in ear active hearing protection

[trinydex]

i recently saw these

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40nwGTLz8mE

3M Peltor TEP-100


did some quick searching and found that there's a fairly well established market for in ear active hearing protection.

http://www.etymotic.com/consumer/hearing-protection.html

etymotic being one of the most well marketed companies doing this.


why aren't these more prevalent? i get that the comms are not integrated, that could be really troublesome. is that the only reason? it seems like recharging these is easy. no more hot ears, no more special eye pro to prevent clamping head fatigue. the cost is comparable to a set of sordins or high end peltors.

what's going on here? is the technology just not that great?

[mig1nc]

I would say price. 80-90% of what I see on the range are Howard Leights or similar. Those are six times the price.

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

[Defaultmp3]

Also note that not everyone can stand having such things stuck in their ears for hours at the time (an issue with hearing aids, for example), along with the fact that plugs don't provide complete hearing protection; muffs are still needed for protection against noise that travels via bone conduction.

[trinydex]

Also note that not everyone can stand having such things stuck in their ears for hours at the time (an issue with hearing aids, for example), along with the fact that plugs don't provide complete hearing protection; muffs are still needed for protection against noise that travels via bone conduction.

i feel like having muffs on for hours is worse.

also, i feel like soft ear plugs offer the best sound reduction. they're better than everything else, they're just slow to put on and of course make communication difficult. in that sense i have a hard time believing that the foam style (peltor has a foam insert option) in-ear active ear protection aren't more effective than any ear muff.

[Defaultmp3]

i feel like having muffs on for hours is worse.

also, i feel like soft ear plugs offer the best sound reduction. they're better than everything else, they're just slow to put on and of course make communication difficult. in that sense i have a hard time believing that the foam style (peltor has a foam insert option) in-ear active ear protection aren't more effective than any ear muff.I've used IEMs for many years (I prefer Shure, although Etymotic is also a key player in that market), and I still occasionally get itchy ears; I don't use the foam tips which might be the issue (I use the silicone triple flange tips), but then again, there are many different types of foams, too. Note that most of the active in-ear plugs come with silicone flange tips as the standard. For some people, after a couple of hours (or even minutes), the itching in the ear can become quite unbearable, depending on the tip being used, especially with the extra weight of the electronics, compared to straight plugs.

As for hearing protection itself, the issue is that the in-ear hearing protection merely stops the sound from entering the ear canal; sound waves can still enter from the bones. Muffs cover more surface area, so they will provide a more complete protection; at the extreme end, such as working with aircraft catapulting off a carrier, even muffs and plugs combined aren't enough, entire helmets are needed in order to provide proper hearing protection.

I'm sure they work just fine, provided that one can tolerate having them in one's ear (which one will simply have to try in order to discern whether or not it is an issue), but they are relatively costly, and being so small, probably quite a bit easier to misplace, and have shorter battery life/need to be charged.

And, for those that qualify, Etymotic does offer a pro-deal and they do have active in-ear ear pro on that list.

[trinydex]

I get what you're saying now. I've never donned hearing protection for anything other than shooting, so I'm not familiar with the ppe for activities louder than that.

I guess with so little market penetration for shooting, I will stay away from these for the time being.