Picked up MSA Sordin, have questions

[lennyo3034]

I recently picked up a pair of MSA sordin supreme pro-X ear muffs, however am not that impressed with their noise reduction. After testing them out at home, it did not seem to have a significant amout of reduction at all. In fact they seemed to do less than my Howard leight impact sports or a $10 basic set I had lying around. I tested the sordins both on and off. Is there something I am missing with these? They are very comfortable, especially with the gel cups, but what good if comfort if it doesn't do it's job?

I have not had a chance to get to the range yet, so I'm hoping they'll be better frequencies related to gunshots.

 

[Donr13]

They are supposed to cut off high levels of noise. What tests are you performing at home?

I have a set and I love them. That being said I don't know how they compare to others because they are the only ones I have ever had.

 

[brcook03]

The NRR rating for the Sordins is technically lower than the Impact Sports (18dB vs. 22dB). That may account for some of what you are noticing. I would suggest you try using them at the range. I have a set and they work great for shooting on an outdoor range. I still double up with plugs on an indoor range but I do that with any type of muff.

 

[Trevor300wsm]

Stop relying on these or any other set of powered muffs to give you the highest level of protection. They simply won't do it. I have the Sordins also and I love them, but there is no way in hell id shoot a braked rifle with only them on. I always use foam plugs under the Sordins. Put the plugs in, turn the Sordins on high and you're set.

Use the plugs for your main ear protection and use the Sordins for the ability to hear while your shooting.

 

[Donr13]

Stop relying on these or any other set of powered muffs to give you the highest level of protection. They simply won't do it. I have the Sordins also and I love them, but there is no way in hell id shoot a braked rifle with only them on. I always use foam plugs under the Sordins. Put the plugs in, turn the Sordins on high and you're set.

Use the plugs for your main ear protection and use the Sordins for the ability to hear while your shooting.

+1. This is exactly what I do with mine as well

 

[TestnDoc]

Stop relying on these or any other set of powered muffs to give you the highest level of protection. They simply won't do it. I have the Sordins also and I love them, but there is no way in hell id shoot a braked rifle with only them on. I always use foam plugs under the Sordins. Put the plugs in, turn the Sordins on high and you're set.

Use the plugs for your main ear protection and use the Sordins for the ability to hear while your shooting.

What he said...

 

[Roddd]

I shoot pistols and a braked 308 and 300 win mag with only my Sordin's on and I think they deliver good protection, but my hearing isn't the greatest.

 

[ZombieMonkey]

With any of the low profile electronic ears you're going to need to shoot with plugs in as well. You get the best of both worlds this way, great protection and you can still hear conversations well. If shooting suppressed I'm fine with just the muffs on their own.

 

[Triad]

The electronics in the ear cups reduces space for foam. The lower amount of foam, means less reduction of sound.

As mentioned, use foamies and muffs.

 

[427Cobra]

IMHO the MSA noise reduction rating is actual, and the HL is a dream, I only wear foamies under my MSA's when I'm shooting rifle matches, brakes are murder when shooting next to people with them, pistol AR shotgun or when I RO the MSA's are all I wear.

 

[Rancid Coolaid]

I'm not sure I understand trying out hearing protection at home that are needed for the range? Isn't that like looking through a scope in the store and saying it doesn't do well outside?

Did you discharge a fire arm in your home in this test or just listen to Metallica turned up to 11?

I run the same (sordin supreme) and like them for what they do well. As said ( a few times now) above, plugs are the real protection for anything uber loud.

 

[lennyo3034]

My wife is an audiologist. The tests she helped me run at home, were through various frequencies she played that she uses for hearing tests on her patients. It was not an incredibly accurate test as they are usually played through headphones instead of a computer speaker, but it gave an idea of the capabilities of the earmuffs in terms of hearing protection. This was not just walking around the house listening to loud noises.

As suggested above, I also wear plug underneath the earmuffs. I've taken it to the range a couple times now, and have not noticed any difference between the MSAs and the impact sports. They are both comfortable, although the MSAs have an advantage here. I shoot in the rain, but wear a wide brimmed hat and never had issues with the impact sports on moisture.

 

[Shanerbanner10]

I must be weird or something but I have been shooting with peltors/msa electronic muffs for a good couples years and still have perfect hearing. I shoot braked rifles off and have zero problems with them. Probably a good idea to throw some foamies after reading this.
.... or I may just invest in some more suppressors!

 

[Keith E.]

I ran the same muff for the first time this weekend (Thanks to Steve @ Triad, great service and quick shipping). Shooting, scoring and hanging out at Butner for practice and two days of LR match shooting with just the muffs. I felt that they did a great job around .260 class up to some magnums. Granted, this was all outside.

I'll probably runs plugs and muffs inside, under a shelter or when doing the RSO thing as I would normally do. I will check their performance for a bit without the plugs just to compare.

Keith

 

[Donr13]

.... or I may just invest in some more suppressors!

Best advice on this thread.

 

[timelinex]

You guys wear plugs underneath your earmuffs??! I understand for a big braked 50,but for anything else is news to me. In all my time at the range, I have never experienced any uncomfortable loudness in my sordins or my impact pros

 

[Merc1138]

You guys wear plugs underneath your earmuffs??! I understand for a big braked 50,but for anything else is news to me. In all my time at the range, I have never experienced any uncomfortable loudness in my sordins or my impact pros

I don't see why you wouldn't want to protect your hearing as much as possible. As mentioned, electronic earmuffs cranked up will allow you to have conversations with the foam earplugs doing most of the noise reduction for you. While decent electronic earmuffs can indeed do a decent job of noise reduction, it doesn't take much sometimes to break the seal and end up with much more noise leaking in than you realize. Even a slight shift in glasses can cause problems with the seal around the ear.

I've only got one set of ears, and as much as I've heard people complain about tinnitus and other hearing problems, I'd simply prefer to do my best to prevent as much damage as possible.

 

[lennyo3034]

Disclaimer: This is only what my wife has told me. Take this info with a grain of salt. I'm still some guy on the internets.

Hearing damage can occur at 85 Db. This is for continuous long term exposure so for a single exposure like gunshots, it's a good bit higher. Closer to 130-140 Db.

Some braked guns can be as loud as 160 db to the shooter. In this case, a difference between 18 db of reduction and 22 is actually significant. Remember decibels are an exponential scale. Theoretically, since none of my rifles have brakes, I could get away with only running the MSAs without plugs underneath, but the convenience of doing so is really not worth it to me since the muffs are right on the borderline of being sufficient on their own.

 

[ZombieMonkey]

You guys wear plugs underneath your earmuffs??! I understand for a big braked 50,but for anything else is news to me. In all my time at the range, I have never experienced any uncomfortable loudness in my sordins or my impact pros

I do as muffs are prone to leaking on occasion if you bump them and hearing damage is accumulative and once it's lost you are not getting it back. Indoors I can't imagine how anyone could not shoot doubled up as it can really become quite a bit. Hell, I shoot suppressed guns with either the Surefire EP7s or the electronic muffs to knock the sound down that much more. If shooting with the electronic muffs on steel without a bunch of others shooting near by you even get the increased benefit of being able to hear the steel ring at further distances.

 

[brcook03]

You guys wear plugs underneath your earmuffs??! I understand for a big braked 50,but for anything else is news to me. In all my time at the range, I have never experienced any uncomfortable loudness in my sordins or my impact pros

With rifle, I usually only double when shooting indoors or under a heavily covered firing line. If outside on an open range, just the MSA's work well for me.

 

[NevadaZielmeister]

Disclaimer: This is only what my wife has told me. Take this info with a grain of salt. I'm still some guy on the internets.

Hearing damage can occur at 85 Db. This is for continuous long term exposure so for a single exposure like gunshots, it's a good bit higher. Closer to 130-140 Db.

Some braked guns can be as loud as 160 db to the shooter. In this case, a difference between 18 db of reduction and 22 is actually significant. Remember decibels are an exponential scale. Theoretically, since none of my rifles have brakes, I could get away with only running the MSAs without plugs underneath, but the convenience of doing so is really not worth it to me since the muffs are right on the borderline of being sufficient on their own.

I think a lot of people are not giving the MSA's credit. You have to understand that the noise reduction circuitry is top of the line. The sound reduction begins only when the sound reaches a dangerous level and ONLY that sound level is reduced/removed. I have regular conversations with people on the firing line without any missing of any words since the sound curve is so sharp, the reduction time is very very minimal, think microseconds.

Other noise reduction headphones are horrible since they block out almost entire words. The MSA's are a great investment. I use the only and I have no discomfort or loss of hearing from using them. I do not use the foam ear plugs. The MSA's are capable and I have discovered a whole new world of sound. Like hearing the bullet impact the paper, the bullet ricocheting off something and listening to it travel quite a ways. I was really amazed at how much sound I was missing with non-electronic or cheap ear pro.

 

[lennyo3034]

I wasn't aware that the MSAs used active noise control. I assumed it was an electronic amplifier used in conjunction with passive ear protection. That would have a huge effect on how well it works. Looks like a call to MSA is in order.

 

[lennyo3034]

I just phoned MSA, you're right these are active noice control earmuffs. I had assumed they were passive and tested them as such. In all my tests, I had turned it off thinking it was only turning off the sound reproduction for conversations. Little did I know that I was also turning off the primary means of noise reduction. The MSA rep (great CS by the way) told me that turning it off effectively turns the MSAs into an expensive pair of ear warmers.

From my experience with the impact sports, they only use passive noise control. Noise reduction is not effected by whether or not I had it turned on, therefore only turned it on when I had conversations.

I'll try to hit the range soon to verify everything with the MSAs turned on.

Chalk this one up to user error.

FTW, a good set of noise cancelling headphones will run $200-$300 so I think the price of the MSAs are actually quite low now that I know it uses active noise control.

 

[Triad]

Did you place an order through MSA? We're authorized for them and did not think you would be able to order directly.

 

[lennyo3034]

Did you place an order through MSA? We're authorized for them and did not think you would be able to order directly.

No, ordered from amazon. I had a gift certificate that I needed to use. Actually paid a little more than I would have from you, but you were out of stock at the time. I'm sorry . I'm going to order more FTW carbine slings as soon as I sell my Tab and VTAC. Will definitely be through you.