Tried to use my iPod on a jaunt on the Metro a few weeks ago, and the ambient train noise was so loud that at times I had to pause the player (as opposed to cranking the sound loud enough to hear, which would have shredded my eardrums).
On the trip home, I remembered the term “noise-reducing headphones” thinking thise would be a dandy thing to have around for such trips. So I did some googling - and apparently they can be helpful… but at price which can be quite stiff (ranging from 100 to 400 bucks a pair). For me, for the occasional jaunt, that isn’t worth it. If I commuted regularly, it’d be worth at least considering.
Anyway - I’m thinking that the sort of earbuds that actually plug into the canal, as opposed to cheap iPod-standard style buds, might reduce background noise a bit due to their physical design. Anyone own such a pair and care to comment? I know they wouldn’t be as good as a pricier pair with the cancelling circuitry.
Alternately, does anyone have any more moderately-priced noise-reducing phones (say, < $100) that you find helpful? I’m seeing very mixed reviews on the few choices out there.
What are you looking at? Noise-reducing is a bit vague.
There are noise-blocking headphones similar to the kind of earmuffs hunters and folks at shooting ranges use. They’re mostly used for studio recordings.
There are ear-canal headphones designed for performing musicians that block out noise.
There are also regular headphones that use noise-cancellation technology (there’s a mic one side, and the other side transmits an inverse signal, thus cancelling out the noise).
They’re all considerably more expensive than standard $20 headphones. I’d say offhand that the last one is a bit dodgy from my brief experience with them.
If you’re talking a bout in-ear canal headphones like the Etymotic ER6i I have a pair and they’re well worth the money.
Not only do they block out ALOT of ambient sound, but they are very VERY crisp. You Will hear instruments that you’ve never heard before. Be careful though. I’ve almost been run over because I couldn’t hear the cars honking at me.
Yes - that last one was the sort I was thinking of when I mentioned the higher-priced one. What I read about them seemed to make sense (sending “opposite” sound waves to wipe out any unwanted noise) - sounds like you tried them and they didn’t work too well!
Hello Again and Harmonix (loooove the posternames / thread combo, BTW :)) - that’s the sort of thing I was thinking might be a reasonable compromise between cheapo earbuds (I’m the odd duck that likes the included iPod earbuds just fine for most uses) and the pricier stuff. I guess my question is, do they work well enough for most uses?
I mean, a really loud screech from the train’s brakes might not be drowned out but would they help enough that most of the time, I could listen w/o having to completely crank the volume? Would any “earplug”-style do well enough? I’m not enough of a purist to really notice minor sound quality reducton.
Good point on the warning though - it’d kinda suck to have to change my name to (The Late) Mama Zappa
To be totally fair, they were not the style of headphones that surround and cover your entire ear. I’d imagine those would be more effective. The difference was noticeable, and matched with proper isolation headphones I’m sure the idea would work great.
I like the earbuds that fit inside the ear canal. They block out quite a bit of noise. I have some Sony earbuds, and they come with 3 different sized rubber fittings for different sized ear canals. They were $40.
Want more noise canceling ability? Use the in-ear earbuds and then a set of shooting earmuffs (about $10) over them. Not the most fashionable, but they work very well together.
These aren’t specifically noise-canceling, but I had a pair of these headphones, and found that they blocked ambient noise really well. They sound pretty darn good for $25 headphones. As a matter of fact, I ended up buying a different pair of headphones because I got sick of people sneaking up on me while I had them on at work!
I second that, I have the Etymotic’s (can’t remember which model) and Bose quiet comfort 2’s and for noise cancelling say on an airplane I’d choose Bose, but to hear music I’d choose Etymotics. The earbuds (Etymotics) are uncomfortable for me as a noice cancelling option but you will hear your song like you’ve never heard it before.
I have noise cancellation in-ear headphones and so does my boyfriend. I have an El Cheapo pair I bought at Best Buy, his are mid-range Sony that I bought online after reading lots of reviews at CNET.com.
I commute on the Long Island Railroad which is an above-ground commuter rail system. The 'phones I have work well for all except the big diesel trains that come through now and then – those are so loud and deep they rattle my fillngs. Mine have a tendency to slip out – my SO’s Sony headphones are noteably more comfortable – but as long as I’m not jogging they stay in fine.
A friend of mine whose family is in the car/home audio business told me that These cheapies are as good as many three times their price, and come with three ear sizes.
The biggest problem about commutting with them is that you can’t hear onboard announcements, so you have to pay more attention and not get engrossed in your crossword/magazine/etc, but rather keep an eye out for other passengers behaving oddly (ie getting off en masse at odd places) because the train is skipping stops or whatever. Both me and my SO take our respective trains to the end of the line, so this problem is reduced for us.
My friend bought a pair of Sennheiser CX300 earbuds as cheap carry-around earphones. He’s a semi-audiophile and his normal earphones are UltimateEars. He considers them to be acceptably good for a pair of earphones he doesn’t mind beating up, and this is coming from a guy who was willing to spend over $300 on earphones. They aren’t that expensive, about half the price of most nice-sounding earphones; the more upscale in-ear monitor market starts at $100 and goes way, way up.
While I recently got Etymotic ER6i earphones, and consider them to be well worth the money (just over US$100) I got the cheaper Sennheisers for my wife since I wanted nicer and more comfortable earphones for her than the stock buds. Even she appreciated the difference between these and my old AudioTechnica earphones I’d loaned her (which were about $35) and she doesn’t much care about sound quality most of the time.
I was surprised at how much sound they block out, especially considering that they don’t go very deep into the ear. They block almost as much as my Etymotics! They are bit bass-heavy for my taste, but they are an enormous step up from most other earphones in the $35+ range. It’s worth the extra $15–$20 to get these instead of an el-cheapo pair of earphones if you’re looking for decent sound at a relatively low price.
I just got cheap in-ears for my phone (with MP3 player). I had to edit all my mp3s to reduce the volume, because at the phones lowest volume level they were still too loud - but I am very cautious with my ears. You can’t play music if you can’t hear what you are playing.
I want to second this particular set of headphones. I commute by train daily, and these drown out pretty much everything around me without the need to have the music cranked. In fact, I was annoyed this morning because a couple of people sitting behind me were engaged in a VERY enthusiastic game of dominoes, so I popped on my headphones, turned on something very mellow at low volume, and didn’t notice a thing afterward until the conductor tapped me on the shoulder to ask to see my ticket (I hadn’t heard him before that).
High-quality headphones for a low price with the added benefit of drowning out a lot of ambient noise. And if you do like to crank your music (as I often do), people around you still can’t hear it.
I have some Etymotic ER-4s. They’re probably out of your price range, but they’re wonderful. When you can hear a flautist inhale, it’s great. When you can hear a flautist inhale while the train is pulling into the subway station, it’s a work of wonder. When you can comfortably enjoy a symphony while on a flight with a baby behind you and a toddler next to you, it’s awe-inspiring.
I don’t have personal experience with the cheaper ER-6 or any other isolation headphone, but i think the primary difference is in the sound quality, not the isolation. Steer clear of Bose, though: Sennheiser makes much better cans for half the price.