EARMOR, Peltor or Howard Leight?
The EARMOR M31 attenuates NRR 22 dB and costs around sixty euros. The Peltor ComTac III attenuates NRR 23 dB and starts around three hundred and fifty. One decibel of difference, six times the price. That asks for an explanation.
The attenuation figures sit surprisingly close
Let's put the facts side by side. The Howard Leight Impact Sport, for years the standard entry muff in shooting sports, sits at NRR 22 dB and costs around fifty dollars. The EARMOR M31 also sits at NRR 22 dB. The 3M Peltor ComTac III comes in at NRR 23 dB.
One decibel is barely noticeable in practice; it falls within the margin of the test method itself. Judge a muff purely on attenuation and all three buy you roughly the same thing. Yet the price differs by a factor of six or more. That gap sits somewhere else.
What you actually pay for with Peltor
Peltor builds for military procurement, and you notice that in the things a spec sheet cannot hold. Housings that survive a drop onto concrete, electronics tested in extreme cold and heat, and a production consistency that stays identical for years because an armed force must be able to reorder the same part five years from now.
On top of that comes the refinement of the sound processing. On pricier headsets amplified ambient sound feels more natural and the transition after a shot is less abrupt. Wear a muff eight hours a day and that is the difference between pleasant and tiring. For two hours at the range on a weekend most people barely notice.
Where EARMOR takes the win
EARMOR did one thing the rest of the budget segment did not: put the military NATO TP-120 connector on the M32. That means eighty euros buys you a headset that works with your radio, where the established brands quickly charge a multiple of that.
The same goes for the helmet versions. An M31H or M32H that clips straight onto ARC rails costs you under a hundred euros. That puts equipment once reserved for units with a procurement budget within reach of an airsoft team paying out of pocket.
The reality check
There is a reason the IPSC appointed a headset brand as Major Partner for the first time in 2026 and picked EARMOR for it, and why the range officers at World Shoots wear this brand. For competitive shooting this is more than enough headset.
Drag a muff under a helmet through the woods week in week out, in the rain, and the difference in build quality does become relevant. But the honest question is: how many shooters actually do that? For the vast majority the extra three hundred euros is better spent on ammunition and range time.
