The Caldwell E-Max Pro are updated electronic muffs from Caldwell. I’ve owned a set of their old standby eMax low profile emuffs (review here) for quite a while and couldn’t resist when I saw this set on sale at Cabela’s.
Pros:
Cost: $35 on sale is incredibly cheap.
Auto-shutoff: Should be mandatory in 2022 but my Walker Razors don’t have this and they kill AAA batteries whenever people leave em on. Small feature but super important to me. Maybe 3 AAA batteries will last longer than the standard 2 AAA batteries that most eMuffs run with?
Compact: The Caldwell E-Max Pro headset packs down very nice and compact
Headphone jack: if that’s something you care about.
Cons:
Bad audio quality: For the price, they’re OK but far from great. Microphones on top of the cups also seems like a bad idea: they’re gonna get rained on and they’re not positioned conveniently for hearing. You hear lots of hiss/buzz if you turn up the volume.
Square top of headband: They pack down great but this is the downside. Who has a flat top head?
Hard to find buttons: They’re unobtrusive but not at all tactile and you’ll find yourself hunting around for them and not finding them with your fingers.
Range Guest eMuffs on the Cheap
For the current price of 1 Howard Leight Impact Sport, you could buy 2 sets of these and still have money left over for ammo. In the end, that’s what I think these eMuffs are great for: compact, electronic hearing protection that’s good enough for guests you take to the range so they can hear your instructions and they won’t kill the battery when they inevitably forget to turn them off at the end of the day because it’s got auto-off. They’re kinda crappy for some reasons but for the price, they’re well worth it as a second or third set of ears for your guests.
These are better than Walker Razors but not as good as Howard Leight Impact Sports.
