but this is just me being picky to help people who are on the fence between Flare’s offerings, like the Calmer and other earplugs styles or brands, make their decisions.
Ultimately, I think Flares Calmer earplugs are great, and I would choose them time and time again over other earplugs I’ve had the pleasure of trying, but if I had my way, that’s what I’d change.
Autistic Nottingham 