Neat little earplug hack for the ety plugs
So depending on your music habits you may or may not have a pair of the popular Etymotic ER20 tuned earplugs for concert going or whatever (it's also great for mitigating movie sound)
For anyone who doesn't already have one I highly recommend grabbing a pair. I've done deep dive earplug shopping and the etys are easily the best all around package - crystal clear sound, top tier sound isolation if you get the right fit, comfortable, relatively easy to find for a high end plug, relatively inexpensive for a reusable plug. If you need isolation from something like fireworks you'll want some proper earplugs, as tuned earplugs are designed to let the full sound signature through. And for swimming you'll obviously want something that's not susceptible to water. But for general use sound protection you could easily just buy a pair of ER20 and be set.
Now the thing about ety plugs is that they're disposable, and you're supposed to replace them every three months or so according to the package (more like every few years or so with proper care). And they even came out with a newer version
That's more reusable and with replaceable parts so you don't have to throw out the whole plug. However.
~Literally the only part that gets replaced is the silicone ear tip.~ Which you can easily replace on the "disposable" version too. Both earplugs are the exact same filter slapped onto different bases, and the packaging on the ER20 even lists declining elasticity of the tips as the only reason you need to replace them every so often.
The ER20s come in a three piece design and the outer shell comes off easily enough. It's friction fit and with a slight twist you can pull it off with no trouble.
The silicone tip is held on by some hooks on the filter, and is in fact the same eartips as Etymotic uses in their earphones. You can buy them for considerably less per pair than a new pair of ER20s, or skip the middle man and buy them even cheaper from the OEM.
Reassembly is easy as well - the filters angle into the ear tips very smoothly, and the outer shell snaps back on directly.
So yeah, if you have a pair of ER20's and they're getting near replacement time, you only really need to replace the silicone tips and not the whole plug.
