You may notice an odd black box attached to the side of my shooting headset. It is the result of a few nights where I could not sleep and started searching Amazon for a new set of ear Pro and an idea formed. Could I make a Bluetooth set of ear pro that did not break the bank?
I was missing my music when using ear protection and I also realized that if I was in the middle of an hour long session on a live range I would never hear my phone ring. On a normal day I would not care if I heard it or not, but sometimes I really do need to hear my phone. If I am on call for work it can be time sensitive or if certain people need to get ahold of me for emergencies I need to hear my phone. I can set everyone’s ring tone to silent except for the few people I need to hear from and when those select few people call it will alert me through the Bluetooth dongle I installed. That way I do not have to constantly look at my phone.
When I am working around machinery, saws or anything loud enough that I need ear protection I can also listen to my music through the head phones. The beauty is that they are electronic so I can turn the ambient volume up and still hear what’s going on over the music and still have situational awareness. Important in environments where you need to know what is going on around you.
The ear pro and music combination is also beneficial on overnight fishing boats and airline flights. If you have someone in the racks on the boat who is snoring like a banshee you can toss these on with some light music to help you sleep, if you sleep on your back like I do. They won’t work as well if you are a side sleeper but they are thin enough that you could probably manage. On an airline flight they are great because they block out that crying baby and the loud talkers behind you and allowing you to hear your movie.
I will be the first to say that the quality is lacking a bit. Its not going to replace a nice set of head phones, but it will protect your ears and a normal set of head phones will not. This is also assuming you don’t blast your music through the headset – remember your protecting your ears here not destroying them. The music to me is a bonus – a good one.
The headset I am using is linked here-
And the dongle linked here-
I used double sided stickey Velcro to secure the dongle to the side, that allows me to move it between headsets and speakers at will. It plugs into the head phone port on the side of the headset and the short cord stays out of the way. Make sure you plan out where to put it before sticking it to the side – there is not much cord to play with.
Setup was straight forward; just pair the dongle to your phone like you would any other Bluetooth device. I control the volume from my phone and use the head sets volume control only for picking up ambient noise and people talking when needed.
One of the good things about the headset is that if the batteries die you only lose the Bluetooth – the headset will still function as ear protection it just won’t amplify any sounds. To me that’s important because they would be worthless if they stopped protecting when they died, or if the protection started to go down as the batteries drained.
I do wish they offered a bit more protection. They are at the cusp of what I would deem acceptable for shooting but good for work around the house. If I am shooting true heavy caliber gun I will probably double up on ear pro – but I do that anyway so it’s not a huge deal.
All in all this was well worth the money to me. I get a multi-use product that allows me some safe and security and comfort. I can use these around the house when working on projects, at the range, or traveling so I can keep my sanity when the kid behind me on a plane decides that his scream should compete with the sound of a F-22 taking off. I will probably get the same set up for a few friends as birthday and Christmas gifts this year. It’s a small amount of money to keep your hearing safe.
