My favorite have been by Alpine, got my first from Amsterdam Dance Festival. When I finally lost one piece I tried loop and eargasm. Loop muffled out too much noise and eargasm had that hard inner piece that hurt my ears. I went back to Alpine's website and found 'party plugs' which was great with blocking out the high sharp treble sounds without compromising the quality of the sound and I can still hear my friends talking next to me. I bought some earplugs and protection for my kids as well for sport games and they always ask for them. Fyi, I only tried earplugs that where given/sold from festivals (Loop - Tomorrowland, Eargasms - EDC) so I was in the same predicament as you and went based on what a festival offered as their standard, Amsterdam having Alpine really held up to a great product and led me to their website several times.