Earplugs provide the best hearing protection from sudden and constant noise, but there are so many situations in which you can’t wear them because you need to be aware of your surroundings and able talk with people. But Etymotic CEO Mead Killion showed us an ingenious, albeit expensive, solution at CES: the all-new BlastPLG line of active earplugs.

Killion designed the BlastPLG earplugs to protect soldiers on combat duty from hearing loss causes by their own or nearby weapons and the blast noise of an exploding IED (improvised explosive device, one of the most dangerous threats in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan). What’s even more amazing is that these plugs are outfitted with tiny omni-directional microphones that amplify softer sounds and speech.

Both the $449 model EB1 and the $499 model EB15 fit entirely inside the ear, and Etymotic claims both models are acoustically transparent from normal hearing, presenting the wearer with full bandwidth sound ranging from 50- to 16kHz. The model EB15 adds an adaptive-attenuation circuit that converts the device to an earplug to protect hearing in scenarios where there is constant noise (a jackhammer, for instance, or the interior of a tank or armored vehicle) without sacrificing the ability to hear normal speech.

Etymotic expects the military will be one of its biggest markets, but they’re also hoping hunters, construction workers, musicians, and other folks exposed to constant and sudden loud noises will be interested in the product. While $500 earplugs sound expensive, they’re pretty cheap compared to living with hearing aids the rest of your life.

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