Mack's vs Loop Quiet: The Real Noise-Blocking Test

Short answer, since you're probably reading this with a flight boarding soon: if actual noise blocking is what you need, not just noise dampening, Mack's Pillow Soft Silicone Earplugs beat Loop Quiet. I've traveled with both. The Mack's tub lives in my carry-on permanently. The Loop Quiet pair sat in a drawer at home after two trips because it just doesn't do the one job I actually need earplugs to do on a red-eye.

I want to be upfront about why I'm even comparing these two, because on paper they don't look like direct competitors. Loop built a whole brand around earplugs you'd be comfortable wearing in public, at a concert, at a bar, on a commute, and Mack's has been the same unglamorous tub of moldable putty for decades, marketed mostly for swimming and snoring. But travelers keep asking me to compare them because Loop's design and marketing have made it the trendy pick, and a lot of people buy it assuming trendy means better. After flying with both through actual jet engine noise, crying infants two rows up, and a hotel hallway in Bangkok where housekeeping carts rattled past at 6am, I don't think that assumption holds up.

Mack's Pillow Soft vs Loop Quiet: Head-to-Head Specs

	Mack's Pillow Soft	Loop Quiet
Price (typical, 12-pair tub)	$12.99 for 12 pairs	$24.95 for one reusable pair
Design	Moldable silicone putty, shaped to your ear canal by hand	Pre-molded silicone dome with acoustic filter, four ear tip sizes
Noise reduction	NRR 22, forms a full seal over the ear canal opening	Rated on the SNR scale, not directly comparable, designed to reduce rather than fully block sound
Comfort for side sleepers	Sits flat against the outer ear, doesn't press into the pillow	Sits inside the canal, can dig in when lying on your side
Reusability	Single use per pair, softens and loses grip after one wear	Reusable for months with regular cleaning
Waterproof	Yes, fully waterproof, doubles as swim plugs	Water-resistant, not intended for swimming
Case or storage	Reusable plastic tub with a lid	Small carrying case included
Amazon rating	4.5 stars, 6,687 reviews	4.4 stars, smaller review base for the Quiet line

Where Mack's Wins

The seal is the whole story here. Mack's Pillow Soft is a ball of moldable silicone putty you warm between your fingers, flatten out, and press over the opening of your ear canal like a little dome. It doesn't go inside your ear the way most plugs do, it sits over it, which means it blocks sound the way a hand cupped over your ear blocks sound, not the way a foam cylinder wedged partway into a canal does. On a flight from Denver to Newark last winter, I sat next to a toddler who cried through most of takeoff, and the Mack's putty knocked the pitch of that crying down to something I could sleep through. That's the test that matters to me. Not whether earplugs make a quiet room a little quieter, but whether they can handle the worst-case airplane scenario.

The other underrated win is that Mack's works for side sleeping in a way almost nothing else does, including Loop. Because the putty sits flat against the outer ear instead of poking into the canal, you can lie your head directly on a pillow or a folded jacket against the window and not feel anything digging in. I've fallen asleep leaning against airplane windows more times than I can count, and the flat profile is the reason I never wake up with that dull ache behind my ear that in-canal plugs tend to leave after a few hours. At today's price, a tub of 12 pairs also means I don't think twice about losing one in a seat pocket or tossing a used pair after a swim.

Where Loop Quiet Wins

I'll give Loop Quiet its due, because it's not a bad product, it's just solving a different problem than the one I usually need solved on a plane. It's genuinely reusable. You clean it, pop it back in the little case, and it's ready for the next flight, which over a year of travel is more sustainable and honestly less fumbling than digging a fresh pair of putty out of a tub with cold hands at a gate. If you're someone who wants one pair that lives permanently in your bag without restocking, that's a real advantage, and the case keeps them from picking up pocket lint the way a bare pair of anything else would.

Loop also looks like a piece of jewelry, not a medical device, which matters to some travelers more than I expected before I started asking people about it. If you're wearing earplugs through an airport, at a loud gate announcement system, on a train, and you don't want to look like you're headed into surgery, Loop's dome shape in a neutral color reads as intentional rather than obviously utilitarian. For someone who wants to wear earplugs semi-publicly, not just tucked into a middle seat with eyes closed, that design choice is worth something.

The Real Noise Test: Jet Engines, Crying Babies, Hotel Hallways

I ran an informal version of this test on three separate trips, wearing Mack's on one leg and Loop Quiet on the return leg of the same route whenever I could manage it. On the jet engine drone alone, both plugs did a reasonable job, that low constant hum is the easiest noise for any earplug to dull. The gap showed up on sharper, higher-pitched sounds. A crying infant, a flight attendant's cart squeaking down the aisle, the beep of a seatbelt sign. Loop's acoustic filter is built to soften sound rather than eliminate it, which is the whole design philosophy behind the brand, they want you to still hear a conversation or an announcement if you need to. That's a feature for a lot of use cases. It's a liability at 35,000 feet next to a crying toddler when what you actually want is silence, not a softened version of the crying.

Hotel hallways told a similar story. Staying in a hotel outside Bangkok with a housekeeping cart that rattled past at 6am every morning, the Mack's putty brought that rattle down to something I genuinely slept through twice. With the Loop Quiet in, I woke up both mornings, not from pain or discomfort, just because enough of the sound got through. If your priority is reducing harshness while staying aware of your surroundings, Loop does that reasonably well. If your priority is actually sleeping through a loud environment you can't control, Mack's has consistently done more of the job for me.

Comfort Over an 8-Hour Flight

Comfort is where this comparison gets more personal, because ear canal shape varies a lot from person to person, and I've heard from readers on both sides of this. For me, an 8-hour flight in Mack's putty is genuinely comfortable because nothing is inside the canal putting pressure on it, and I can adjust the shape mid-flight if it starts to feel off without fully removing and remolding a new pair. Loop Quiet, because it seats inside the canal with a fitted tip, felt fine for the first two or three hours on a long flight from Chicago to Frankfurt, then started to feel like pressure by hour six, the kind of low ache you get from anything sitting in the same spot on soft tissue for too long.

I should say the ear tip sizing matters a lot with Loop, and if you take the time to try all four included sizes rather than defaulting to whatever's pre-installed, you'll likely get a better long-haul fit than I did on my first attempt. Even with a good fit, though, it's still an in-canal plug, and in-canal plugs and side sleeping have never been a great combination for me. Mack's sidesteps that problem entirely by never going in the canal in the first place, which is the single biggest reason it's the pair I actually reach for before a long flight.

Price and Long-Term Cost

The sticker price makes Mack's look like the obvious budget pick, and it is, but the real gap shows up once you factor in how each product actually gets used over a year of travel. A single $12.99 tub gives you 12 pairs, and I burn through roughly one pair per multi-leg trip since I don't reuse a squished-flat piece of putty on the return flight. That works out to well under a dollar per flight for something that also doubles as swim plugs on a beach trip and snoring relief for a partner at home. Loop Quiet costs close to double that upfront for a single reusable pair, and while you're not buying a new set every trip, you are on the hook for occasionally replacing the ear tips or the whole pair if you lose one at security, which happens more easily with a small loose earplug than a tub you keep zipped in a packing pouch.

There's also a maintenance cost that doesn't show up on the price tag. Loop needs to be cleaned between uses to stay hygienic and to keep the acoustic filter working the way it's supposed to, which is one more small chore on a travel day when you're already juggling a boarding pass and a coffee. Mack's putty gets used once and either tossed or rolled back into the tub if it's still tacky, no cleaning routine required. Over a year of the kind of travel I do, ten or twelve trips, that difference in upkeep adds up to real time saved, even if it's only a minute or two per flight.

Who Should Buy Which

If your goal is genuinely blocking noise, whether that's a crying baby three rows up, a snoring travel companion, or a hotel hallway you can't control, get Mack's Pillow Soft. It seals rather than filters, it's flat enough to sleep on your side without discomfort, it's waterproof for pool and shower use on top of flights, and at today's price a single tub covers a year or more of travel without restocking mid-trip. If your priority is a reusable, low-profile pair you can wear semi-publicly for commuting or moderate noise reduction and you don't mind an in-canal fit, Loop Quiet is a reasonable option, just go in knowing it softens sound rather than eliminating it. For most travelers asking the question this comparison is built to answer, which pair actually gets you through a loud flight and into real sleep, Mack's is the one that's earned a permanent spot in my carry-on.

One more practical note if you're buying for a travel companion or gifting a pair before someone's first long-haul flight. Loop requires some trial and error with tip sizing to get right, which isn't ideal for someone who's never used earplugs before and won't know what a bad fit feels like versus a good one. Mack's is close to foolproof out of the tub, warm it, flatten it, press it over the ear, done. For a nervous first-time flyer or a parent packing for a family trip, that simplicity alone makes it the safer recommendation.