Very good ear plugs. I used to have the Alpine Musician ear plugs, but they got old. I decided to go with these. Right off the bat, one thing I like is that at the end there is no hole. This is good for sanitary purposes since ear wax can't get stuck in them. The material is soft so it does hurt the ears. The stem at the end is long so you can easily pull them out of your ears. I had to fit a set into a keychain pill case, so I trimmed the stem on those in half so they would fit. Yesterday I used them for about an hour when using my snowblower, worked great.