Electronic shooting muffs - can anyone reccomend a good pair?

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Agent19 wrote:

I just got a pair of these, they aren't electronic.
http://www.surefire.com/maxexp/main/co_disp/displ/prrfnbr/24306/sesent/00/EP3-Sonic-Defenderssupandreg-sup

I haven't tried them at the range yet, butI can hear normal sounds just fine.

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When you get to try these, let us know how they work. I have been looking at them for a while.

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As one of the new owners of Pro Ears I can tell you we really believe in our product. We even adjusted our warranty policy so in the case there is something wrong thereis no charge at all in the first 90 days. Just send it in and we fix it or replace it. After the 90 days (elctrical failures will occur normally sooner than this) and there is a $29.95 charge for shipping and handling but no chagres for diagnostics, parts, and labor. Our Gold models we have 5 year warranty, you can't buy much with that warranty anymore, but we cana because we make them in the USA-here in Michigan. I hate yo hear about a bad customer servcie situation, and we are trying real hard to be better.

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'Couple of cotton balls 'n a wad of spit... 'Good to go.

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cbr,

My issue was after 90 days. Still, there should be NO CHARGE, EVEN FORSHIPPING AND HANDLINGfor god's sake (let alonediagnosing andfixing) a productthat showed up as DEFECTIVE -- through no fault of mine -- while it is under warranty, especially if it's supposed to be such a good product and as expensive as it is, so your "5-Year Waranty" is very misleading. There isNO good explanation for that at all. Period.

What, Pro Ears doesn't make enough $$ on the product itself thatit hasto grub another $30 from customers sending in aDEFECTIVE product? [a rhetorical question]

The Pro Ears lady I talked to on the phone back then about this was very friendly and caring, I'll say that of her, but she had to go by company policy and charge me the $30. And when I got the muffs back, there was no explanation or comments just what was wrong with them (if I was right in MY "diagnostics" of the problem)...I would have appreciated knowing your official "diagnostics" details.

I will not buy any Pro Ears again on that point alone, and I have told and continue to tell others the same thing: Buy something other than Pro Ears. I can assure you that this has cost Pro Ears much more than the $30 I had to -- in protest -- fork over to get mine fixed and working...not to mention all the batteries I had to buy because it kept running them down and I finally believed the muffswere defective. I used to postGOOD things about Pro Ears some time back, BEFORE this "warranty" incident, but now I post negative things. No need tothank me, Pro Ears deserves it. Beware the customer scorned/mistreated.

Pro Ears should have beenashamed of such a "warranty"policy THEN, but you still have it even now. That's disgraceful.

-- John D.

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I gotta agree with Cloudcroft on this one. I have had many products serviced under warranty, and insome cases, I have had to pay for the return shipping, and they cover the cost of getting them back in my hands. That would not cost $30 to get these to Michigan.

What is the handling charge? That is BS! Why should a customer pay you to handle your own defective product?

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You guys make good points, especially if something shows up dfective, it shouldn't and I don't think that is common, but agree with you that is 100% on us. Normally, the product is used well before the 90 days are up. I can tell that if it happenned today we would cover it. The issue is that not all kinds of returns are "straight up". For example, we just had one whenit came in 1 month before the 3 year expiration, and the entire left cup was missing, it had a glove over headband on that side, and the circuit board was removed and fell out of the box. It was really abused, and it really smelled like it was under water for a long time and dried out. Also, what the warranty S&H does is help weed out bad returns; for example we will say on the phoneto please check the batteries, thye say they are fine. The unit arrives, and the batteries are installed incorrectly; we still have to do all the diagnostics. You would be surprised how high the % of returns come in because of dead batteies or installed wrong-and all of this is spelled out int he instuctions booklet.t In anycase, you both make good points we need to take on baord and consider, just wanted you to know the other side.

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cbr,

By all means, nail the scammers who returnyour product they abused trying to get it fixed under warranty -- I agree with you 100% you NOT honor any warranty for those sorry people -- just don't treat customersreturninglegit warranty items the same way. If you can tellwhen muffs were abused -- and I wouldcertainlythink so (after all, YOU make them) -- you should also be able to tell which were not abused.

In my case, I take VERY good care of ALL my stuff. I just had a defective on/off switch in one of the ear cups that was ALWAYS draining my batteries EVEN WHEN TURNED OFF and it took me a long time to find out it was not MY fault (forgetting to turn them off or accidentally turing them on while handling the muffs) but a defective componet.

-- John D.

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Because of matches I use a Dillion set of ear muff's so I can hear the buzzer and commands and still protect my hearing. I owned them now 3 years with no problems and it is not going to set you back as much as pro Ears would.
S/F Vic

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I also use Dillon's electronic muff's. Pro ears is better but a tad over my gun budget lol.
S/F Vic

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UPDATE (4-5-2010):


I'm bringing this older thread back up again because I have an UPDATE -- which has resulted in a changeof my opinion of Pro Ears -- and wish to include it here for the written record since I can not in good conscience leavethis thread'hanging' (incomplete) without its (for me) proper ending.

And as we all know, once a thread is posted, it's here 'forever' and so will turn up every time someone does a search for any topic our posts cover, -- in this case "electronic ear muffs" and in my case in particular, the Pro Ears brand electronic ear muffs.

As can be seen in my earlier (and negative) responses above, I had sent my Pro Ears (2005 model "Dimension 1" version Pro Ears) in for repair for (apparently) a slow battery drain in one ear-cup and it was supposedly repaired at that time...although I was charged 'a nominal fee' for it. All this time since then I thought my repaired Pro Ears were working just fine but very recently, I turned it on and AGAIN, one ear-cup was dead. So being a bit upset with this, and even after all this time had passed, I called Pro Ears and told them the SAME problem is happening again. I was thinking I would just send them back, tell them to keep them and forget about Pro Ears forever more as I wasn't going to mess with them anymore due to this persistent dead battery (for one ear-cup only) problem.

The lady on the phone (Sher?) told me to send them in, gave me a UPS shipping account # (so I didn't have to pay postage) and said to put on the label ATTN: Bill McCort. I went by my local UPS store, sent it off, Altus Brands (Pro Ears parent company) got it, Bill repaired it and sent it back to me -- all of which was done very quickly (within about 10 days or less).

But the most important thing I would like to add here in the update is the details of this latest experience with the Pro Ears people, which distinguishes this experience from my earlier one...

Since my 2005 model Pro Ears Dimension 1 model ear muffs were no longer being produced, Bill replaced both ear cup circuit boards with current (and basically equivalent but simplified) Predator Pro 300 circuit boards. On top of that, he replaced the two ear-cup pad/seals with new "pro-form leather" seals and replaced the old headband with a new one of the same "pro-form leather" material, and as well, new gray foam inserts inside the ear-cups themselves.

In short, I basically got a new set of Pro Ears -- except for the original Dimension 1 ear-cup shells holding it all together.

I told the Altus brands/Pro Ears office staff (and Bill at Pro Ears) that I would come back here to do this update because I wanted people who were -- and WILL be researching "electronic ear muffs" or "hearing protection" topics (or even looking for reviews/comments on the Pro Ears brand itself) to know that I am NOW able once again to recommend Pro Ears as a top-drawer product. Also, being AMERICAN MADE makes a big difference to ME, as well as those of us who DO try to purchase/support American companies and 'Made in the USA' products...which is increasingly hard to find nowadays due to all the cheap foreign crap we are pretty much forced to buy (like PRC/ChiCom crap, which I hate).

Pro Ears paid for shipping my 5-years old Dimension 1 ear muffs back to them, repaired them (no charge this time!), rebuilt the ear muffs to a basically equivalent CURRENT model (Predator 300 Pro) and sent them back to me -- all at no charge to me.

Additionally, the ladies at Customer Service/Sales at Altus Brands/Pro Ears -- Sher (sp?) and office manager Shannon -- were quite helpful and courteous during my calls/e-mails to them about this matter. And Bill himself was the very same in the letter he included in the return box explaining what had been done to revolve my problem with my Dimension 1 Pro Ears and and everyone offered their apologies for any problems, angst and inconvenience I had experienced previously. And let me know that customer satisfaction with their products is a major goal with them. I believe it.

The bottom line is, I now have "new" Pro Ears and due to how this latest interaction with Pro Ears (Altus Brands, the parent company) has transpired, I am hereby resuming my recommendation of this American-made product for those looking for top-drawer/higher-end electronic ear protection...and will say so when I come across current and any future posts where someone is asking about or help with choosing a quality electronic ear muff product.

Yes, they are still pricey, but most quality products are. More importantly, however, I am glad my initial faith in American-made Pro Ears has been restored.

Regards to all,

-- John D.

P.S. Bill also told me via a phone conversation today that they have a 'rebate program' where I can send in my Pro Ears and can get a $50 rebate towards a new pair of Pro Ears Gold model ear muffs. I told him that in the future, should I want to get a new pair of higher-end electronic ear muffs, I'll probably just buy a new pair of Pro Ears Gold and keep the pair I have now to loan to a shooting buddy if need be. That way I will have TWO pairs of quality hearing protection products.

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ianto94 wrote:

I have Peltor Tactical 6S sterio $66 from Wholesale Hunter.Work well with long guns and handguns.

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*****
DITO

You can talk and hear Range Commands as well as dampen the Boom of the loudest pistols. I bought mine from Midway...

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cloudcraft - Great to hear of you recent experience. I don't have any stock nor am I involved with Pro-Ears in any way including I don't not own one of their products. However I like they way you have posted about you change of opinion and that Pro-Ears has gotten their act together. Any time you start off a new company, no matter what your ideas and business plans are you are going to make some bad decisions. If a customers first experience with you is bad then it will be extremely hard to overcome. Looks like Pro-Ears learned a lot before things fell apart and was willing to change. Little things like shipping charges and sticking to warranty dates exactlycan literally make or break a company no matter how good the product actually is. I couple of years ago I bought a set of Callaway golf clubs off of EBay. They were about one year old and in perfect condition. The first time I went out I used the 4 iron to pitch a ball and the shaft broke. Since I didn't know what kind of warranty or what the company would do I stopped by my local golf smith and he said it would be about $70 and for a similar shaft and he could not get an exact replacement.

I called the company and the fellow said do you want to send it to us or us to send you a shipping lable? I said how about you send me a shipping lable. I wound up that they replaced the shaft with the exact model and paid shipping both ways. Took about a week total. My bag now contains only Callaway clubs. (Not quite redy to challenge Phil or Tiger) Those little things make a big difference for any company and for you to come back on here to post your new experience means that they must have really gone out of their way both to you and in looking at their policies. Sounds like a good company when I get ready for some electronic muffs.

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PT111,

Thanks for your comments...

Yes, just as I would (and have) taken to task a company that, IMO, did me wrong, likewise I believe when a company does right that ALSO should be noted.

In this case, it was an amended 'customer review' which also needed to be done in order to update my experience. One of my pet peeves isa post -- usuallynegative ones about some product or service -- that is just left hanging (no resolution ever given, no followup) and so no one knows what finally happened, good or bad.

IIRC, Pro Ears was purchased by Altus Brands a while back so it's likely my first experience was under the older (original?) Pro Ears ownership and not the new (I am not sure on that detail however). But even if it had been the same people, THIS time they tooka 5-year old product back and basically rebuilt it, at no charge to me, so I can't complain.

While I generally shop around the find the best quality item in whatever my budget is at the time, even if Pro Ears is a bit more expensive (and evenIF (?) other companies lke Silencio/Peltor also pays shipping both ways for a currentOR a 'legacy' 5-year old product), after this latest experience I likely will just stay with Pro Ears should I want to purchase another set of electronic muffs with the latest technology (which Pro Ears is working on now and introducing soon).

Regards,

-- John D.

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Agent19 wrote:

I just got a pair of these, they aren't electronic.
http://www.surefire.com/maxexp/main/co_disp/displ/prrfnbr/24306/sesent/00/EP3-Sonic-Defenderssupandreg-sup

I haven't tried them at the range yet, butI can hear normal sounds just fine.

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+1 for these. Super cheap and work great, just make sure to get the right fit. I have used them for a couple of years now with no problem.



I also use the Impact Sport, I got them from Cabela's for 50 to 70 dollars. They are electronic with a radio plug. Nice low profile and good coverage with shooting glasses on. Highly recommend these.:lol:

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The good thing about Pro Ears is the 5 year warranty for Gold units, the units are made in the USA-and most importnatly they have 1.5 milisecond attack time-how fast the respond to gunfire-beleive this is fastest int he industry. They are very comfortable and have leather like ears seal that do not stick or slip around like vinyl.

Check out the video.

www.pro-ears.com