While walking around SHOT Show this year, one of the items I was looking for was an unidentified solution to a specific challenge: Not being able to answer my phone while I was in a noisy environment and therefore wearing protective hearing muffs. In today’s world I couldn’t imagine that such didn’t exist but I also knew that the most common hearing protection I’ve seen and used had no connectivity – hard wired or otherwise – for my phone. Then I walked up to the Pryme® booth and found a ready solution.
A few weeks after SHOT Show I received a test kit for the Pryme PrymeMAXTM BTH-900-MAX wireless ear muffs. The Pryme BTH line of muffs include the BTH-700 and BTH-800 as well. I knew I’d have ample opportunity to test the unit I received since the test environment was quite simple: anytime I was on the firing range.
The unit is rechargeable and comes with the appropriate USB cable + wall charger. After making sure it was fully charged and familiarizing myself with the unit, I connected it via Bluetooth (BTH, get it?) to my iPhone (an iPhone 13 mini). The BTH-900-MAX can be connected to cell phones or tablets or both at the same time as well as two-way radios. The published list of compatible radios includes ICOM, Kenwood, EFJ and BK that have internal Bluetooth. There are separate control buttons for Push-to-talk (radio) and cellphone (answer/call). There are also volume control and power buttons on the muffs, as you’d expect. All of the rubber buttons are large enough to feel and operate, even with gloves on (I didn’t try heavy leather gloves, but normal shooting gloves presented no challenges to touch at all).
To be honest, I had no experience with this particular head-mount system before. The BTH-900-MAX doesn’t have the normal spring-metal over-the-head curved mount. Instead, it has a wide adjustable over-the-head strap combined with a strong spring steel band that goes around behind the head. That spring steel band keeps the muffs snug over your ears against your head. The adjustable over-the-head strap is much thinner than the typical curved spring-metal so instead of having to wear the headset over a hat (soft cap), you can wear it under such a hat instead.
Familiarized with the headset and having paired it with my phone, off to the range I went. I knew my time window for being on the firing line and scheduled a call from a workmate inside that time frame. As timing would have it, I was on the 7-yard line practicing with my Glock Model 48MOS when the call came in.
Keeping my gun pointed down range I used my left hand to push the appropriate button on the headset to answer the call. I engaged in conversation with my coworker even as I continued to fire the string of shots that was interrupted by the call. The noise reducing condenser boom microphone did its job. My coworker reported hearing the shots but still being able to hear my voice over them. Thanks to the adjustability of the boom mic, it was centered directly in front of and about an inch away from my mouth. When we finished our call, I was able to hang up without interrupting my shooting practice beyond using my left hand to push a button.
This was a game changer in my book. It may not be news to some, but not having experienced such capability, it was no only new but also impressive. The Pryme website lists this BTH-900-MAX at $300 which, for the features, is a pretty good price. Given that “simple” ear muffs with electronically filtered sound can cost as much as $200, the added capabilities for the cost is an easy trade off.
For more information you can find these online at www.pryme.com under PrymeMAXTM Wireless.
