Sounds familiar. I’ve done it too.
Basically, your ear shuts down to protect itself.
I find that when I wear earplugs, I’m less tired the next day.
the worst thing i expercienced was on a major rock festival they must have had the same sound guys exposed to the music all weekend. after like metallica, motörhead, etc. on sunday evening the last concert was so freaking loud, i put in the gold filters into the alpine plugs (i never use them because they make you basicly deaf) and i was in pain 200 meters away from the stage! i mean my ears had to be damaged from the weekend, too, but the sound guys seemed to be a bunch of deaf men. 
i mean why don’t put something in the booth that alerts them when they reach what feels like a million decibels?
I got a pair of Westone2’s to play out in. Only done it once, thus far, but I like it. MIght try cans + plugs as well.
I tried to whole cans plus plugs thing. Its so uncomfortable 
@abyrne7 Just need smaller plugs man. Mine are huge and I still do it without too much discomfort.
I’m thinking about buying some actual earmuffs (like for use in heavy machinery etc) and installing the drivers of my headphones into them. Sure they may look a bit weird, but I’m sure you could find some alright looking ones and its perfect sound protection.
Sounds a bit overkill. I take it you don’t bother with the whole one ear on, one ear off thing then?
I read something about someone who did that on a blog somewhere. They bust the head band on a pair of sonys and put the drivers into a cheap pair of ear protectors. Worked out very well, sorry I can’t find a link.
EDIT: lol, guess where it was. The Ultimate $20 Headphone Hack - DJ TechTools
After seeing that I’ve changed my mind, that’s a fucking hillariously ace idea 
As soon as I break my beastly senny 280s I’m going shopping for some ear defenders. Could be a bit of a wait…
Yeah, sounds cool but I bet i will not be the most comfy after 2h of these defenders squeezing your skull.
would love to get some feedback on that
What about this headset? Dunno how would it actually sound… but it limits the sound intensity to a normal, non destructive level…
http://www.botachtactical.com/pesotr.html
I’d love to try them out but I should buy a proper pair of headphones first
Yeah i’d just run a 50-50 mix of master and cue to the headphones and leave them on most of the time.
Yeah the article on the blog spurred my imagination and I’ve got a pair of spare headphones lying around which I can afford to take the risk on. The ear muffs used in the blog article cost literally $13 online plus postage.
I reckon it’d be way more comfortable then the earplugs I’m using at the mo which are just universal fit etymonic ones
You don’t find ear plugs comfy? 
Don’t try those man, they are made for target firing on ranges. They work really well but the sound from the microphones is really muffled (a bit tinny as well) and they are designed to hear the commands shouted by the range officer in a quiet enviroment with some gun bursts. Haven’t tried these in a club but you won’t be able to hear anything out of those mics 
I think he was meaning over ear headphones in general. ^
I used universal plugs at first. Damn things are very uncomfortable to wear. They kept slipping out of my ears and it happened a couple of times to me that when i tried to push them back in, they got stuck in my ears and I had to go to first aid to get them out with some tweezers. I have a pair of custom made Elacins with 25dB ER filters. I never leave home without them. It takes a time to get used to them, but after a while you can’t live without them anymore.
So if you want to hear in a year or 30, I would suggest investing in some of these…
That’s what I figured, lol. I’ve tried similar headsets while airsofting and just came with the silly idea… Would be awesome if the quality of the headset’s microphones where decent.
Cheers!
what do you guys think about wearing a pair of in ear skull candies to not look too much like a kook and using over ear moniters
its gotta help alittle
How do you guys actually clean your earprotection?