Authorized Retailers and Warranties

[easy-e]

I'm looking at buying some electronic hearing protection and I'm curious if anyone here will spend a little extra money to buy from an "Authorized Retailer" or at least one of the big name retailers or a "Fulfilled by Amazon" seller. I'm not usually paranoid about buying stuff online but there are enough negative reviews of every set of electronic hearing protection on the market that it seems like a certain number are just defective out of the box or work flawlessly until misplaced.

I currently love my Surefire 4 Sonic Defenders but I'm probably going to go with the 3M Peltor Tactical 100's although I haven't made up my mind. One of the cheapest options is to buy these directly from Amazon and not one of their 3rd party sellers so that's a plus for me.

A few years ago I decided to not by my 5.11 bags at Amazon because there was some speculation of whether or not you actually get your warranty or not. From what I understand, if you don't get the free bonus gear, they are not an authorized retailer. Over the last few years I've ended up buying my 5.11 bags (Rush 72 and Moab 10), flashlight, and pouches from Bluementhal Uniforms in Des Moines (Now Galls) and LAPoliceGear.com so I know I can return them if anything happens to them.

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[easy-e]

Bumping my own post to follow up because I've been doing a lot of research the last month and finally took a shooting class. My surefire earplugs worked fine, but it would have been a lot more convenient to hear the instructor if I had electronic ear pro. I'm going to go with the MSA Sordin Supreme Pro-X over the 3M Peltor Tactical Sports. The 3 of the 4 instructors I talked to about their ear protection had different ones from Pro Ears, Peltor, and Howard Leight. I really want compression electronics so that eliminates a lot of options.

I'm still confused as to if there is actually a difference between the "MSA Sordin" line (supposedly only USA) and the "MSA" line (Swedish).

SRS Tactical is an distributor for the MSA Sordin line and they can do non-warranty repairs in house.

I also saw some older posts on another forum from Triad Tactical that they are [were?] the only authorized US retailer for the MSA line and that the "real" MSA muffs only come with the camo headband.

Peltor Tactical Sports - $138.00 + $41.00 gel cups = $179.00
Peltor Tactical Sport from SRS Tactical

MSA Sordin Supreme Pro-X with Gel Cups - $295.00
MSA Sordin Supreme Pro-X hearing protection headset