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Hearing Protection/Enhancement

Rick Ratzlaff

Actually hearing Aids. :( And protection.

Ya I know my bodies wearing out. Too many 7mmRM over the box of the pickup. Stupid kids.

Does anyone have a review on Sport Ear or other providers?

Connect Hearing would not give me my hearing test report. Crooks the lot of them.
 
I have been trying a set of earmuffs by Decibel Defense. They are rated at 34 db (I take all such ratings with a grain of salt) and seem to reduce noise significantly better than any of my other muffs. I use them in combination with foam plugs when shooting stuff like .44 Magnum revolvers and really notice the difference. Available on Amazon, their only drawback is that they are a bit bulky.
 
I have custom fitted ear protectors that I had made at a registered skeet shoot sometime ago. They are fine by them self for shotgun shooting, but I add electronic ones over the top when rifle shooting especially on benches under enclosures.

Bob
 
O.K. You got Norm's interest. My opinions are the result of a 40 year career designing analog integrated circuits with the last 10 years plus 10 yrs consulting for the hearing aid industry including the masters program in Audiology.

First, there is little difference between hearing aids and electronic hearing protection. Hearing aids have a vent from the outside to inside the ear canal. This is to reduce occlusion effect which is what makes your voice sound funny when you stick your fingers in your ear effectively sealing the ear canal. So, if you have
hearing aids, you can simply plug the vent with a small ball of Fun-Tac or similar sticky putty. Some newer design aids do not make it easy to find the vent.
An ordinary hearing aid has the same features as electronic hearing protection, compression that allows soft sounds to be heard normally and loud sounds sound quieter. Loud gun blasts will saturate the hearing aid amplifier which in most aids limits sound to the ear drum from the aid to about 117dB SPL. And, if the aid seals well, you will still have protection up to the level allowed by your mastoid bone. That is a lower limit of around 38-40 dB of attenuation with a 100% sealed ear canal.

Now, my preference is the Etymotic GSP-15 blast protector series and I use these for shooting 100%! I shoot F Class and long range BR so I shoot a lot!

I must warn you, I am prejudiced toward the Etymotic protection devices for two reasons. One is that they work well, have high fidelity and do not intrude on your ability to determine situational awareness. That means your GSP-15 does not screw up your ability to localize sound. This is important to a hunter, law enforcement and the military! The Etymotic devices do this for one BIG reason, they are Analog amplifiers.
I know everyone thinks digital is better, but in many cases they are wrong. Analog amplifiers for the most part have WAY better fidelity than all but a few digital amplifiers. This is due to the fact that for higher frequency response in a digital amplifier, the switching rate must be over two times the frequency response desired. This means they will draw more battery power for high fidelity! So, the response is cut down to save battery life! Also, digital amplifiers introduce a delay in the signal channel that is not necessarily matched from left to right and will depend on what each aid is doing at the time. This un-equal delay is what will screw up situational awareness. And, the second reason I am prejudiced is that I designed the amplifier in the Etymotic protectors! I use both the GSP-15 hearing protectors as well as the Etymotic analog K-AMP for my hearing aids.
There are many electronic protection devices on the market that will probably protect you as well as the GSP-15, but many are way more expensive and virtually no digital will sound as good as the GSP-15. That plus your situational awareness is NOT degraded by the Etymotic devices.

The basic K-AMP amplifier was the largest selling hearing aid amplifier for mild to moderate hearing losses from around 1988 to the turn of the century when digital aids took over. However, analogl aids still sound better than digital if you enjoy music and the compressor artifacts are typically less intrusive in an analog
K-AMP. When I leave the range after shooting a couple hours I often forget to remove my hearing protection as they are so un-noticeable!
 
Thanks Norm. I just called the company and they said they don't have a programmable device to enhance my losses and protect at the same time.
 
RustyRick said:
Actually hearing Aids. :( And protection.

Ya I know my bodies wearing out. Too many 7mmRM over the box of the pickup. Stupid kids.
I just went out on a limb, and bought a Walker game ear. . My idea was to try a regular foam plug in one ear, and this thing in another and see how that goes..

Does anyone have a review on Sport Ear or other providers?

Connect Hearing would not give me my hearing test report. Crooks the lot of them.
Click to expand...
 
Rkittine said
I have custom fitted ear protectors that I had made at a registered skeet shoot sometime ago. They are fine by them self for shotgun shooting, but I add electronic ones over the top when rifle shooting especially on benches under enclosures.

These have been around for ages and they work great, they make a mold of your ear send it off to company's like Electronic Shooters Protection in Colorado to have them made tons of shooters use them, and you can here a conversation too. If your under a canopy or have a really loud pistol with a comp on it you can double up with muffs
If you need to.
 
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This has been my best solution & does not seem to have a downside. Norm, I hope you read this & will comment. I have moderate to profound hearing loss. IIRC, it is in the range of 75 dBA. When my loss was less years ago, I wore in the ear/canal type hearing aids with good electronic muffs and seemed to get good protection when shooting rifles in a covered firing line. I could hear range commands and the in the ear type aids didn't give me too much feedback or squealing problem. As my hearing has continued to deteriorate over the years, I have had to go to the BTE type hearing aids for more power, and they will squeal to high heaven with muffs over them. My latest hearing aids have Blue Tooth features along with the gadgets to use that technology & it has been truly wonderful. I have also been blessed with a wonderful audiologist and she has been more than willing to work with me to solve a number of problems. We discussed the hearing protection issue a couple times and as I got a better understanding of the technology, I thought we might be able to make the BTE aids work with the muffs by programming out the microphones on the hearing aids & use my Blue Tooth connected remote microphone to do the "hearing". This has worked really well both for shooting rifles under a covered firing line and use in the wind. If you wear hearing aids, you know what I'm talking about as far as hearing in the wind. Using the Blue Tooth technology, I just turn on the remote mic & leave it clipped on my shirt pocket. We have the aids programmed to turn off the microphones on the BTE aids when the remote mic is turned on. This allows me to hear almost normally while wearing very protective muffs. By wearing the mic in my shirt pocket, my jacket shields the mic from the wind & greatly abates that aggravating characteristic of hearing aids also. I hope my personal experiences are helpful to some of you and look forward to Norm's comments about this approach to hearing protection along with still being able to hear while shooting.
 
SmokinJoe said:
This has been my best solution & does not seem to have a downside. Norm, I hope you read this & will comment. I have moderate to profound hearing loss. IIRC, it is in the range of 75 dBA. When my loss was less years ago, I wore in the ear/canal type hearing aids with good electronic muffs and seemed to get good protection when shooting rifles in a covered firing line. I could hear range commands and the in the ear type aids didn't give me too much feedback or squealing problem. As my hearing has continued to deteriorate over the years, I have had to go to the BTE type hearing aids for more power, and they will squeal to high heaven with muffs over them. My latest hearing aids have Blue Tooth features along with the gadgets to use that technology & it has been truly wonderful. I have also been blessed with a wonderful audiologist and she has been more than willing to work with me to solve a number of problems. We discussed the hearing protection issue a couple times and as I got a better understanding of the technology, I thought we might be able to make the BTE aids work with the muffs by programming out the microphones on the hearing aids & use my Blue Tooth connected remote microphone to do the "hearing". This has worked really well both for shooting rifles under a covered firing line and use in the wind. If you wear hearing aids, you know what I'm talking about as far as hearing in the wind. Using the Blue Tooth technology, I just turn on the remote mic & leave it clipped on my shirt pocket. We have the aids programmed to turn off the microphones on the BTE aids when the remote mic is turned on. This allows me to hear almost normally while wearing very protective muffs. By wearing the mic in my shirt pocket, my jacket shields the mic from the wind & greatly abates that aggravating characteristic of hearing aids also. I hope my personal experiences are helpful to some of you and look forward to Norm's comments about this approach to hearing protection along with still being able to hear while shooting.
Click to expand...
Replacing the original acrylic ear molds with properly made soft silicone molds eliminated the feedback I had to deal with when wearing muffs over the aids. You need a good "seal".
 
The seal is not the issue with BTE aids, it is the close proximity of the mics to the inside of the muffs.
 
SmokinJoe said:
The seal is not the issue with BTE aids, it is the close proximity of the mics to the inside of the muffs.
Click to expand...
Mine are BTE, Joe. I wear the Cros-Aid due to being completely deaf in my left ear. I have been wearing hearing aids for 40 years.
 
on my 4 weekend squirrel shooting trips, I will wear hearing protection from about 8 am to 5 pm or later and it's nice to be able to talk to the other shooters. not have to wear any muffs that make your head/ ears sweat. I am sold on the Etymotic GSP-15 just like Norm. the only draw back is wind, but that happens with all amplified hearing protection.
 
Smokinjoe,
You may want to ask your audiologist to show you how to plug the vent temporarily as well as insure the amplifier is set for a maximum output of ~120 dB SPL. This will give you all the benefits of your BTE aids as well as an amplifier that cannot put out more than 120 dB SPL just like the GSP-15. With this setup, and a good seal of the eartube/receiver the only blast you will hear will be that transferred into your inner ear by your mastoid bone which limits attenuation to around 40 dB.

I am NOT a fan of ear muffs. The only ones safe are very large and very expensive! The muffs popular with shooters are small and rarely offer more than a maximum of 26 dB attenuation. These need a pair of Etymotic Ety-Plugs or ER-20 hi-fi ear plugs that offer an additional 20 dB attenuation.

rkitine,
I don't know Norm Dotti. I am not a "noise consultant" even tho I have published articles on noise protection for motorcycle riders and shooters. I am an electronic engineer that designed all kinds of electronic integrated circuits including hearing aid
amplifiers. While I worked for Etymotic Research I attended the graduate program in audiology at San Jose State University. So, I call myself a Quasi Audiologist!
 
A lot of people selling molded plugs seem to never run out of foolish customers. Take those molded plugs and pitch them, sooner the better. Think of this, why is it easy to push a golf tee into the ground, yet not so easy to do it backwards, that plug is doing the same thing to your ears. They have a large outer surface area transferring shock waves down to a small surface just before your ear drum. Although you may think it's stopping the noise, your ears are getting a beating.

FWIW, Keep in mind a lot of destructive noise is undetectable, or close to it.
 
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Well you guys convinced me to try a pair of these. I have looked at them in the past but was leery of wasting money on the cheaper units. I have been using ESP's for probably close to 15 years and that pair is need of replacement, but I really didn't want to shell out that kind of money. Hence the Etymotic. They are on sale for $254 with a 30 day trial period, so what the hey we'll give them a try. My main concern is getting enough amplification as my hearing is pretty bad to the point conversations are almost impossible without my aids. I hope these will do the job for me. I mostly shoot sporting clays nowadays and being able to communicate and hear the traps release is nice. Thank you Norm-I've waited long enough for information like you gave. Lonnie
 
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