Howard Leight Impact Sport electronic ear muffs

They are great! First make sure they have a good seal around your ear, they arnt rated as high in terms of NRR rating as some other muff style hearing protection (I pair them with buds indoors). When there is a loud noise such as hands clapping or a gun firing, the headphones do not cancel the noise, they cancel the amplification effect. When you have these muffs on and turn the volume on, you'll notice you can hear as if they were not on if not better then before. I pair them with ear buds because with the volume cranked up and both layers on, I can hear voices as though I'm not wearing anything. Then once a high power (dB) sound is received in the mic on the muffs, the muff automatically attenuates (lessens rapidly in an exponential way) the amplification so that the blast isn't also amplified thereby hurting your ears worse then if you had them off. They sound canceling ability of the muffs is only as good as the padding inside the muff. If your not interested in hearing others, or if not interested in wearing buds also then something with a higher NRR may be a better choice. Some people I'm sure will be fine with only the muffs, but for max reduction in the sound of shots, I'd go with buds also.

I find they offer plenty of ear protection of paired with earbuds, I also enjoy how low profile they are. It's nice completely forgetting I even have them on when at the range because it's no struggle to hear others speak.

Long story short, this style muff has the same sound reduction with the power off, as when they are on in terms of gun fire and other loud noises.

Hope that explains it, if not let me know.

 

No problem! To test the seal just put them on and if you press them to your head then sounds shouldn't get softer. If they seem to work better when your pressing on them then rearrange them until that no longer happens and there is no difference. You should be good to go! Happy shooting.