5 Cool Ear Gadgets

Knops: The Volume Button for Your Ears

When you don’t want to block out sound completely but would like to turn things down a notch, grab a pair of Knops. These devices have been equipped with four different “steps” (settings), so you can adjust them to reduce volume and filter out unwanted noise as you please. The company recommends step 3 for live music and step 4 when you want peace and quiet for work or study — or you just need some quality “me time.”
“Besides being a volume button, Knops also protects your ears from harmful sounds,” team Knops says. “By simply lowering the volume level, you can enjoy perfect-quality sounds without the risk of ruining your hearing.”

SwimEars

Love swimming but hate the gurgling and sloshing (and swimmer’s ear) you experience when water gets in your ears? SwimEars earplugs are here to help. You can adjust their fit to create a seal and ensure maximum comfort, and they even come with a leash so you don’t leave them in the pool by mistake.
Our favorite thing about SwimEars? As the company slogan says, they “let sound in, keep water out.” You’ll still be able hear shouts before you collide with another swimmer and take instructions from your swim coach.

Dot: World’s Smallest Wireless Bluetooth Earbuds

Dot is a tiny wireless Bluetooth headset, which also comes with a built-in noise-cancelling microphone and a case for carrying and charging. Free from pesky wires, you can listen to music or make phone calls no matter where you are. One charge gives you enough juice for three hours of chatting and singing along to your favorite tunes.

QuietOn Active Noise-Cancelling Earplugs

These earplugs block out the annoying sounds you don’t want to hear (think airplane engine rumbles and thundering highway traffic) and allow you to zone out, sleep soundly, and just not go crazy. The company says that children who have difficulty concentrating find the QuietOn earplugs extremely helpful, as do people who have noise sensitivity disorders.
The QuietOn earplugs are a step ahead of traditional earplugs because they reduce low-frequency sounds and have noise-cancelling ability up to 40 dB, according to their inventors. And if you feel embarrassed wearing earplugs to a music concert or other event, no worries — these earplugs are ultra-discreet.

MyAudioSession

It’s often difficult to pinpoint something that isn’t there. How do you know what’s missing? MyAudioSession is a clever set of wireless headphones whose accompanying smartphone app gauges your hearing at various frequencies and creates an enhanced audio profile that fills in any hearing gaps you may have. Some more good news: once you’ve used the app to create your profile, the results will be saved in the headphones forever, so you’ll never have to repeat the process.

Happy listeners have reported on the company website that they can hear a crisper distinction between vocals and instruments when they listen with their MyAudioSession headphones and that they notice details in their favorite tracks that they didn’t realize they had been missing.
The company has already reached its crowdfunding goal and says it will begin shipping the headphones next month.