Champion Vanquish Muffs

The Vanquish is Champion’s latest foray into electronic hearing protection, and the sample I got for test is one of two Bluetooth-capable models. (The Elite version, which I didn’t test, comes with rechargeable lithium batteries and has active noise cancellation in addition to Bluetooth.)

At $125 suggested retail, this is a good set of muffs, providing all-day comfort and excellent noise reduction. The omnidirectional microphones do a good job of picking up important sounds around you—like conversation and range commands—while suppressing gunfire noise.

The Vanquish doesn’t do quite as good a job of minimizing wind noise as a pair of more expensive muffs I have, but at half the price I can live with that.

The controls are nicely laid out. The power button is easy to find with the muffs on, as are the separate volume controls. A triple beep lets you know when you’ve maxed out in either direction. The muffs paired quickly with my iPhone.

A green light lets you know if they’re on or off. Run time with the four included AAA batteries is 150 hours, and the muffs will automatically shut off after three hours to save batteries. I would prefer exterior battery compartments, as opposed to the Vanquish setup, which requires you to pull the foam out of each side to access the batteries.

These are really comfortable. I’ve worn them for long stretches, and unlike some other electronic muffs I’ve used, the Vanquishes never made me feel like I needed to take them off for a break.