Looking for some nice ear pro to mount to my helmet.
The Sordins cost about $300 but I'd also have to buy a $70 adapter to get them to work with the helmet's headset adapter.

The Peltors are usually available online or on eBay for $400ish making these both about the same in price.

I don't use a radio or comms when shooting, but it may be nice to have in the future. From what I've gathered, they're both extremely comfortable and work effectively. My question is which would you guys recommend or prefer and why?

For what your asking minus headband/comm remarks:

Sordins: AWESOME in the sound attenuation department. Worse than the Comtac III's in the noise reduction dept.
Pretty damn water/shock resistant and are generally rugged as all hell, but kinda' heavy.


Comtac IIIs: Better in the noise reduction dept. Not as good as the Sordins in the sound attenuation dept.
They are decently rugged, but not as hardily constructed as the Sordins, but they are significantly lighter and they work almost seamlessly
with a helmet. The Boom Mic is also ambidextrous and pleasantly removable.

Minor thread hi-jack but you mentioned it

About those Peltors on EBay...vendor prices for just the headset/mic start at like 600+. Ebay has a bunch floating ~400 with mic/PTT/ etc that are "new" or "barely used"

Is there any way to tell if a pair is legit or do these headsets really sell for 40% lower than vendors?

They're commonly issued by many organizations, and frequently with a dubious and unclear accountability status.  

Another line so you have something to read between.  

~Augee

Either one can be had with silicone-filled ear "cups", and these things are a great noise-abatement accessory, not to mention greatly increased user comfort.  Not cheap in either case, so shop around.

Thanks buds, guess I may just go for whichever I can find for a decent deal. Looked into the mods required to get them fitted to the helmet adapters, and it looks pretty close to permanent with all the stuff you have to do. As awesome as it'd be to have comfy ear pro while using NVGs at night... not sure I'd enjoy having to wear the helmet during the day. May get some looks at the range haha.

From my experience with recent production runs of both (within the last year) go with the Sordin's.


Also FWIW unless you really really really sure you're going to use radio comms in the future a non-comm version is going to be cheaper and less of a pain in the ass in the long run.  The down leads dangling will annoy the fuck out of you if they're not hooked into something.  I've rubber banded them up before but they still annoy me.  They annoy me enough that I have a set of personally purchased non communication electronic earpro I use in lieu of my issued com-tacs if I either don't need headset comms for a mission or if I'm using them outside of work.  


 

<ETA> No issues using an over the head version under a helmet here.  You can use the rectangular pads in lieu of the crown pad to create a channel for it to fall in and not put any pressure on your head....or you can carve a channel out of the crown pad for the band to go into.  Either one works.