I spent about 50 years of my life in the aircraft industry. As a young man, I didn't place too much importance in ear protection, also, during this period I shot on several military and civilian pistol teams, still not giving much thought to ear protection. Today I wish I had.
It is funny, an individual will spend big bucks for a weapon, buy top dollar scopes, pay the price for tons of ammo, and buy the cheapest ear protection they can find. I have even seen some folks so hard up that they were picking up USED cigarette filters and stuffing them in their ears while they push several hundred rounds of ammo through their new high dollar big bore auto. Don't make sense to me.
This is a piece of advice from an old man that has a hard time hearing his wife speak to him (sometimes that ain't all bad), can not carry on a conversation in a crowded room where other people are talking, can't hear in a restaurant due to the background noise, has a hard time hearing the TV because the ceiling fan interferes:
Spend the money, get the best hearing protection you can find, and use it