[derrekl]

Been playing drums for 30+ years. I ended up with tinnitus after an extremely loud concert wearing Hearos, which are a brand name for Etymotic ER20s (as with all things hearing it probably was not just that concert, but that was the single point at which tinnitus started and didn't go away). After that I decided to just spend big and buy custom molded ear plugs (In my case 64audio). Even when wearing the -20db cartridges they were significantly more effective for me than the ER20s. My theory is the shape of my ear canal makes it hard to get straight plugs in to get full protection (even the foamies I can't get in far enough). Over time I have gotten used to the tinnitus and with the use of IEMs and the custom Ear plugs, which I've been using for 10 years now, my hearing hasn't gotten worse and the tinnitus levels have remained low.