A favorite headset of airsoft players, whether in original or replica form, 3M/Peltor has built a reputation with making some of the best communications headsets and ear protection for military and civilian. Their COMTAC series have been preferred by operators with noise-cancelling and clear communications at the same time providing that ear protection that's associated with the Peltor brand.

In the fourth generation version of the COMTAC series, Peltor departs from the closed muff ear protection and opened it up without radically altering the Peltor signature in the headsets. The COMTAC IV Hybrid is now an open ear design in which the usual ear cups are more of ear hooks --- inverted horseshoe/u-shape design that will still provide ear comfort. The ears are exposed now and incoming communications can be heard through the earplugs.

Peltor promises that you can still get the clear communications that you get from previous generations of the COMTAC. The open-ear design was designed to cool the ears, lessening sweaty ears. There is still ear protection and thus, the hybrid system "incorporates in-ear hearing protection for hot weather environments while retaining the advantages of the traditional architecture of legacy COMTAC headsets."

Expected to be released in Summer 2011 with a price of at least US$775 for the single comms and up to US$1,390 for fully loaded dual comms that can be made to work with existing helmets, such as the OPS-CORE ARC helmets and connectors for various PRCs.

I do find the design weird, and speaking with an airsoft mindset, I am having a hard time to justify its use for airsoft. While I do welcome the design's purpose of cooling ears in warmer environments, I still seek the protection that the closed-ear design provides. In airsoft, we are not worried about noise-protection for our ears, but actual physical protection, since BBs have a nasty habit of hurting our ears when hit. In some countries where airsoft FPS limits are higher, ear protection is really a must or you can find an embedded bb at the soft area of your ear when hit. The open ear design may protect the back ear which is the most likely area a BB would embed itselt and the earlobe area, the actual auditory area is not. There is medium protection provided, but then it's much better than not having ear protection at all.

It may take a while getting used to this design and I can confidently predict that replicas of the COMTAC IV will never come close to the amplified talk-through and which can get away with the older COMTAC designs' closed ear cups  (but never had noise cancellation features, easily amplifying ambient noise captured by the microphone). But this might be cheaper to replicate since it uses lesser material for ear cups.

One thing for sure, the open ear design of the COMTAC IV will allow you to listen to faint noises of the OPFOR moving better than the the closed ear design.