What is SNR and NRR?
There are “SNR” and “NRR” on many hearing protection devices. What’s SNR and NRR? SNR and NRR are the two most common of these attenuation ratings, which tell the buyer roughly how many decibels a noise will be reduced by when heard through the hearing protection. In essence, the higher the number is, the more protection the product provides.
SNR: The single number rating, is the EU ’s standard for showing the attenuation of hearing protection. When the SNR is 20, this implies that the noise reduction level that is offered by the hearing protection device that has this SNR, will be by about 20 decibels.
NRR: NRR is essentially a noise reduction standard that is used widely across the USA. The NRR of noise-resistant products is roughly in the range of 22-35dB.
What’s the difference between SNR and NRR?
Some of the specific differences between SNR and NRR lie in the type of formulas that are utilized to calculate these ratings. SNR is evaluated between 63 Hz and 8000 Hz while NRR is evaluated between 125 Hz and 8000 Hz. In terms of comparing SNR with NRR, SNR will be about 3dB higher than NRR on the same anti-noise product.