Noise cancellation headphones

Moneymaker

I use "Blu-Tack" to block out aeroplane noise. For listening to music I use SkyTronic noise cancelling earphones. They are "cheap and cheerful" but good enough for use in a noisy environment.
http://glodark.com/noise_cancelling_earphones.htm

Marty_J

isofa wrote: »

Have you compared noise cancelling headphones with earplugs?

No comparison! :beer:

In what way is there no comparison?

I can think of several ways in which earplugs are superior.

Marty_J

Moneymaker wrote: »

I use "Blu-Tack" to block out aeroplane noise.

You stick Blu-Tack in your ears? :shocked:

bingo_bango

Marty_J wrote: »

You stick Blu-Tack in your ears? :shocked:

So how else would you hang posters from your head then?

I work as an audio tech, and in live music settings, earplugs are a godsend. Cheaper, lighter, and less expensive to lose than NCH. At least as effective too.

leosayer39

Hi all,

I have just bought some noise cancelling headphones from Aldi, just this week.

They were £19.99, use 2 x aa batteries, and having tested them at home with the tele on, they seem to do a good job

HTH

Leo

isofa

Marty_J wrote: »

In what way is there no comparison?

I can think of several ways in which earplugs are superior.

You can?

I can think of no way in which they are superior, except the price, but they don't offer the same facilities, so it's not an fair comparison at all.

Firstly with ear-plugs, you are potentially inserting into the ear canal, which at best can be uncomfortable and at worst can potentially cause damage, unless you are using expensive anatomically designed ones, some professionals have these crafted precisely for their own ear canal.

Secondly, in noise reduction terms there is literally no comparison, good NR headphones, reduce constant external noises (such as aircraft engines, train rumble etc), to virtually inaudible, but allow a talk through function to chat to others and also can listen to music etc if you wish too, how can an ear plug offer those features?

People who haven't tried NR cancelling devices, cannot accurately compare, IMO.

Marty_J

isofa wrote: »

You can?

I can think of no way in which they are superior, except the price, but they don't offer the same facilities, so it's not an fair comparison at all.

Firstly with ear-plugs, you are potentially inserting into the ear canal, which at best can be uncomfortable and at worst can potentially cause damage, unless you are using expensive anatomically designed ones, some professionals have these crafted precisely for their own ear canal.

Secondly, in noise reduction terms there is literally no comparison, good NR headphones, reduce constant external noises (such as aircraft engines, train rumble etc), to virtually inaudible, but allow a talk through function to chat to others and also can listen to music etc if you wish too, how can an ear plug offer those features?

People who haven't tried NR cancelling devices, cannot accurately compare, IMO.

Noise cancelling earphones work best at cancelling constant background noise, which is exactly the kind of noise the human ear adapts to and ignores very quickly. I have spent almost 24 hours in the air in the past 4 months, and I can't recall wishing the engines would shut up, because I can't recall hearing them. I can however remember the sounds of the person sitting next to me watching a film on his laptop, some child crying and screaming, and the rather nasal American woman sitting behind me pontificating to the entire cabin about her HRT. I would not have heard those sounds if I had earplugs in, nor would I have noticed the engine noise either.

I have a set of Shure SE530 noise isolating earphones, which are basically earplugs with earphones in them. They block ambient noise, both repetitive and intermittent, and they do it without taking frequencies away from the music, adding noise, or introducing artefacts.

It is also rather odd that you would assert that earplugs could lead to some sort of damage given that one of the primary causes of hearing damage is not wearing earplugs in high decibel environments.

The dearth of noise cancelling earphones in use in the pro-audio industry in favour of the humble (and sometimes not so humble) earplugs, would lead me to believe that there is plenty to be said for them. They're cheap and they work.

Marty_J

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Horlock

Just a quick question following on from this. Would noise cancelling headphones

a) block out the sound of someone snoring (ie more effective than ear plugs which don't do the job?)
b) be comfortable to wear in bed (ie to sleep) - or are they only the great big headphones