Walker’s XCEL Digital Electronic Hearing Protection Earmuffs with Bluetooth & Voice Clarity

These have been excellent range muffs and I'm very happy with the purchase. The electronic hearing protection does exactly what it's supposed to do: loud sounds are suppressed while quieter sounds and conversations remain easy to hear. That's especially useful at public ranges where hearing range commands and safety instructions is important, or when I'm shooting with my wife and don't want to constantly remove hearing protection to communicate. One of the reasons I chose these over the Walker's Razor series was the number of reviews suggesting that the sound passthrough and overall audio quality were noticeably better. After using them, I think those reviews were probably right. The sound reproduction feels natural and conversations are easy to understand. What I like: * effective suppression of gunfire * clear amplification of voices and ambient sounds * comfortable for extended range sessions * intuitive controls * good overall value Comfort has also been good. I've worn them through several hours of shooting without issue. I could see them becoming uncomfortable during an all-day event, but for typical range sessions they've been perfectly acceptable. In terms of protection, I generally use them by themselves when shooting handguns and rimfire firearms. For larger centerfire rifles, especially when shooting near other people with muzzle brakes or high-volume rifles, I still prefer to double up with foam plugs underneath. That's more about my personal hearing protection philosophy than a criticism of the earmuffs. I also own a pair of Axil MXIIs, and in terms of pure performance I don't notice a dramatic difference between the two. If I had to pick a winner, I actually prefer the button layout and controls on the Walkers. The Axils have the advantage of being rechargeable, but the Walkers are easier for me to operate while wearing them. Overall, these feel like a meaningful step up from the entry-level electronic earmuffs without jumping into premium-price territory. If you're looking for electronic hearing protection with good sound quality, solid protection, and comfortable all-around performance, these are easy to recommend.

!!!!! READ ENTIRE REVIEW WORTH READING BEFORE YOU PURCHASE ANY OTHER KIND!!!! I GO TO MY GUN RANGE AT LEAST ONCE A WEEK OR MORE TO PRACTICE AND EVEN THE OWNER, TRAINERS AND RANGE STAFF TRIED THESE OVER WHAT THEY WEAR AND COULDN'T BELIEVE THE SOUND QUALITY AND PROTECTION SO THE OWNER PURCHASED THESE FOR ALL EMPLOYEES AND SINCE THEY HAVE WALKIE TALKIES THAT HAVE BLUETOOTH ALREADY THEY SEEMLESLY CONNECTED TO THESE XCEL BLUETOOTH EAR MUFFS. DEFINITELY THE BEST HEADBAND STYLE EAR MUFFS I'VE EVER TRIED FOR DIGITAL EAR MUFF PROTECTION. SOUND QUALITY IS EXCEPTIONAL AND VERY CLEAR FROM THE HI-GAIN OMNI DIRECTIONAL MICS THAT WORK PHENOMENALLY WELL AND THEY HIGHLY IMPRESSED ME ON HOW EXCELLENT THEY WORK PICKING UP LOUD NOISE INSTSTANTLY AND THEN ACTIVATING SOUND- ACTIVATED AND DYNAMIC SOUND SUPPRESSION. 4 LISTENING MODES THAT YOU CAN CHOOSE WHAT'S BEST FOR THE SITUATION YOU ARE USING THEM IN. I ALWAYS USE MINE IN THE POWER BOOST MODE OR THE HIGH FREQUENCY MODE AND YOU RECEIVE COMPLETE SITUATIONAL AWARENESS WITH VERY CLEAR VOICE PICKUP FROM OTHER PEOPLE FROM 10 FEET OR MORE AWAY WITH NO PROBLEM AND STILL BLOCKS OUT LOUD NOISES. WORKS PHENOMENALLY WITH ADAPTING COMPRESSION TIME TO NOISE LEVELS. VERY COMFORTABLE AND LIGHT WEIGHT TO WEAR FOR EXTENDED PERIODS OF TIME. BLUETOOTH CONNECTION TO YOUR PHONE FOR CALLS, MUSIC OR USE ANY HEY GOOGLE, ALEXA, SIRI OR MORE TO SEND A TEXT OR ANY OTHER COMMAND. THE BUILT IN VOICE GUIDENCE WHEN YOU PRESS ANY BUTTON SO YOU KNOW WHAT SETTING YOU'RE IN ALSO THE LOW BATTERY ALERT SO YOU KNOW WHEN TO CHANGE THE 2AAA BATTERIES VERY QUICKLY BY PRESSING THE BATTERY PLATE UP. THESE ARE DEFINITELY WORTH TRYING OUT AND WITH THE MONEY. PROTECTION IS EXCEPTIONAL AND STILL AMAZES ME HOW VOICES ARE VERY CLEAR. SOME SAY THEY GET A BUZZING SOUND BUT I HAVEN'T HAD THAT ISSUE. WHEN YOU'RE AMPLIFYING SOUND YOU WILL HEAR MINIMAL TO NONE FREQUENCY THAT'S THERE DUE TO PICKING UP THE VOICES AROUND YOU. THE ADJUSTABLE HEADBAND SIZE IS A PERFECT FIT FOR ANYONE AND VERY COMFORTABLE BEING SURROUNDED IN RUBBER.

Great price, (if you get them in orange), they work well and are easy to set up. They work well, easily connect to a phone and are convenient. Of course, they block loud noise, gunshots, effectively. The only criticism is that they are a bit on the bulky side (otherwise I would have given them 5 stars)

I am an avid target shooter, and have had many hearing protectors over the years. Among the better ear muffs in the collection are: Howard Leight Impact Sport, Axil Tracker, and Walker Ultimate Quad BT. The Walkers have been my protectors of choice for the past two years because of their superior noise cancellation and comfort. Lately, when using the outdoor range, I have been enjoying Bluetooth ear buds to listen to music while shooting, and have found this to be so enjoyable that I took the next step and bought these Walker Xcel earmuffs. They are definitely keepers. Comfortable, easy to connect ( although button placement takes some getting used to) and great sounding. The isolation is perfect. On 'clear voice' you hear voices quite clearly, your music programing is right there and very clear, and....... That's it! All other harsh and damaging sounds are comfortably suppressed. These are my new 'Hearing Protectors Of Choice' . Update: Oops, there was a problem. The Bluetooth, which had functioned perfectly on my first trip to the range, failed to connect on the next range day. I tried many times on multiple devices. DOA Fortunately, it is still within the return period, so I should be able to receive a refund. I enjoyed them so much when they did work, that I'm going to take a chance and order another pair. Call me crazy, but they are that good. The hearing protection is also a cut above my other units, so I'm not totally crazy, but I'm certainly hoping the Bluetooth function will perform. It was so totally enjoyable to hear music and audio books while making a racket at the pistol range.

Headphones like these are generally used for shooting, and I've used them for that plenty, but I bought these for another purpose entirely which I'll get to in a sec. First off for shooting, these are amazing. They block so much noise Just putting them on. Keep in mind they are quite snug which is great for my small head haha. The four modes are pretty gimmicky honestly. You either need power boost mode or clear voice mode for 99% of applications. These do work great, and you can hear people or any noise that doesn't surpass the decibel cutoff really well. Now for what I use these for mostly. have you ever had to do something monotonous and very noisy and thought, "I wish I could hear the radio but this darn tool is too loud"? that's what I use these for. Planing boards down for hours straight, Grinding or cutting concrete, sanding a custom butcher block table... Just today I was grinding a concrete floor for 8 hours and thought dang I should write a review about how good these are haha. Not only do these cancel most of the noise, but the music coming thru them sounds really good. Not too good mind you, not like studio headphones, but like a cheap set of headphones, and when there's a deafening noise 3 feet away and you're clearly and happily listening to your favorite Spotify playlist, that's darn impressive. Just a few gripes to finish up. First these auto shutoff. It seems like about 2 hours before they shutoff. they do give a one minute warning and when that warning comes up it would make sense that you could interact with the headset to reset the timer right?? Well I've tried several different buttons when the one-minute warning sounds out, and none of them seemed to have any effect. It seems as though once the warning comes there's no way to stop it from shutting down the muffs in 60 seconds. Not a big deal, just turn them back on and reconnect and get back to work. Next issue. These muffs being geared for shooters seem to leave off features for ppl like me that are using them for loud noise cancelling, while listening to music headphones rather than shooting muffs. For example, I'm running a dust extractor and 13 inch wood planer. Put headphones on to listen to music while working for a few hours. Now you HAVE to use one of the four noise boost modes. All of which perfectly accentuate the hum of the dust extractor very annoyingly. There is no mode that doesn't use the mic to boost noise thru the speakers. So I have to find the least annoying hum and lower the volume all the way down, which again annoyingly does not shut it off all the way. Doesn't bother me too much while working but when you pause music or shut off the planer you can hear it. Not big enough issues for me to knock off a star. I'm not using the product as it's intended to be used anyways. As far as I'm concerned these things are a lifesaver for anyone that likes to listen to music while working on long, very loud projects.

I've had and used other noise cancelation/isolation shooting muffs in the past and none have worked as well or as comfortable. The noise cancellation on these are very fast, making them quieter than others. They are also better insulating, so even without being powered on, they are quieter than my regular shooting muffs. I didn't have much issue with the pads and my glasses, but still upgraded to the silicone pads. That upgrade made these muffs even better, especially when worn with glasses. Bluetooth works great. Audio quality is as good as can be expected for isolation headphones. Other reviewers have said the audio quality is not great. Compared to what? Isolation shooting muffs will never have the quality of open back headphones. I have isolation headphones I use when playing drums. They have the same exact drivers as high end Sony monitors and don't sound nearly as good. It's part of being isolated from sound. With that said, their performance is more than acceptable. You need to maintain situation awareness whether on the range or at work in noisy environments, so cranking these up is probably not the best idea. I find then more than adequate sound wise and I'm very much an audiophile otherwise. These headphones are as good as one should expect given their intended use and design limitations. Love being able to listen to music and still be able to carry on a conversation in noisy environments. One other note; some have stated conversations drop out momentarily when loud sounds are introduced mid conversation. That's correct, but how would you block hammering sounds, while simultaneously allowing much lower sounds. The headphones either block or they allow sound in. They reduce quite a bit in the mid to loud volumes, but there's a threshold where loud is just loud and for a split second, all audio is blocked. Music still keeps playing though, so it's external sounds that get blocked in those moments and not bluetooth audio as an example. Definitely worth the extra cost to get these if you need to use them with any regularity. They have been an absolute life saver working around saws and construction. All day comfortable too with the gel pads.

Good value. No instructions came with these. What a pain. Battery cover is on the side without controls (right side). Slide the cover up. Bluetooth connection is slow to pick up. Took a few minutes to detect. Still slow to connect after pairing. Noise Cancellation: funny joke. All I get is static. No reduction in noise.

Doesn't turn on at all fresh out of the box . I tried changing the batteries holding down the power button for a while, pressing the power button multiple times and nothing at all I’ve been trying for 15 minutes. No paperwork or instructions or troubleshooting papers come with it(I don’t need them but it would be nice to have) You’d think they would have some sort of quality control on these. I wonder what other steps they’ve skipped while making these too. Just another trash Chinese product.

Excelente equipamento, audição excelente, abafa os estampidos dos tiros.

Great product... love the colour... The electronic microphone works great and switches off when at the right time

Purchased them and tried them and worked perfectly ! I set them aside for a month until I was ready to use them and then tried them had a constant cracking noise in the RH side speaker Have tried everything to see if I had done something wrong put new batteries ect but nothing can fix it VERY VERY DISAPPOINTING PURCHASE

Son exelentes orejeras, las uso en el medio de la aviación y no quedan mal, lo único es que al hacer llamadas hay que gritar mucho por lo demás son muy buenas

If you want to hear everything going on around you, except for the ear-peircing firing of bullets, these are the PPE for you. Bought for myself, the Mrs, the children, and their spouses/significant others. Best gift for going out as a family to the range, and remain superior in the field hunting. We used in ear and over ear non-electric for years, and never realized how unnecessarily isolating that was until we bought these. Now we get all the protection, and none of the isolation from family and our surroundings. We wear these for 6 hours and more at a time (yes, we like being at the range). These with a pair of eye protection can be a bit irritating on the bone inbetween the top of your ears and your temple, so after about a year of that, we bought the gel pads from Walkers to replace the foam pads on the ears, and now even that small annoyance is gone. We can wear these all day, without problem. OK, the only thing we do have to do is touch the volume button every few hours to avoid the battery saver kicking in and turning off the headset, but the headset reminds us, so no problem there either. If I had anything I could do, I'd keep everything about these PPE, and just make them a bit thinner. For my big head, I have to squeeze that ear right against the stock to get proper eye relief with a few of our scopes, but it works. I would note that in an indoor pistol range, we alwasy wore in ear and over ear together, but with these as the over ear, we can still hear what's going on around us and hear the range safety officer, so we don't have to worry about being cut off from the RSO anymore. Sure, not everybody wants to wear both, but for those of us that do, this is another bonus to the whole electronic over ear protection. Haven't seen another product that can compete with the Walker's Xcel. We even bought a couple extra recently so our guests would also have a good experience at the range.