What are the best earmuffs at the moment?
That question has the earmarks of an oil thread.* What do you mean by best? Muffs with the highest sound rating? Ones that fold up into a compact shape for storage? Most comfortable? Warmest (nod to
@Larry Fine). Cheapest? Do you like electronic versions? I used to like Howard Leight but they seem to have gone all electronic. I have one pair of the
Howard Leighening L3 muffs with a NRR of 30 that I don't much like - mostly because of comfort. My current fav is
the RZ muff, but they only have an NRR of 26.
A word about the Noise Reduction Rating. A change in sound level of 3 db doubles the sound energy (loudness), so this step is significant. Ear muffs cannot have an NRR much above 33 because with very loud sounds, the vibrations can travel through bone and damage your hearing. That said, the electronic earmuffs with active sound attenuation are interesting and I've not tried any of them.
Read this. Those NRR's are impressive, but I would want to try them out before I plunked down my hard cash. I had some Bose sound canceling muffs that let very loud percussive sounds overwhelm them, and I heard a loud, painful, 'slap'. Disadvantages of electronic, active muffs is the battery...but as I have said, I've not tried them.
*Really now, you have to ask if the pun was intended?