Noise Cancelling Headphones

[hagbard]

Do they have to be plugged into a device to work? Can they be run without music being feed to them? I need something to take out loud generator/pump sounds, and the occasionally shotgun blast.

[TruE SkiLLS]

use earplugs instead.

[warpdrive]

noise cancelling headphones are NOT to be used for hearing protection. You need In Ear Monitors

[hagbard]

use earplugs instead.

Not an option. Have tinnitus. Wouldn't get rid of those sounds anyway.

[hagbard]

noise cancelling headphones are NOT to be used for hearing protection. You need In Ear Monitors

Not really trying to protect my hearing, just get rid of undesirable sounds. What are in ear monitors?

[matkun]

Do they have to be plugged into a device to work? Can they be run without music being feed to them? I need something to take out loud generator/pump sounds, and the occasionally shotgun blast.

Well, to do any noise cancelling they need power first of all.

And no, noise cancelling headphones cannot cancel out any sound that is louder then the loudest volume they can produce. Do not ever use them for hearing protection as they will not do really do anything.

[Eyies]

Head to Home Depot and get the over-the-ear devices if ear plugs are not an option.

Don't rely on noise-cancelling headphones because they won't help in those situations.

[TruE SkiLLS]

+1 to the above, if you cant use earplugs, chances are, u cant use inears.

[tomthegreat]

I've used a pair of senheisers noise cancellation headphones, and some sony's as well. When the battery is in, and you turn it on, it cancels out some of the ambient noise without music playing, but nothing loud.

[kenyu28]

Head to Home Depot and get the over-the-ear devices if ear plugs are not an option.

Don't rely on noise-cancelling headphones because they won't help in those situations.

1+ Get the ones gardener's/lumberjacks use

[Aske001]

Do they have to be plugged into a device to work? Can they be run without music being feed to them? I need something to take out loud generator/pump sounds, and the occasionally shotgun blast.

They don't have to be plugged into a sound source to cancel ambient noise. They would probably do a reasonable job (e.g. maybe a 15db reduction) on low-frequency pump and generator noise as long as it isn't too loud. They won't remove vibration which is transmitted through surface contact rather than through the air as sound. They won't handle very loud sounds. Their effect rolls off to nothing at high frequencies. And they don't do much to damp out very loud sudden sounds like a shotgun blast.

They do a great job reducing the roar of the engines and the sound of the rushing airstream on a airplane when you are trying to listen to the movie soundtrack. But they only attenuate the sound a baby crying or the person next to you talking a little.

[kenyu28]

The noise canceling is not enough if it is only 15db reduction... Good earplugs can do like 32db reduction, if that's not enough. Gotta go technical tools

[hagbard]

They don't have to be plugged into a sound source to cancel ambient noise. They would probably do a reasonable job (e.g. maybe a 15db reduction) on low-frequency pump and generator noise as long as it isn't too loud.

With the windows and doors closed, that's probably all I need. I'll buy a set from FS and if it doesn't work, return them.

[EM_K19]

I have tried both in-ear monitors and noise-cancelling headphones, and let me tell you, IEM's are MUCH better for noise isolating and noise-cancelling ones are not worth your time. As people have mentioned, it won't cancel the noise that is already louder than the music itself, and the unit itself is a pain sometimes. For the Sennheisers in particular, you get this weird big "pen" thing which is the noise-cancelling module, and it is very annoying to carry with you. If the unit doesn't have that pen thing, then the headphones will be bigger, the module has to go somewhere. Also, they tend to cause a "static" noise which is the noise-cancelling technology at work and tends to screw up your music experience if you have hi-fi ears. After all that, it still doesn't end up cancelling out noise that much.

Get the Shure SE210's right now at FS. They're on sale for $99. They're excellent at noise-blocking, and has very good sound quality to boot.

[Aske001]

Noise cancelling headphones work well for the intended use, but many people don't realize what they can and can't do until they try it out for themselves.

They work really well for reducing low-frequency background noise such as engine/road/wind noise in a moving vehicle or aircraft, ventilation fans and noisy machinery indoors, etc.. They don't eliminate the noise entirely, but they reduce it a lot and thereby make the sound source you're trying to hear a lot clearer. That means you don't have to turn the volume way up to distorted levels to drown out the background noise. They're great for watching movies or listening to music. The best ones have reasonably good sound quality and don't add any strange side effects to the sound.

They have a reduced effect on mid-frequency sounds and hardly any on high-frequency sounds (very short wavelengths can't be cancelled accurately, so they deliberately roll off the effect at high frequencies in the amplifier to avoid incorrect cancellation, which could cause audible side effects). They don't have much effect on sudden impact sounds because they can't react fast enough and those sounds have a strong high-frequency component.

A person talking next to you or a loudspeaker announcement will still be clearly audible, just slightly muffled. In some cases that's a good thing, where you still want to be able to hear what's going on around you while reducing background noise.

Some headphones combine active noise-cancelling technology with a traditional padded over-ear cup or a sealed in-ear design which helps to passively reduce mid and high frequency noise as well.

[warpdrive]

If your looking for noise protection, or noise reduction, and don't care about playing music, just buy a set of noise protection earmuffs which you can find at any Canadian Tire, Home Depot. Will be cheaper, and way more effective.

I really don't understand why one would buy a set of headphones to just block noise. They don't work that well, they only reduce low frequency noise, about 10-15 decibels worth. 10dB of reduction is the same as halving the amount of noise.

http://img396.imageshack.us/img396/5348/clipboard01fs4.th.jpg (http://img396.imageshack.us/my.php?image=clipboard01fs4.jpg)

You could probably find some much cheaper than $25 even