It's easy to imagine that elite shooters are particular about the quality of their headsets. After all, as an international sports shooter, daily training or competition require reliable electronic hearing protection for health, safety and shooting performance.
“My headset is my daily companion at the range.”
Lithuanian Sordin Star, Marius Kazanskis, is exactly that kind of shooter. We’re proud to continuously sponsor Marius with the latest versions of Sordin Supreme Pro-X – our high-end hearing protector for hunting, shooting sports, recreational firearm use and tactical applications.
With thousands of shots fired annually, Marius, like any professional shooting sports athlete, relies on the functionality of his headset for both safety and performance. In Marius's case, the choice is the Pro-X, which has made him a loyal Sordin Star.
Marius is a versatile shooter who masters most shooting disciplines at an international level, earning him significant recognition in the shooting world, particularly in the International Practical Shooting Confederation (IPSC).
In 2024, Marius returned to handgun shooting after a break since 2018. He’s now competing in all IPSC disciplines – rifle, PCC (pistol-caliber carbine), PDO (handgun) and shotgun.
Marius's Pro-X is a constant companion in his competitions worldwide. The shooting during both training and competitions is intense, with thousands of rounds fired annually.
It's not just about hearing protection; it's also about ensuring safety and maximizing shooting performance. Many shooters associate electronic hearing protection like the Pro-X with communication within hunting teams.
But for competitive shooters like Marius Kazanskis, other electronic features are just as important. Two key qualities that stand out are how his Pro-X contributes to both safety and performance – situational awareness and decay time.
Let’s look at these two qualities and how they affect Marius at the shooting range:
Situational awareness refers to how well you stay connected to your environment while wearing a hearing protector. It is supported by many electronic hearing protectors through ambient sound functionality, allowing you to hear harmless sounds like voices while safely attenuating the loud noise of firearm shots.
However, the quality of digitally reproduced ambient sound varies a lot between headsets, and for Marius, only one thing matters – top-quality situational awareness, a major reason for his long-term commitment to Pro-X.
It is not surprising that ambient sound quality is crucial for situational awareness. The Pro-X excels here, helping Marius stay in touch with his surroundings at the shooting range and maintain focus on his targets.
This makes ambient sound an essential safety and performance factor in Marius's shooting career. Hearing the voices of officials and fellow competitors during competitions is important for safety – even during weapon fire at high firing rates.
The physical movement combined with rapid firing in the dynamic setting of IPSC shooting demands rigorous safety measures at the range. Here, Marius benefits from the Pro-X’s outstanding ambient sound capabilities.
Compared to ambient sound, decay time is likely more abstract and harder to understand for non-shooters – but it’s vital for Marius and his shooting performance.
Decay time measures how quickly the headset returns to normal ambient sound volume after attenuating the sound of a shot. A shorter decay time is generally preferred because it allows the shooter to quickly regain ambient hearing and avoid the silence experienced immediately after the shot.
Like many shooters, Marius prefers to hear the echo of a shot at its actual volume. For this, the ambient sound volume needs to return quickly after each shot – but not so quickly that it could risk harming his hearing. Timing is key here.
High firing rates require an especially short decay time to allow Marius to hear some ambient noise between shots while maintaining safe hearing protection. This best-in-class feature of the Pro-X contributes greatly to Marius’s success.
At Sordin, we’re proud to sponsor elite-level shooter Marius Kazanskis and we wish him best of luck with his future sports shooting career.
