55 years old, been riding for 25 years. A typical day ride for me is 500 miles and significantly over the speed limit. You better get yourself something to protect your hearing, 'cause if you don't you will be F*cked when you get to my age. I have tried every combination of earplugs and comm systems out there, and for me (Me, old guy) the only thing that is effective is a set of custom molded earplugs with dual driver speakers in them, connected to my Cardo PAck Talk (same results with my SENA SMH10).
Here's some more perspective for you. Some riders I ride with are fine with the stock speakers that came with their comms system, and use good quality foamie ear plugs. Foam ear plugs will actually provide better protection than the $300 custom ear plugs that I use, and even the company that made mine will tell you this. But.........anything over 55mph, they have difficulty hearing our conversations. With my setup, I can hear a conversation at 150mph, plus the fidelity of my music is amazing, especially the base response with the dual drivers.
They all say speaker placement in the helmet is the key to good sound. I personally wanted to get away from my custom plugs this summer, mostly because your ears get sore toward the end of the day from all the helmet on/helmet off that occurs. They tend to get torn out of your ears when you take your helmet off. So back to the speaker foamie setup. And a few hours of riding, stopping to move the speakers, repeat. I got it as best I could and while it was ok for riding in the city, anything over 50mph was useless. I also went and got my hearing tested, and while I was missing out on some high frequencies, typical for my age, my hearing was fine. I'm also using a brand new Shoei RF1200 which is a pretty damn quiet helmet.
If you have good hearing, the most comfortable setup is speakers and foamies (or those flanged plugs mentioned earlier). If you want amazing sound for music, custom molded with dual drivers inside is the way to go, but you are gonna pay for that.
Everyone is different, their hearing is different, where their head is in relation to the windscreen, how tight their helmet is etc.
I even have a set of Etymotic earphones, which are excellent, but even they make my ears sore and will still get ripped out of my ears when I take my helmet off
https://www.etymotic.com/consumer/earphones.html