TromboneChat

I find I really like the transparency mode on my Apple Airpods Pro if playing along to music at home. I've also noticed that I don't get any of the under water / mouth sound dominant effect with them. Since they are sealed, I've noticed they attenuate a lot of sound. Transparent hearing protection on the cheap(ish)?

Playing with some rocksters in a very loud practice space the other day, what I found was that I struggled to hear myself in transparency mode compared to... everyone else. My thinking is that being behind the bell, my own sound was below the attenuation threshold given all the loud things. Thus trombone dropped pretty much out of the mix.

My suspicion is that the Etymotics electronic hearing protection works exactly the same way as Apple's transparency mode: plug the ear, have mic / amplifier that selectively passes in the sound. But, I could also imagine some devils in the detail on how they do DSP, mic direction, etc.

Does anyone have experience with both these devices, and can speak to the qualitative difference? Anyone using Airpods as hearing protection?

I own a pair of the Etymotics Music Pro Elite plugs. I have no problem hearing myself playing in loud situations, although the sound of my own horn is definitely more muffled (compared to the sounds of the other instruments surrounding me) than when I play unplugged, or when compared to regular plugs where you hear far more of your own headsound while playing. I have no experience with the Apple Airpods Pro, so I can't offer a comparison, but I can say I love using the Etymotic plugs for all kinds of playing settings and I would not hesitate to recommend them.