Hearing protection. These are good ear muffs.

[Looneybomber]

Ear plugs are great, don't get me wrong, but I started working on the deck a few days ago and realized it SUCKS running a sander for hours a day without music. So I ran to homedepot to get a couple more sanding belts and thought I would check out their ear muffs. My store had only a few to choose from so I grabbed the most expensive passive ear muffs they had due to having the greatest noise reduction rating. 30db NRR

http://www.homedepot.com/buy/tools-hard ... 98919.html

On the right.


These ear muffs are pretty big looking when they're on, but they work great, and the internal cavity is large enough for me to have my ear buds in without smashing against the sound deadener. And the combination of these ear muffs with good ear plugs makes wives eerily silent.

So if you're looking for a good set of ear muffs to protect your ears and be able to listen to music, stop by HD and check these out.

Side note: Walmart sells these 3M tekk ear muffs for $5 less, but they're not the same and only rated at 23db NR. Being that I work for a Walmart competitor, I would recommend buying the better ones at HD or an the many other online retailers that sell the 30db NRR model

*edit*
The picture above was taken from this website where a guy took the drivers out of his noise cancelling Sony headphones and used the 3M ear muffs as the host for the Sony drivers. He was able to get the 30db noise reduction and the functionality of head phones.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Sony-MD ... Reduction/