Thread: Electronic hearing protection.

My faithful old Peltor ear muffs gave up yesterday. I'd appreciate some advice on which electronic ear plugs ( not muffs) are worthy and are reasonably priced.

I have used peltor tep 100 for a couple of years rechargable got mine from usa but are for sale in NZ were not cheap

Anything custom-moulded will be in the vicinity of a grand. If you feel so inclined, go see an audiologist and ask what Starkey offer.

The TEP 100 look good but I prefer muffs. Have been using MSA Sordin for years now. They are superior to most other brands in the price range for performance and construction quality. Before them I used a succession of others including passive and electronic.

There's been a couple of threads in the past on electronic ear plugs. Maybe the posters will come out of the woods....

peltor all the way, i repair bugga all of them compared to other brands

Originally Posted by Mauser308

IIRC the outfit who designed the Sordins was some how or another tied up with the Peltor design outfit at one stage...

Doubt it. MSA is a huge company in it own right. Maybe you've got a link?

At any rate you're likely to see more Sordin clapped around the ears of special forces than Pelton.

I bought a $24 pair of Surefire Sonic Defender EP3 from Tactical Solutions. Not tried them yet, but they seem to fit well. The EP4 version with 3 bungs as opposed to 2 for the EP3 as NZ is sold out on the EP4. I figured that they must work okay as the reviews are outstanding.

Originally Posted by gonetropo

peltor all the way, i repair bugga all of them compared to other brands

Mine are 25 years old and the plastic attachment snapped off. Self tapper holds them together again. Muffs really are a menace in the field for me, so I'm hoping bungs prove more portable.

thought id just post it here. Got some electronic ear muffs for Christmas fuk its like having bionic hearing. On the hunting dvd that tim and alex gale made it mentions taking your sling off your rifle when bush stalking. I could never hear it but with these things on its noisy as fuk like a constant clicking noise and dear can definitely tell its not a normal bush noise id guess

Excellent thread - It's a topic I've been wanting to explore for a long time so thank you to everyone who is contributing.

Originally Posted by northdude

thought id just post it here. Got some electronic ear muffs for Christmas fuk its like having bionic hearing. On the hunting dvd that tim and alex gale made it mentions taking your sling off your rifle when bush stalking. I could never hear it but with these things on its noisy as fuk like a constant clicking noise and dear can definitely tell its not a normal bush noise id guess

I'll second that - not just in terms of noise amplification, but in terms of direction and background noise cancelling as well. Had a chance to try a pair at the range and was absolutely blown away by the distinct noises a good quality set of muffs can pick up. In this case it was hearing footsteps on gravel while it was raining. Couldn't hear them at all without the muffs, but with the muffs the rain faded out and it sounded like the guy walking in the gravel was walking right next to me. Never got the make/model of the muffs but the owner did point out it had two offset microphones per ear as well as two speakers per ear. Absolutely changed my mind on how effective earmuffs can be.

Have tried lower end electronic muffs (not noise cancelling, cheap single microphone, dual speaker kinds) and they're meh in terms of augmenting your hearing (they're still great for listening to music while working though). Seems like you really need to spend a bit to get quality.

I got some fancy electronic plugs custom molded ones though bay audiology

the worked great and super nice to wear but in any wind they would whistle and i found them impossible to tell direction of sounds in.

I like these:

https://www.howardleightshootingspor...uff-black-grey

30 db NRR. If you don't want something that bulky you can go with something slimmer but the noise reduction rating will be lower.

I keep a pair at the bedside for home defense so I don't deafen myself firing a 7.62 Nato rifle down a stairwell.