Double Naught Spy
New member
"Electronic hearing protection" is a really cool product, but does it actually do anything to really provide you with better protection? I believe the answer is NO, but there are some great benefits to electronic muffs or even electronic plus (of which I know little about), but it does not appear that protection of one's hearing is really a benefit over manual models of protection.
This is based on my own consumer research into the topic. I am not an expert and if an audiologist is out there and can verify or refute anything I have said, that is great. If someone has specifics on the actual hearing protection models indicating my information is incorrect, I would like to know as well. I am hopeful that if I have erred in any of this, that it is on the conservative, safer side.
This is for those of you who may not have considered the topic in this manner, in part, because some of the information is not clear and the terms are a little misleading, this may be interesting if you are interesting if proper hearing protection.
As far as I have learned, the "electronic hearing protection" under the $200 price range is not electronic hearing protection per se, but manual hearing protection with electronic sound amplification. This allows you to maintain normal conversations because the amplification actually defeats the manual noise protection of the muffs. The benefit is that the electronics cut off this conversation benefit before noises like gun shots are amplified and deafen you painfully. Here is the rub. The best "electronic hearing protection" at $200 does not protect you nearly as well as the best manual hearing protection at $30 (Leightning).
For many rifles, it may not matter so much, but the best of the electronic hearing protection is rated around 20-24 db reduction. There is some that is less as I recall, around 15-20. A lot of your cheaper normal muffs only reduce around 15-20 db. For rifles, that might be okay due to how the sound is projected away, but probably not for handguns or not bigger bore rifles or if you are not the shooter of the rifle and so the sound is not projected away from you as much as it is for the shooter.
One of the truely nice things about the electronic muffs is that you can wear plugs and muffs (sometimes called double plugging) and be so much better to your ears and still hear conversations. With double plugging with electronic muffs, you may lose the leaves crunching under your feet that electronic muffs alone would provide you (mentioned as very cool in another thread on electronic muffs), but since hearing damage is cumulative, not hearing leaves under your feet when you are out blasting cans, targets, IDPA, or whatever certainly may be better than not hearing leaves crunch under your feet for the last 20 years of your life.
Most people are never aware they are losing their hearing until they start becoming dysfunctional in conversations and noisy environments and by that time, it is far too late. Here is an example based purely on hypothetical numbers to illustrate how little hearing you could be losing, not realizing it, and then not realizing the cumulative effect until many years later. I do not suggest these numbers represent reality and from what I have read, they are quite likely conservate unless you always had adequate (good) hearing protection in all the noisy environments of your life.
Say you wear your 15 db noise reduction, ultra slim, nothing is lighter or more sexy manual muff hearing protection and it works properly. You always have. If you lose 1/2500th of what should be your normal hearing every time you shoot, an amount you could not actually perceive, and you shoot 25 times per year (once every two weeks not including vacation), 10 years of shooting will mean you have lost 10% of your hearing. By age 50, if you shoot your entire adult life, you have lost 1/3 of your ability and that means you lose out on hearing much of the cooing of your grandchildren, crunching leaves, and even the guy with squeaky shoes who snuck in your house in the middle of the night. This is just the hearing loss from shooting alone, not including what you did to yourself in the army, listening to stereos, racing cars, etc. For comparison, you could have lost that much doing a single tour in 'Nam as an artilleryman and not realized how bad off you were until after you got back stateside.
Outddoors, double plugging also may not be as big of a deal as in doors where sound pressure is actually extended in time because you get the initial pressure wave of sound, but several of its reflections of walls and floors and some will impact you simultaneously. However, being safer is rarely a bad idea, indoors or out.
On the db scale, every 3 db increase is actual a doubling of sound pressure. Muffs with a protection level of 24 are twice as good as muffs at 21. Muffs rated at 30 are NOT twice as good as muffs rated at 15 in reducing noise pressure, but 32 times better.
Personally, I find it much easier to talk with plugs in and no muffs than muffs and not plugs, even when the plugs are rated higher. This can be an issue when you want good hearing protection from shooting, but want to chat between sets. People tend to pull off and forget muffs. Many pluggers just leave the plugs in I have noticed. Why?
Well, muffs are actually better sound reducers than plugs, regardless of the ratings. Part of the reason is because of sound conduction through aural structures (not the auditory canal) and through the bone of your head. Plugs do little to stop conduction of sound vibrations. Muffs preclude a lot more of it. Another part of the reason is that muffs actually cover the ears sound collection capabilities and slight leakage of sound has minimal effect. Fits of any commercial, non-custom product will have some leakage, some less than others. For muffs, the seal to the head is imperfect due to hair and things like glasses arms. For plugs, they must be absolutely seated correctly. Plugs do not prevent sound collection, but block collected sound from the auditory channel. A slight leak of sound due to a plug not inserted properly can still be significant. Double plugging helps assure there is no significant leakage even if neither are 100%. Also, plugs mean you can maintain hearing protection even when you take of muffs.
The only times I have experienced unprotected gun booms is when I took off my protection. I wore muffs exclusively then. Unfortunately, most electronic muff users I see are concerned with wasting batteries and so they are constantly turning off and on their muffs and when not on electronically, often take them off their heads. The result at gun ranges and classes is that they get caught by the same booms as everyone else with non-electronic muffs.
So, with really loud guns and especially indoors, I suggest wearing plugs and muffs (electronic or not). Remember that electronic muffs (that most of us might be able to afford) do not electronically offer more sound protection than their units do as muffs alone and most electronic muffs are rated well below the best non-electronic muffs in noise reduction, such as Leightning with a reduction of 31, at least 4 times better pressure reduction than any electronic protection I have seen (and someone correct me is there is a better reducing electronic rated at better than 25).
So, until technology changes (assuming I am not behind the curve on knowing it changed already), electronic hearing protection is only as good as the manual hearing protection of the muffs alone, electronics off, for hearing protection purposes - which is why you wear the protection, right?. For convenience, satety of hearing range commands, etc., electronic muffs of infinitely better than standard manual hearing protection muffs, no doubt.
Current, reasonable priced products appear to be only manual hearing protection with the huge benefit of non-damagine sound amplifation.
PS - If there is a product out that actually out there now that is no bigger than the Leightning (31 db protection model, which are actually not small by any stretch) provides 30+ db reduction, stereo sound amplification, I do have my $200 and want to buy them now.
This is based on my own consumer research into the topic. I am not an expert and if an audiologist is out there and can verify or refute anything I have said, that is great. If someone has specifics on the actual hearing protection models indicating my information is incorrect, I would like to know as well. I am hopeful that if I have erred in any of this, that it is on the conservative, safer side.
This is for those of you who may not have considered the topic in this manner, in part, because some of the information is not clear and the terms are a little misleading, this may be interesting if you are interesting if proper hearing protection.
As far as I have learned, the "electronic hearing protection" under the $200 price range is not electronic hearing protection per se, but manual hearing protection with electronic sound amplification. This allows you to maintain normal conversations because the amplification actually defeats the manual noise protection of the muffs. The benefit is that the electronics cut off this conversation benefit before noises like gun shots are amplified and deafen you painfully. Here is the rub. The best "electronic hearing protection" at $200 does not protect you nearly as well as the best manual hearing protection at $30 (Leightning).
For many rifles, it may not matter so much, but the best of the electronic hearing protection is rated around 20-24 db reduction. There is some that is less as I recall, around 15-20. A lot of your cheaper normal muffs only reduce around 15-20 db. For rifles, that might be okay due to how the sound is projected away, but probably not for handguns or not bigger bore rifles or if you are not the shooter of the rifle and so the sound is not projected away from you as much as it is for the shooter.
One of the truely nice things about the electronic muffs is that you can wear plugs and muffs (sometimes called double plugging) and be so much better to your ears and still hear conversations. With double plugging with electronic muffs, you may lose the leaves crunching under your feet that electronic muffs alone would provide you (mentioned as very cool in another thread on electronic muffs), but since hearing damage is cumulative, not hearing leaves under your feet when you are out blasting cans, targets, IDPA, or whatever certainly may be better than not hearing leaves crunch under your feet for the last 20 years of your life.
Most people are never aware they are losing their hearing until they start becoming dysfunctional in conversations and noisy environments and by that time, it is far too late. Here is an example based purely on hypothetical numbers to illustrate how little hearing you could be losing, not realizing it, and then not realizing the cumulative effect until many years later. I do not suggest these numbers represent reality and from what I have read, they are quite likely conservate unless you always had adequate (good) hearing protection in all the noisy environments of your life.
Say you wear your 15 db noise reduction, ultra slim, nothing is lighter or more sexy manual muff hearing protection and it works properly. You always have. If you lose 1/2500th of what should be your normal hearing every time you shoot, an amount you could not actually perceive, and you shoot 25 times per year (once every two weeks not including vacation), 10 years of shooting will mean you have lost 10% of your hearing. By age 50, if you shoot your entire adult life, you have lost 1/3 of your ability and that means you lose out on hearing much of the cooing of your grandchildren, crunching leaves, and even the guy with squeaky shoes who snuck in your house in the middle of the night. This is just the hearing loss from shooting alone, not including what you did to yourself in the army, listening to stereos, racing cars, etc. For comparison, you could have lost that much doing a single tour in 'Nam as an artilleryman and not realized how bad off you were until after you got back stateside.
Outddoors, double plugging also may not be as big of a deal as in doors where sound pressure is actually extended in time because you get the initial pressure wave of sound, but several of its reflections of walls and floors and some will impact you simultaneously. However, being safer is rarely a bad idea, indoors or out.
On the db scale, every 3 db increase is actual a doubling of sound pressure. Muffs with a protection level of 24 are twice as good as muffs at 21. Muffs rated at 30 are NOT twice as good as muffs rated at 15 in reducing noise pressure, but 32 times better.
Personally, I find it much easier to talk with plugs in and no muffs than muffs and not plugs, even when the plugs are rated higher. This can be an issue when you want good hearing protection from shooting, but want to chat between sets. People tend to pull off and forget muffs. Many pluggers just leave the plugs in I have noticed. Why?
Well, muffs are actually better sound reducers than plugs, regardless of the ratings. Part of the reason is because of sound conduction through aural structures (not the auditory canal) and through the bone of your head. Plugs do little to stop conduction of sound vibrations. Muffs preclude a lot more of it. Another part of the reason is that muffs actually cover the ears sound collection capabilities and slight leakage of sound has minimal effect. Fits of any commercial, non-custom product will have some leakage, some less than others. For muffs, the seal to the head is imperfect due to hair and things like glasses arms. For plugs, they must be absolutely seated correctly. Plugs do not prevent sound collection, but block collected sound from the auditory channel. A slight leak of sound due to a plug not inserted properly can still be significant. Double plugging helps assure there is no significant leakage even if neither are 100%. Also, plugs mean you can maintain hearing protection even when you take of muffs.
The only times I have experienced unprotected gun booms is when I took off my protection. I wore muffs exclusively then. Unfortunately, most electronic muff users I see are concerned with wasting batteries and so they are constantly turning off and on their muffs and when not on electronically, often take them off their heads. The result at gun ranges and classes is that they get caught by the same booms as everyone else with non-electronic muffs.
So, with really loud guns and especially indoors, I suggest wearing plugs and muffs (electronic or not). Remember that electronic muffs (that most of us might be able to afford) do not electronically offer more sound protection than their units do as muffs alone and most electronic muffs are rated well below the best non-electronic muffs in noise reduction, such as Leightning with a reduction of 31, at least 4 times better pressure reduction than any electronic protection I have seen (and someone correct me is there is a better reducing electronic rated at better than 25).
So, until technology changes (assuming I am not behind the curve on knowing it changed already), electronic hearing protection is only as good as the manual hearing protection of the muffs alone, electronics off, for hearing protection purposes - which is why you wear the protection, right?. For convenience, satety of hearing range commands, etc., electronic muffs of infinitely better than standard manual hearing protection muffs, no doubt.
Current, reasonable priced products appear to be only manual hearing protection with the huge benefit of non-damagine sound amplifation.
PS - If there is a product out that actually out there now that is no bigger than the Leightning (31 db protection model, which are actually not small by any stretch) provides 30+ db reduction, stereo sound amplification, I do have my $200 and want to buy them now.