Electronic hearing protection and direction of sounds.

[Dmr400]

I hunt coyotes for a living and have been doing a lot more close cover shotgun type stands this year. For the last few years I've been relying mostly on suppressed rifles. I already have tinnitus and would like to save what hearing I have left, but I need to be able to hear coyotes howling and what direction they are with a high degree of accuracy, as well as coyotes moving in from the sides up close in the thick stuff. I often use a compass to shoot an azimuth to sounds so I can plot them on OnX, so thats the degree of accuracy I'm used to. Can anyone share their experience with the Axil type electronic hearing protection and how well you can perceive the direction of sounds? I could accept a little loss of accuracy, but I have a set of electronic over the ear muffs and they really distort direction. Thanks everyone.

 

[Pro953]

I have a set of Otto Micros I have used for about a month now. I have not used the Axils. I would say I am fairly happy with the ability to pickup direction, but I did find it took me a while to get the ear position and everything right. If they are angled wrong in my ear I found things were a bit distorted or lost. WAY better than the 100.00 type units, but who knows what if any price could provide a natural sound.

I would love to able to hunt without them, but the long term hearing loss is not worth it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[huntnful]

I’ve used the OTTO’s for 4 years. Best $400 I ever spent. Add better foam attachments to them and they’re excellent

 

[BLJ]

I’ve used the OTTO’s for 4 years. Best $400 I ever spent. Add better foam attachments to them and they’re excellent

Do you have the Micros listed above or sis there a different model? Thanks.

 

[2ski]

I would call the otto pro lady and ask her some questions you have. She herself called me back as she was putting dinner on the table for her family. Really informative and helpful.

 

[huntnful]

Do you have the Micros listed above or sis there a different model? Thanks.

I have these two items specifically

 

[TheGDog]

None of them will give you the perceived audio directionality you seek, that's at the same level as your human ears.

If I remember correctly it's because of the hairs inside your ear canal, as that pressure wave of sound hits your inner-ear hairs and moves those hairs, there will be a directionality to it. So some hairs nerve-endings will fire first in the line of time, then more and more as the pressure wave continues on and finally passes thru you.

To a much less of a fine-tune degree, rotating your head with the hearing protecting in place... can pseudo give you directionality detection if you pay attention to volume increase when your head is pointed more directly at the sound source, but that's about it.

 

[TaperPin]

None of them will give you the perceived audio directionality you seek, that's at the same level as your human ears.

If I remember correctly it's because of the hairs inside your ear canal, as that pressure wave of sound hits your inner-ear hairs and moves those hairs, there will be a directionality to it. So some hairs nerve-endings will fire first in the line of time, then more and more as the pressure wave continues on and finally passes thru you.

To a much less of a fine-tune degree, rotating your head with the hearing protecting in place... can pseudo give you directionality detection if you pay attention to volume increase when your head is pointed more directly at the sound source, but that's about it.

I’ve seen a fun science experiment that I haven’t tried myself, but was from a reputable science education influencer so I believe it’s true and very much agrees with what you are saying about sound hitting the ear canal a certain way. A soft putty is placed over the inside of the ears smoothing out the shape, but not blocking the ear canal. A blindfolded person will have a very hard time telling direction of a sound, like they are off by 45 to 90 degrees.