Howard Leight Impact Sport

Wanted to do a short review on hearing protection on the range. We all know without any type of hearing protection are you more likely you have some hearing loss. Not sure about you, but I like hearing the world. If ammo was quiet it would be a simple solution but unfortunately it isn’t that simple.

Degree of hearing loss refers to the severity of the loss. The table below shows one of the more commonly used classification systems. The numbers are representative of the patient’s hearing loss range in decibels (dB HL).

Degree of hearing loss	Hearing loss range (dB HL)
Normal	–10 to 15
Slight	16 to 25
Mild	26 to 40
Moderate	41 to 55
Moderately severe	56 to 70
Severe	71 to 90
Profound	91+

So while on the range, protection for what you have is not something you need to think of but should be like remembering your wallet. I’ve purchased a wide variety of hearing protection from soft ear pads. After not being so satisfied with what I had, I decided to look around a bit. I’ve heard of talks on a brand called Howard Leight whom made hearing protection that would echo everything around you to completely cancelling high decibels noise. So I figured I would give them a try. My first impression was would they squeeze my head? LOL, might sound a little funny but if you are wearing hearing protection for a long time, you want them to be a little comfortable as well as able to stay on your head. So I guess a little snug was ok. Then the 2 AAA batteries that the Impact Sport takes was a big draw back. They also came with a 3.5mm jack that you would plug one end into the headphones and the other into something like your phone or an iPod.  They were light, compact so I was ready for the range.

Shortly after arriving at the range, you quickly need to put your hearing protections on as rounds being fired in the back would be something that would not help keep your hearing safe. Once on my head and turned on, it was simple Amazing as to what I could and could not hear. The shots fired in the background was simply something of a plinker being shot. Then with the person next to me, sounded clear as day. Light weight, did not press on my head like other headphones would. Plugged in my 3.5 mm jack to my phone and played Pandora. Thought you had some good hearing audio headphones. Nothing to dramatic but good enough to draw out almost all background noise.

After now having these for sometime now, I would have to rate these:

Just for the batteries. This may be minimal to most, but would be annoying if the batteries died on you at the range with no spares. This is my take. Bellow is some pictures of the Howard Leight Impact Sports.