It seems that this technology has matured and one electronic set of ears works pretty much like another. Are there any high-end ear pros that are really superior? Or is it just the additional features such as, Bluetooth and built-in streaming?
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Bingo.Just get some msa sordins with gel cups and call it a day.
Or he could be like the rest of us that use the hearing loss as a means.Would I go back in time (1984-present) and pay a measly $300 to prevent hearing loss and this fucking tinnitus?
Simply put, fuck yes.
Too many years around noisy ground support equipment and jet engine noise have caused severe hearing issues.
To top it off, add shooting into the mix with any number of good, bad and completely useless hearing protection.
Yeah.
Knowing what I know now, I'd pay $3000 per year just to have the cicadas in my head go silent...
Don't skimp. Buy the good shit and when you're 55+ you'll remember this thread.
Has anyone bent their wallet into a pretzel and bought the Sordin Supreme Pro-X? I saw they run something close to $300.00. Whereas the higher-end Pertors run about $125 and the Walker's Xcel 100's can be had for about 60 bucks. ....and here comes the worn-out old line. I don't question that the Sordin's are better but 5 times better?
I'm not a range officer or in a situation where I have to live in ear pro all day so I have no need to spend ransom level money. Maybe they're like Snap-on tools?
I assume you're a fellow Canadian by your price points? I went from Howard Leight Impact Sports w/ noise fighter gel cups to the Sordin Supreme-X in the spring and I honestly wish I did it sooner. Sound quality and noise cancellation was notably better. I have yet to feel the need to double up shooting under roofed shelter like I did with my Impacts. I can comfortably wear the Sordins with glasses on all day as well. As with Mike's experiences in aviation, hearing is a precious commodity and $300 is a small price to pay as a step towards not needing to be yelled at in conversations or getting tinnitus. To put it into perspective, a pair of MSA Sordins is less than an Atlas Bipod. Truly a small price to pay considering the money we pour into the rest of our equipment.Has anyone bent their wallet into a pretzel and bought the Sordin Supreme Pro-X? I saw they run something close to $300.00. Whereas the higher-end Pertors run about $125 and the Walker's Xcel 100's can be had for about 60 bucks. ....and here comes the worn-out old line. I don't question that the Sordin's are better but 5 times better?
I'm not a range officer or in a situation where I have to live in ear pro all day so I have no need to spend ransom level money. Maybe they're like Snap-on tools?
I have the sordins as well with the gel ear cups. They do feel pretty good and I can hear well but still get headaches from my glasses pressing by my ears. If someone has a loud brake I also will wear a foam plug. I've debated on adding some car soundproofing to the inside just to see what that did.
Has anyone bent their wallet into a pretzel and bought the Sordin Supreme Pro-X? I saw they run something close to $300.00. Whereas the higher-end Pertors run about $125 and the Walker's Xcel 100's can be had for about 60 bucks. ....and here comes the worn-out old line. I don't question that the Sordin's are better but 5 times better?
I'm not a range officer or in a situation where I have to live in ear pro all day so I have no need to spend ransom level money. Maybe they're like Snap-on tools?
The Sordin's are worth the extra money for anyone who wants better protection, better comfort, and better sound quality (foamies + cranked Supreme Pro-X's sounds nearly the same as it does when not wearing any ear pro, no drop-outs, the world sounds "normal"). If you wear ear pro often, or for long durations of time, that $300 might as well mean nothing.
I'm cheap as hell and: Yes, they're better. 6x the price better.
First off: around anything that takes a LRP or anything larger than .223, especially with a brake, regardless of which muffs, one needs plugs AND muffs... or they are absolutely damaging their hearing, period. These guns are too LOUD for only plugs, or only muffs.
Foamies + Impact Sports is fine. The audio quality is poor though, loud sounds trigger drop-outs, and the world around you doesn't sound "normal" at all.
The Sordin's are worth the extra money for anyone who wants better protection, better comfort, and better sound quality (foamies + cranked Supreme Pro-X's sounds nearly the same as it does when not wearing any ear pro, no drop-outs, the world sounds "normal"). If you wear ear pro often, or for long durations of time, that $300 might as well mean nothing.
There is a HUGE difference between high end (like ops core) ear pro and everything else.It seems that this technology has matured and one electronic set of ears works pretty much like another. Are there any high-end ear pros that are really superior? Or is it just the additional features such as, Bluetooth and built-in streaming?
They're okay as long as you double up. They didn't suppress much noise in my experience.Just get some msa sordins with gel cups and call it a day.
I'd ask if you know there's a volume control on the side, then either ask for warranty service or contact SRS Tactical for repair if so.
Sound quality is subjective (although these top end units have clever stuff like multiple speakers so really really should sound better) but if you have such low volume you simply can't hear Sordin output through foamies, they are broken.
They're okay as long as you double up. They didn't suppress much noise in my experience.
+1000That's the thing: you need to double up with all of them. None of them offer enough protection on their own from a rifle report (especially if a rifle has any kind of brake on the end of it).
The noise reduction numbers given by the different companies are confusing too: if you only look at the numbers, Sordin's look like they lose to much cheaper options... but the numbers are not realistic, most of the cheaper ear pro advertise the biggest noise reduction number they can, even though that number is only achieved at one single frequency that may not even be relevant to the frequency range the damaging reports occupy in the audio spectrum. If Sordin were to use their largest number at a specific frequency to advertise, they'd be advertising 39NRR, or more, which would crush everything out there (and would also be bullshit, because that's just at one frequency).
No one should skimp on ear pro, you'll literally use every time you go shooting and it'll pay for itself faster than any other fancy shooting gadget you can buy IMO. That said, ubiquitous Impact Sports and orange foamies cost about $50 all in and will get the job done.
If budget is a concern: pound for pound, dollar for dollar, nothing beats Impact Sports + gel cups + orange foamies.
Do not underestimate how much gel cups matter, it's not just about comfort, they provide a way better seal and are worth every penny.
...It's crazy that guys cheap out when it comes to ear pro... I was shooting with a guy yesterday running a $6k rifle and ~3k+ RRS/Swaro tripod setup... he was using basic electronic Walkers only (no foamies). I hope he has some cash leftover for hearing aids down the road, because he's going to be needing them....
That's the thing: you need to double up with all of them. None of them offer enough protection on their own from a rifle report (especially if a rifle has any kind of brake on the end of it).
The noise reduction numbers given by the different companies are confusing too: if you only look at the numbers, Sordin's look like they lose to much cheaper options... but the numbers are not realistic, most of the cheaper ear pro advertise the biggest noise reduction number they can, even though that number is only achieved at one single frequency that may not even be relevant to the frequency range the damaging reports occupy in the audio spectrum. If Sordin were to use their largest number at a specific frequency to advertise, they'd be advertising 39NRR, or more, which would crush everything out there (and would also be bullshit, because that's just at one frequency).
No one should skimp on ear pro, you'll literally use it every time you go shooting and it'll pay for itself faster than any other fancy shooting gadget you can buy IMO. That said, ubiquitous Impact Sports and orange foamies cost about $50 all in and will get the job done.
If budget is a concern: pound for pound, dollar for dollar, nothing beats Impact Sports + gel cups + orange foamies.
Do not underestimate how much gel cups matter, it's not just about comfort, they provide a way better seal and are worth every penny.
...It's crazy that guys cheap out when it comes to ear pro... I was shooting with a guy yesterday running a $6k rifle and ~3k+ RRS/Swaro tripod setup... he was using basic electronic Walkers only (no foamies). I hope he has some cash leftover for hearing aids down the road, because he's going to be needing them....
I agree with your overall message but you're pretty wrong about MSA Sordin's overall performance. Their low profile tactical headsets are correctly rated at 17db NRR compared to other higher rated hearing protection. There are better performing headsets for less money that are not low profile. You can only do so much with passive hearing protection without increasing the volume of the cup outside the ear. I've read the article someone put together years ago purporting that Sordin's low profile hearing protection filtered specific frequencies so they were actually equivalent to other brands of hearing protection. It isn't true which is why Sordin themselves aren't saying the same thing. The fact is Sordin makes hearing protection with NRR exceeding 30db...unless you think Sordin fakes the numbers on some hearing protection while not faking it on others (NRR and SNR have specific testing protocols). Further, your hearing can be damaged by sound pressure alone, regardless of frequency.
If you have to have low profile over the ear hearing protection then you're stuck with poor performance, regardless of brand, unless you step up to a system that is engineered to include in the ear protection also such as OPS Core. If you don't want to spend a grand on hearing protection there are alternatives but they aren't low profile.
We're sort of in the weeds here because I can't agree more on the need to double up with over the ear and in the ear hearing protection if you're going to be around unmuffled riffle gunshots.
We will have to agree to disagree about that first part, if we want to almost drown in the weeds, it's really the testing methods and rating system which are flawed, the Sordin's really do protect much better than their ratings suggest in the frequency range we're concerned with shooting rifles, but I'm not sure how they could advertise it as that doesn't jive with how they test/rate ear pro.
FWIW, think this is the article you were referring to, and while I don't agree with all of it, I think he's correct about a lot of it: https://trevoronthetrigger.wordpres...me-performance-the-misleading-nrr18db-rating/
Maybe one of these days I'll see if one of the high-end recording studio gear rental houses in Nashville have one of these: https://en-de.neumann.com/ku-100, and I'll conduct a "regular guy real-world test"... I'll probably get some weird looks at my club hahaha...
The Sordin thing is a pretty tough sell since we're talking about protection from sound pressure, the mechanism that causes hearing damage, not the perceived loudness. I can hear the difference between Sordins and Peltor 500's despite the Peltors being lower end. Nine decibels is a huge difference.
You'd be better off contacting a silencer manufacturer and asking to be present for testing. I doubt very much a recording studio would have the equipment necessary to capture the peak of a gunshot, even it is muffled.
Word of warning about customs. I had a set of Instamolds I used for decades, but they weren't sealing so well anymore. So off to an audiologist I went for a new set of customs. She didn't shove nearly enough goo in my ears to make a good plug, so I went back and had the left one redone. Should have had both redone, because the right one won't stay sealed behind my rifle. Left one is great; an intern did it.If one is really serious about protecting their hearing, get custom ear plugs yesterday.
If you can DIY mold them at home, or they can get them to you in a couple hours at some trade show, they are NOT what I'm talking about....
I mean real ones, like where you need to make an appointment with an audiologist to take impressions, like these: https://1of1custom.com - specifically for shooting: https://1of1custom.com/products/pro-impulse-custom-ear-plug - or these: https://1of1custom.com/products/total-block
Okay now we have sound protection nerds arguing can someone explain this one: The one place I find my Sordins wildly useless is on aircraft. I can even plug straight in to their intercom (I have many cables), but it's sorta pointless as the ambient sound is so loud.
Have to borrow the DC (or Bose) headset on the a/c if I want to talk to anyone. Why? I mean the current generation of Bose esp are pretty low profile, so... what's up here?
Okay now we have sound protection nerds arguing can someone explain this one: The one place I find my Sordins wildly useless is on aircraft. I can even plug straight in to their intercom (I have many cables), but it's sorta pointless as the ambient sound is so loud.
Have to borrow the DC (or Bose) headset on the a/c if I want to talk to anyone. Why? I mean the current generation of Bose esp are pretty low profile, so... what's up here?
Word of warning about customs. I had a set of Instamolds I used for decades, but they weren't sealing so well anymore. So off to an audiologist I went for a new set of customs. She didn't shove nearly enough goo in my ears to make a good plug, so I went back and had the left one redone. Should have had both redone, because the right one won't stay sealed behind my rifle. Left one is great; an intern did it.
Oh, the word of warning is make damned sure you're super satisfied with the plugs, when they show up and that your audiologist will support you if their work sucks.