Every now and then, Techcitement will get something a bit different to review. In this case, it’s Doppler Labs’s Dubbs. Despite what you may think, these are not earplugs. Get that thought right out of your head. Rather, these are “acoustic filters”, which is completely different. The goal here is not to cut out all noise, but certain frequencies of noise. At $25 a pop, these are hardly the same as the disposable foam thingies you can get at your local drug store.
Oh yes, and you can get them in different colors.
When might you need them? A crowded bar or street come to mind, but in my personal test, I found them particularly useful on public transportation. While I couldn’t drown out the conversations of my fellow passengers on the number 5 train, I could indeed block the sound of music leaking from people’s headphones. In one case, the Dubbs actually silenced the noise from some idiot watching videos without headphones (which might be a modern-day cardinal sin). More importantly, the Dubbs managed to block out much of the clatter and racket of the train itself but announcements stayed audible and clear. The Dubbs are also useful in a shared work area, where you may want to drown out the people on the phone in the next office so you can focus on your own work (say, writing an overdue review).
In terms of fit, the Dubbs are the definition of plug and play, minus the play part. You stick them in and they work. There’s no wrong way to seat them. The overall experience can best be described as certain things sound like you’re underwater, while others sound clear. My admittedly too-loud typing, for instance, seems just as loud, while my desk fan is almost inaudible now. On a creepy note, you do not want to wear this when you eat or drink. It sounds wrong, like eating inside of a glass bowl with a strange echo effect. Also, I suspect that they would do little to nothing for someone in terms of protection on a gun range.
Not unless you want to do a really good Sterling Archer imitation.
Why, you may ask, can’t the problem of background noise be solved with a simple pair of headphones and some MP3s? That works in some scenarios, like the above commuting one, assuming you want noise. But maybe you simply want quiet. It also doesn’t work for office situations or at venues and bars where you may want to enjoy a conversation without the background noise.
At the end of the day, Dubbs are a niche product, serving a small portion of people. Thankfully, they’re not too expensive and they do exactly what they say on the tin. With that in mind, I would comfortably recommend Dubbs acoustics filters over cheap disposable foamies.
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