Please recommend hearing protection


My father is a professional musician. He plays sax.
He has been complaining to me that when he is working, he is frequently seated in close proximity to the drum kit and is beginning to notice some hearing lose on one ear.

He is asking me for an advise on hearing protection.

He has tried ear plugs, muffs and even Bose noise reducing headphones, but nothing really works the way he wants.

What he needs the hearing protection to achieve is the reduction of surrounding noise to an acceptable low level, without distorting/altering the sound of his sax. He still needs to hear himself and his concern with all the hearing protection he tried before is that instruments sound artificial and he can't really judge the sound he himself produces. He's a perfectionist when it comes to the sound of his saxaphones, so he's pretty frustrated at this point.

I suggested some sort of electronic hearing protection.

Would anyone know what is a good brand and model of an electronic(or regular) hearing protection device('phones, plugs) that can drop DBs and allow for accurate timbre of surrounding instruments?

Would an electronic hearing protection used for shooting work?

I would appreciate recommendations.
Thanks in advance!
128x128audphile1
I would echo the recommendation of custom molded ear plugs, and the Eymotic solution looks even better. I ride a motorcycle daily, and the wind noise through the helmet at speed is quite loud (anyone who rides would know this). The best solution by far is my custom molded (solid) earplugs. The only drawback is that they really don't let much in so you can't have a normal conversation once you stop without taking out the plugs. Soft or molded plugs let in more but that's a two-edged sword. I've used electronic shooting headphone-type ear protection when shooting, and they work great for that, but they are really tuned to eliminate very sharp and abrupt sounds, and not ongoing loud noise. Hopefully the Etymotic solution can combine the best of those two worlds.
Thanks Rushton. I'll find out if he ever tried these. He said he tried several different ear plugs but they alltered the sound too much. If he didn't try these yet, this may be a good starting point on the cheap.
Audphile1,
I use shooting headphones when shooting 8^). They have adjustable mikes on each side for normal sounds but block out sharp sounds such as gun fire. They work great for this purpose but I seriously doubt that their sound quality would be good enough for music.