Horrible audio quality, bad design overall - Safariland - TCI Liberator Hearing Protection with Adaptive Over-the-Head Suspension

These things are way overrated. They use the MSA Sordin gel cups but they're not the same as the MSA/Sordin gel cups! The genuine MSA/Sordin cups have these dots all around probably from the molding process and the MSA/Sordin foam inserts are very blue. These are like knock-off MSA/Sordin cups, but if you go to Safariland/TCI's website they carry replacement hygiene kits with the same MSA/Sordin part numbers!

The metal hinges clip into the plastic headband and I can see how eventually the plastic could fatigue/break, and also one of my clips wasn't bent properly so it was ready to slip right out.

The audio quality is absolutely abysmal. Voices sound muffled with the higher frequency response chopped out in mode 1 and it amplifies ambient sounds like vents/fans instead of voices! So if you're in a quiet environment with maybe a refigerator or your central air running, it will absolutely amplify the refrigerator and central air causing a loud humming in the background. Or if you're in an indoor range with a vent register nearby, it will amplify that instead of voices. In a quiet room, the Liberator's will make normal voices/sounds feel muffled and muted. It really hurts situational awareness.

It also reboots itself when you smack it on something like a wall, or a table. The first time it happened to me I was wondering what was going on. When I went to email Safariland with some questions, their server kicked back with an error message saying my Gmail email domain was blocked. I went to contact Sordin with questions in July, and received an auto out of office response saying they are on vacation until September!

My Peltor Sport Tactical 500's have a lot of flaws, but they have 26 dB NRR and the audio quality is the same as the Comtac's, which is almost like a true reproduction of sound. When I put my 500's on, it sounds like I didn't put anything on until there's gunfire or loud noises when it starts attenuating it. The side-effect of the 500's is that I hear everyone's conversation at the range crystal clear. Conversations about someone's dog are crystal clear admist heavy gun fire. My Peltor 500 headband broke at the plastic hinge, and it is a common problem - which is why I am not a fan of the Safariland/MSA/Sordin plastic design. However I have swapped in a Comtac headband for my 500 along with the 3M Hygiene gel cups due to 3M/Peltor's commonality of parts. MSA/Sordin/Safariland have a very specific design and I have not found any replacements that are more durable. There's probably a reason why I see more of the Peltors/Comtacs in use by operators.

Overall: 1/5 stars. Hard pass on these Liberator HP 2.0's - they are junk but the batteries are easier to swap than the MSA/Sordin's. If I had to do it all over again I'd just go with Peltor Comtac's.