3M Peltor SV Swat-Tac II Headset Review

The Peltor Swat Tac 2 Headsets By 3M

The 3M Peltor SV Swat-Tac II Headset is a military grade set of hearing protection. Designed to provide excellent hearing protection without hampering the user’s situational awareness, this headset amplifies low-level noise to the wearer while still blocking out damaging sounds like gunshots.

It features input jacks to be connected to a communications device, allowing you to stay in touch with your squad as well as your surroundings. This headset is in use by many military forces around the world.

The 3M Peltor SV Swat-Tac II Headset is a military grade set of hearing protection. Designed to provide excellent hearing protection without hampering the user’s situational awareness, this headset amplifies low-level noise to the wearer while still blocking out damaging sounds like gunshots.

Weight, Feel and External Features

The Swat-Tac II features two low profile black cups, each with a battery. These cups are designed to be used with a rifle and offer minimal interference when shouldering a rifle butt. They’re connected by a sleek, leather covered overhead band that’s designed to fit under helmets and other headgear easily.

The unit has a number of audio jacks, allowing it to be plugged into a communications kit and expanded with a microphone. It’s water resistant for outdoor use and boasts 250 hours of battery life.

The Swat-Tac II is one of the most comfortable headsets available on the market. The low-profile cups make it easy to use while shooting, while the amplification of outside sound helps to keep your situational awareness up. The overhead band is slim and comfortable, fitting easily beneath your favorite headgear.

It’s easy to forget you’re wearing the Swat-Tac II, especially in quiet environments. There’s a two button touchpad to adjust the volume of the amplification system to your preferred comfort level quickly and easily. The Swat-Tac II takes two AA batteries which do not come included.

Hearing Protection

Rated with 20 dB of noise reduction, the Swat-Tac II offers a fairly standard amount of protection against loud noises. It makes standing near large caliber rifles bearable, even for long periods of time. Like most other amplification sets, the volume can be turned up enough to function as a hearing aid and make quite noises louder than they would be without any protection at all.

Unlike some headsets, however, the Swat-Tac II is prone to clip sounds a bit. Not only does it add a little bit of digital distortion to the sounds it amplifies, it also ducks severely in response to loud impulses. While this does prove it’s doing its job in protecting your ears, many other modern noise amplification sets have solved this problem and deliver clean and crisp audio before, during and after loud impulses.

A few milliseconds of delay and different programming would easily have prevented the Swat-Tac’s obvious and slow ducking. The folks at Peltor likely think that a few ms of delay can mean the difference between life and death in a combat situation — but so can losing the ability to hear briefly following a gunshot.

This isn’t to say that the system in the Swat-Tac II’s is bad — it’s excellent, allowing unimpeded or better hearing most of the time. It does fall short of its competitors in several regards, however, which you might not expect given the price tag.

The noise amplification system ducks completely while receiving audio from the line-in. This is an interesting feature that maintains clear communications, but it also reduces your situational awareness when being talked to and means you can’t plug in your mp3 player while still listening to outside noise.

Finally, while the 20 dB provided by the Swat-Tac II is perfect for most users, those with extra sensitive hearing or individuals who are around more noise more often may want a set of hearing protection that offers more. Earmuffs rated at 32 dB provide roughly twice as much protection as the Swat-Tac and are readily available on the market. For most users, however, 20 dB is plenty.

Price

The Swat-Tac II is between $300 and $500 at the time of this writing. It is a comfortable, durable headset with plenty of features.

For users who don’t need a military communications hookup, however, there are alternatives at around $50 to $100 that offer similar comfort, noise reduction, and amplification features — and often have a jack to plug in your mp3 player, too. Be sure to consider your alternatives before spending the additional money on a Swat-Tac. Click here if you would like to purchase the unit now.

Overall

Overall, the Swat-Tac II is a pretty solid headset. With features such as input jacks to be connected to communication devices, allowing you to stay in touch with your squad as well as your surroundings, this headset is a great option especially for military forces around the world.

Pros and Cons of the Peltor SV Swat-Tac II:

Pros:

– Very comfortable

– Durable and water resistant

– Features plugins for a military communications system

– Standard 20 dB NRR

– Clear amplification of low-level sounds

– Great battery life

Cons:

– Ducking and distortion on amplified audio

– 20 dB may not be enough for all users

– Very expensive

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Manufacturer’s Specs:

– Water resistant for outdoor use

– Electronics limit amplified sounds to 82dBA   

– Active-volume provides distortion-free amplification of low level sounds up to 18 dBA

– Stereo microphones provide omnidirectional 360-degree ambient listening

– Auto power-saving feature  

– Two button touch pad, easy-to-use volume control  

– Soft leather wrapped slim-line, folding headband  

– Liquid/gel filled ear cushions  

– (2) AA external battery compartment  

– Audio input jack on backside of left earcup

Warranty Policy

Below is the Warranty Policy according to Peltor.com:

3M™ warrants this product to be free from defects in material and workmanship for a period of one (1) Year from the date of original purchase (the “Warranty Period”). Dated proof of purchase such as a bill of sale is required to establish warranty eligibility.

If the product fails to perform due to a defect in materials or workmanship during the Warranty Period, 3M will repair or, at 3M’s option, replace the merchandise with the same or comparable item at no charge to you for parts or labor.

In the event that the product cannot be repaired and a suitable replacement item is not available, 3M will refund the original purchase price shown on your proof of purchase. All repairs are warranted for 90 days against the same material defect.

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