Thread: Noise cancelling head phones

I've been using an off brand for years while using my tractor. After 10 hours on top of of a big turbo diesel, my ears would ring. Knew that couldn't be good. Plus, driving slow in perfectly straight lines for hours on end would make you go batty. (Think that's why I started woodworking.) Now I listen to CDs while I work and my ears don't ring and I stay entertained. Would like to upgrade this year however as the seals around the ears are starting to get hard. Guess I'll look into the Senheisers since you guys seem to like them.

Merry Christmas all!

Hearing protection is one of those subjects I have a fair bit of interest in. I have quite a bit of loss even though I've always been religious about wearing protection - even in the days when only sooks wore the head phones. It's bad enough that I can't have a decent converstation with a person in a room where there's back ground noise and I'm only 42. My wife is always saying "did you hear that" or "turn the TV down"...

She says I should get my hearing tested. I way why, all they're going to do is confirm that i can't hear bugger all. I already know that!

I've wondered about those noise canceling devices (called them white noise generators in Canada).

Correct me if I'm wrong but sound waves are pressure waves traveling in a sine wave pattern - Db are a measurement of that pressure.

So when you generate an inverse pressure wave of the original it "cancels" the noise.

To me when I think about it I don't see how this is protecting your ears. Cause I don't think it's actually possible to cancel out a pressure wave in the true sense of what a pressure wave is - pressure. I have no idea how it causes the noise to disappear but I wonder what it's actually doing to the highly sensitive cilia in the ear drum.

Until I see the long term use data on them I won't wear them.

The noise cancleing thing does actualy work.....ie the actual phisics does happen.
however its only as good as the quality of the electronics and its capacity to produce enough negative power to counteract the noise.

then there is the malfunction issue...ie if due to incorrect use, adjustment, mechanical interferance with the works, battery failure or break down these things are capable of doing damage themselves.

If peltor had a real muff with this technology installed...... yep jow that would be a go.

there is no substitute for a good pear of ear muffs.

Mathew mate, even if your hearing is partly buggered it is worth getting things check out, there may be other "health issues" partly involved that may be able to be addressed to assist long term.
for instance Thickening of the mucus in th ear is a reasonably common cause of hearing loss and is somtimes involved where occupational dammage is present too.
at least if you get things check out you know what is going on.

cheers

these sound canecling earphones use power to produce a sine wave 180 deg out of sink to the microphone on the out side of the ear phones , thay do not stop sound , rather than doubleing the amount of noise getting to your ears , your brain cant distigwish the sound but there is 2x as much ( ears ringing after tractor ride )
thay are fine for low level back ground noise but if you can hear the machine the head phones dont have enough power to cancel it , how loud is the ACDC up at full volume through the head phones ? unbearable ? and you can sill hear the machine over the head phones up at full volume

dont use them as ear muffs

I bought a set of the Jaycar noise cancelling headphones for a recent trip to Thailand. They worked a treat. I usually get off planes with a splitting head ache but not this time. Audio sound quality isn't brilliant, but it's not too bad. And for $50 you can't complain.

I actually want to buy another set, but with small in-ear buds instead of big headphones. Does anyone know if there is such a thing available?

About to do some flying and so decided to get myself some noise cancelling headphones. After some recommendations from people at work, including someone who had the Bose phones, I went for the Jabra. The guy whose had the Bose for some time reckons the Jabra work equally as well as the Bose, but for about 1/4 the price.

Anyway what surprised me was how good they are just as earmuffs ie not even turned on. To me they sound nearly as good at knocking out sound as my Peltor Green earmuffs and quite a bit more comfortable. And . . . when you turn them on !!!! it's just eery! And you can still hear people speaking with them. In fact I can at times hear people speaking more clearly than without them - read on.

I'm legally deaf in one ear and nearly legally deaf in the other. More specifically my deafness is nearly all the the 2 - 4KHz range which is where many human speech consonants are produced. If there are any loud distracting noises around I find it very difficult to hear what is being said and since these phones dramatically supress high frequency hisses and low frequency rumbles I can hear speech more easily. I guess its the same as hearing aids except I don't believe that hearing aids are as good as supressing the background, they tend to over boost the consonant freq range.

With so many electonic gizmos around these days, being impressed by these devices is getting harder and harder but these sure impress me. Anyway, I don't plan on using them it the shed as I want to keep them clean for travelling.

don't be fooled by the aparant amount of attenuation provided by these NC headphones.

I looked at the figures on one of the units...... the actual figures arent real good. a half decent set of earplugs would do better and earplugs are considered very low protection.
cheers

I just got given a (belated) christmas present - a pair of Peltor "push to talk" earmuffs.
How are they /
Brilliant!!

Originally Posted by soundman

don't be fooled by the aparant amount of attenuation provided by these NC headphones.

I looked at the figures on one of the units...... the actual figures arent real good. a half decent set of earplugs would do better and earplugs are considered very low protection.
cheers

I agree after some initial enthusiasm, and following more use, my perceptions are tempering and it's definitely more apparent than real. 22 dB noise reduction is pretty ordinary, so I'm definitely not going to use them in place of my Peltors in the shed.

However, I just got back from from a flight to Adelaide and the NC phones worked very well on the plane. All that rumblimg/hissing noise drives me batty and I often get off long flights with a head ache that lasts for days. I guess I could bring the Peltors along, but these things are a lot more comfortable and I could at least hear the movie with a bit of clarity. In fact, on the 767 back to Perth, with the headphones plugged the into the seat audio socket, the lowest (1) was a touch too loud! To hear anything with the standard plane phones I needed to have the setting on 4.

The Etymotic ER6's are rated up to around 30db from memory. They've got excellent audio quality and can be bought from the US for about 80 USD.

But the distraction potential is a serious issue for woodworking.

I have mates who use them on their motorbikes and I reckon it shows.

Originally Posted by soundman

don't be fooled by the aparant amount of attenuation provided by these NC headphones.

I looked at the figures on one of the units...... the actual figures arent real good. a half decent set of earplugs would do better and earplugs are considered very low protection.
cheers

For workshop use, I totally agree. For planes or sitations where there's a low of low frequency noise, traditional earplugs don't cut it. That's where active noise cancelling works best ie <200Hz. Most power tools won't make any noise that low.

I just pulled the trigger on a pair of new Sony MDR-NC11 Noise Canceling headphones from Ebay ($65 including shipping from China). They're in the mail. They're the in-ear bud type which should hopefully make them more comfortable to wear on planes. I find it impossible to sleep on planes while wearing traditional style headphones.

I'm also going to try them on stage as an In-Ear monitor when i do gigs with my band. I doubt it will work too well, but it's worth a try.

So if noise cancelling headphones won't help me on my tractor, what will? Not driving it is not an option. Not being able to listen to some music during long stints is an option, just not an attractive one. What's the best product out there that will block the tractor's growl and, at the same time, enable me to listen to some big band while I mow fields? I don't listen to hard rock at ear splitting levels, but I do play guitar daily in front of 35 to 50 watt tube amplfiers (at reasonable levels). I really would like to keep my hearing.

I've just acquired a pair of Etymotic ER6 noise cancelling phones. Tried them in a suburban train on a bit more than moderate volume (couldn't adjust the source) and they blocked out all other noise. Can't yet say how they'd go on low volume but will post again if you're interested.

Originally Posted by rsser

I've just acquired a pair of Etymotic ER6 noise cancelling phones.

I'd like to hear SoundMan's opinion on the ability of these "ear plugs" to really achieve 34-36 db sound protection.