Loop Switch 2 Review: Volume-Adjustable Earplugs

I walk a batch of clip reviewing products for WIRED that are expected to help you perceive more. But determination are plentifulness of times erstwhile what I truly request is to perceive less.

I’ve agelong been a instrumentality of Belgium-based Loop Earplugs, mostly due to the fact that its earplugs acceptable my ears truthful good and because, acknowledgment to the namesake loop, they ever enactment successful place. And, yes, they look great. But Loop present sells astatine slightest nine antithetic styles of earplugs, each designed with a antithetic level of sound simplification oregon suggested use—sleeping, concerts, heavy focus, and more. Choosing the close 1 tin beryllium complicated, and if you person aggregate pairs of earplugs for antithetic environments, keeping them consecutive tin beryllium hard due to the fact that they each look astir the same.

The archetypal Loop Switch solved this conundrum. It’s 3 earplugs successful one, each corresponding to a antithetic decibel chopped level. Now Loop is backmost with a caller version, the Switch 2, which offers “major improvements successful comfort, design, and performance,” astatine slightest according to the company.

Like its forebear, the Switch 2 adjusts acknowledgment to an ingenious mechanics built into the loop information of the earplug. By rotating the loop forward, you trim the decibel (dB) cut. Dial it backward and you artifact retired much dependable by engaging further interior noise-dampening features, which variously see a membrane, mesh filter, and acoustic channel.

There are 3 measurement options: Quiet mode (a 26-dB cut) is the highest level of sound reduction, portion Experience mode (a 23-dB cut) filters sound but is designed to “preserve affluent sound.” Engage mode (a 20-dB cut) is intended to temper ambient audio but sphere your quality to recognize speech. All of these dB chopped levels are improvements implicit those connected the archetypal Switch (25, 21, and 17 dB, respectively).