The Soldier Equipment & Technology Expo & Conference is next week. Make sure you stop by TEA to check out the INVISIO X50 MultiCom headset.
The Digital Ears X50 is a digital in-ear bone conduction headset system with built-in active hearing protection. It uses bone conduction which captures vibrations caused by speech which travel up the jaw bone to the ear. This helps eliminate ambient noise and produce clearer voice signals. Additionally, the system features electronic hear-thru and impulse noise protection (Noise Reduction Rating (NRR) of 23db) with volume control for enhanced hearing. Finally, the X50 is designed for dual communication with radio autosensing and full-duplex/VOX capability. Consequently, unlike other Invisio products, the X50 is designed to worn in both ears.
The ear piece features the Soft SpringTM which adapts to the contours of the ear to provide a secure fit and enhance comfort as well as compatibility with helmets, eyewear, and protective masks. In fact, the X50′s fit is secure enough that it is well-suited for Military Free Fall operations. Additionally, the interface box seen above features switches for On-Off Open Mic Selector, PTT Button, Volume Up and Down as well as Hear-Thru and Mic Volume Selector.
Tags: Invisio, Soldier Equipment & Technology Expo & Conference, TEA
Didn’t you write about this before?
Looks nice. Great post thank you .
A word of caution… These swat cool guy head sets should be used with the understanding that they are not providing full protection to your hearing.
Your body also receives sound through bone conduction in the mastoid process which diminishes with exposure to impulse noise, or continuous noise above 83dB. Earcups cover the mastoid process and help reduce injury where ear plugs do not.
Earplugs are great, up to a point (infrequent exposure to impulse noise) Check out the various websites around the internet about hearing preservation. Typically if you are on a live fire range for extended periods of time, you actually require dual hearing protection (plugs and earcups) especially when you’re blasting off Carl Gustavs or .50 cals for hours on end.
We’ve been using this system for quite some time and I can honestly say that it works well. The only caveat is that you must insert the ear buds correctly. If you just jam them in your ear they won’t work as designed. It works great when running dual comms or when you need to be on comms and plugged into an A/C comms.Overall, a great piece of kit.
Point taken pliner. Most don’t know that the human ear canal comes in different sizes. One ear bud does not fit all. But earbuds for comms are meant to hold the earbud in place, not to protect the ear from impulse noise.
Yet, Soldiers need both protection AND comms; still, there are legions of Officer Walter Mittys out there that don’t do real live fire training, they’re never going to experience blast overpressure that WILL rupture the eardrums. For them, cool guy swat comms will work all day, and they won’t mess up good hair.
Big G, if you read the specs for the x50 you will see that the impulse noise attenuation is achieved in the x50 box using similar electronics as you find in ear muffs like the Peltors and Sordins,they’ve just moved the electronics to the box. We’ve use this system while shooting and during explosive breaching and most of my guys like them over the peltor/sordins. We’ve also used them in free fall,in the wind tunnel and while on aircraft. In all cases, they fit the bill at providing us clear comms and hearing pro. YMMV.
Pliner,
I read it, I have no reason to doubt that this item provides the noise reduction as specified in the description. I have to agree that I would like them over the Peltors and Sordins too, but not over quality stuff like TCI LiberatorII or III’s.
I choose those models because in addition to providing protection by covering the mastoid process with an ear cup, they have two speakers per cup, it’s important to have the two speakers per ear cup because it provides realistic directional sound (you can tell where the sound came from) improving SA). Digital compression technology (VS. gated technology). From your description and the write up, I suspect that these X50’s may have the digital compression tech as well?
Hearing is much more fragile than sight, and the shifts in hearing loss can be very sublime and hard to notice at first. New pharmacology may one day reverse the damage done, cure tinitus, etc., but until that time I think this is one area that shooters, their leaders, and the logisticians that support them must pay more $ and attention to. CF: the staggering amount of $ in terms of VA claims in relation to hearing loss since the start of the wars. Are the Liberator II’s and III’s expensive? Yes, but comparitively cheap next to a lifetime of compensation and pension claims that the VA and/or DoD will be paying for.
Communication and situational awareness are common AAR “Improves” …
The only down side in my book with the ear cup based headsets are that they are damn sweaty, what isnt?