Etymotic GSP-15 or 3M Peltor TEP-100 Earplugs your thoughts on these?

[Macropod]

Just wondering what people are using with regards to these electronic earplugs.

Tending towards the Etymotic Gunsport GSP-15's at the moment. Might pull the trigger on these but would I would appreciate any user feedback. Thanks in advance.

 

[357Mag]

Hearing protection -

Macro -

Howdy !

Use of " earplugs " + ear " muffs " is best. Muffs cover the pourous bone areas by the ears,
to also help prevent encroachment of undesired percussive noise...... in-addition to reducing noise introduced to the hearing canals. Earplugs alone, are a partial help.


With regards,
357Mag

 

[Mark Johnson]

I have the 3m ones. They are pretty nice and do the job, sound quality leaves something to be desired compared to Sordins or Pro Ears.

 

[normmatzen]

First, muffs plus plugs is not a reasonable solution. That is because simple foam plugs along afford as good or better protection as plugs plus muffs. Incidentally, correct insertion is mandatory for any ear canal worn devices!!!!

Now, as to electronic protection. First, a dis-claimer. I am VERY prejudiced toward the Etymotic GSP-15. That is due to the simple fact I worked for Etymotic Research prior to retiring and I designed the amplifier in the GSP-15. I am a graduate Electronics Engineer as well as Audiology training at a local university graduate program.
Electronic hearing protectors range in price from $200 to $1200. Most electronic devices are digital, in fact I am not aware of any that are analog other than the Etymotic devices. Actually, I do have experience with Digital Hearing aid amplifiers. While at Etymotic, we developed a digital amplifier called the Digi-K. This name came from the original analog amplifier Etymotic sold during the 90's and still today.This amplifier was called the K-AMP. Our Digi-K worked very much like the K-AMP which was our intention. The Digi-K had the best fidelity of ANY competing hearing aid amp. It was bested only by the K-AMP. The K-AMP is the amplifier in the GSP-15. Why are analog amplifiers better for hearing protection? Very simple, one reason is the superior fidelity analog amplifiers have. The average hearing aid wearer would be amazed how poor the fidelity is in most digital aids. That is because for better fidelity, faster processing as well as more "BITS" are needed. Both of these reduce battery life as it takes more power for higher fidelity. Not so with analog, the GSP-15 uses a very small hearing aid battery (#10) but it will last up to a month if the battery door is opened during non-use. The other reason analog is better is that analog amplifiers do not degrade situational awareness, in fact can improve it if you have a slight hearing loss. Digital amplifiers degrade situational awareness as the digital amplifier adds a delay in the amplifier and this delay can bedifferent in both ears due to different instantaneous gain setting. What is situational awareness? In a nutshell, it is sound localization. The GSP-15 was designed to not damage sound localization so they would be approved by the military and police. It is kind of nice to be able to hear the bad guy and be able to LOCALIZE his position. And, Etymotic did the independent lab testing to get them approved.
I never shoot practice or competition without my GSP-15s.