Bro. Hell to the yes. Generic are itchy and irritating. Custom silicone fits perfect. You can get them with different interchangable filters. Mine are for people working at music venues so it dips all sound by 17db but the voice frequency is dipped by 11db. So I can continue to hear people fine but all the loud noises and especially bass and room ambience is gone. I wear them to bed and nearly all the time when I just go outside because I live next to a busy road. Best thing I've bought in the last 5 years.

The filters get expensive if you want to get a bunch of different ones, like there is one out there for gun fire. So guns get lowered but you can still hear talking. Filters for road rumble and wind noise for motorcyclists. People that work at like F1 have specific filters too. It's kinda wild to me now that people are just raw dogging reality with their ears. Ambulance passing, it doesn't hurt. Someone hurling insults at you on the street. Sounds like they're whispering under their breath. Is it expensive, yes(less so during black Friday). Would I pay full price for them again. Also yes.

Any questions let me know. Edit:spelling

If they can fully block sound than yes. I say this with someone with a child.

I’ve also heard about earbuds specifically designed to tune out noise. Wonder how those work?

Yes. I got them for playing the drums but now I keep them in my work bag for whenever I find myself working behind a server rack. They are much better than generic ones because everything is just quieter rather than only some frequencies, which means talking with others is easier.

every musician I know that spent hundreds of dollars on custom molded sound blocking IEMs are saying yes definitely 100%

I am however a man of refinement

I like mine. I have tinnitus and its important to me to be able to dial down loud music and movies, without the sound getting muffled and unintelligible. Mine are custom molded with removable 20db etymotics filters; they came with solid filters too that you can switch when you just want to block sound and don't care about fidelity.

Before these I had some etymotics 30$ musician's earplugs and they never worked very well. With them in I couldn't make out the words a singer was singing, and always felt like I was missing out on the music.

My GF has a pair of 20$ musicians plugs she likes just fine ("downbeats"), and she doesn't feel like they ruin the sound. So maybe custom molded isn't as important as a good filter?

For sleeping, shooting, or settings where hearing isn't important, the foam ones are fine.

1000% yes. I'm on my 3rd pair. I use them almost daily. Being in a band, going to shows, riding motorcycle, work stuff, loud bars, home improvement projects, at this point I could not live without them. As someone else mentioned, filters are expensive, but get a pair of 15+ dB filters and you'll be good 99% of the time. You only get one pair of ears, so treat yourself.

Regular foam 3m earplugs, or the lighter river ones on a string are as good or better than the custom molded ones, when properly inserted. They'll down out loud sounds and you'll still be able to have a perfectly normal conversation with someone standing next to you.

Most people aren't wearing them correctly. Custom plugs tend to have this long tail that goes in to your ear canal, foam plugs should go as deep.

For a couple of bucks for a hundred of these things it's hard to imagine that the expense for a custom pair is even remotely worth it.

Significantly better, and if you have in ear headphones it’s worth it to see if you can get custom molded tips while you’re bothering as this will noticeably improve audio quality and noise cancelling

Dunno. But I have purchased the kind for music, back when I was in a band. Much better than the foam kind. They also attenuate sound evenly rather than the drill thinking of adults in a Charlie Brown Christmas special. Great for concerts.

Would love to hear recommendations on brands people use

Oh yes. I waited for so long to try, and won’t go back now.