I have no idea how these perform on a shooting range, but I've found they're great with power tools. (I got them on Amazon.)
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- They block out noises very well with the electronic gadgetry switched off. The electronics is not, as far as I can tell, for active noise suppression. It is actually to amplify sound (more about that later). The reason they work so well to block noise is presumably simply because they are two ginormous hard plastic cups filled with sound-dampening padding.
- I suppose it depends on the size of your head and ears, but I actually find them quite comfortable; much more so than other earmuffs I have worn. I get a little sweaty inside of them, but I guess that's just an inherent effect of well-sealing muffs. I've heard there may exist some brands that have moisture-permeable materials of some sort, but really I don't think it's a huge deal.
- It lets you plug in a standard 3.5mm audio three-ring audio jack to listen to any portable audio device that accepts standard headphones (MP3 player, smartphone, portable 8-track rig, whatever). Sound quality ain't great, but I wasn't looking for high-end headphones here. I'll stick to my Sennheisers for listening to Bach, but it's nice to be able to listen to a podcast or book on tape while doing something that is simultaneously noisy and boring (sanding and lawn mowing come to mind).
- Finally... the electronic gadgetry is just plain magic. Apparently, the problem it's trying to solve has to do with the intended use of these earmuffs on a shooting range. The same earmuffs that protect your ears from being damage by the noise of the actual shots also prevent you from hearing each other say things, which I imagine can be rather dangerous in a location where lots of people are firing guns all the time. The way around this is to add a microphone on the outside and a little headphone speaker on the inside, with an amplifier and some control electronics in between. The whole thing is set up to cap the noise reaching your ear at 82dB, and do some sort of filtering, so it doesn't go and amplify the shots and negate the purpose of wearing earmuffs in the first place. The upshot is that you can be in a noisy place and have the noise effectively blocked but still hear somebody talk. Whoa.
