I’m going insane at work because of all the noise & commotion in the office. Yesterday I went to get a set of headphones that would double as earmuffs—for the noise, not for warmth. The guy at Circuit City directed me to these noise-cancelling headphones. He said they’re amazing at cutting out ambient background noise. But they’re $200. So instead he pointed next to the $40 pair. He said that he’s never tried that particular pair, but that there is a 30-day money back guarantee, so WTF? Desperate and strung-out, I decided to give 'em a whirl.
The effect seems to be pretty minimal in one sense, but really effective in another sense. It’s like I don’t have words to express what it is like when the headphones sound-cancelling is turned on. When I started playing London Calling, however, the world was dead to me (the music may have been a little loud, too). It was pretty refreshing.
The music quality seemed muffled—much like wearing earplugs at a loud concert…the sound quality is still good, but you need to turn up the treble to compensate.
Now I can’t help but wonder what the $200 pair are like. I’d almost go swap out the $40 pair for the $200 pair first thing this morning if the quality-to-dollars ratio was constant in that range. I mean, the jump from run-of-the-mill headphones to the $40 noise-cancelling headphones makes the decision to drop the $40 a no-brainer. If the $200 ones are five times as good…wow! that would be something to have blocking out the world when I need to concentrate.
Needless to say, based on my limited experience, I wholly endorse the $40 noise-cancelling headphones. I can’t wait until the next time I fly just so that I can wear them. You don’t even to be listening to anything to get the noise-cancelling effect.
Has anybody compared the low-end from the higher-end ones? I’m curious to know if they’re much better, or if the benefits will strictly go to pure audiophiles and regular slobs like me will get all the benefit I can get at the low end of the market.
If you have a Bose store nearby, they have stations set up where you can test the headphones. I bought a pair for my husband; they are definitely better than the $40 model (which we started off with), but I don’t like them very much. He seems to enjoy them. I don’t know if I’d say 5 times better; more a matter of fewer annoyances and better sound reproduction.
Not much more than with the cheapo phones (IMO) since the principle they work on is the same. The $200 cans just use better components and probably more research has go into setting them up correctly, but in my experience the noise cancelling works best on continuous sound (like the white noise roar of a plane) rather than speech - though it does help.
I take it the $200 ones are Bose? If so the price doesn’t reflect the quality accurately (IMO again) Bose products are good, but not that good, generally. Plus the noise cancelling will have some effect on the sound quality anyway (it did on the Bose cans I tried anyway)
I own a set of the Bose headphones.
in many ways they are wonderful, in other ways, not as good as I hoped.
In coping with flow noise or or engine noise on an aircraft they are wonderful.
In killing converstaions of other passengers, I wish they were better. They tend to muffle, rather than eliminate the loud talking passenger behind me.
As far as their use as set of headphones, on the airplane the sound does tend to be a little muffled, as they are dealing with a ton of ambient noise. However I often use them in the hotel when I am watching a DVD on my laptop. for this they rock! They are the best headphones I have ever used for general listening.
As in all things YMMV
I don’t know. I stopped looking when I saw the price tag. But if the chatting and telephone ringing and banging of the copy machine aren’t going to be drastically reduced by the extra money, then I’m going to be quite happy with the $40 ones.
Oh, and Paul, I don’t know about the voices in your head. Interesting tidbit: Did you know that a lot of schitzophrenics (sp?) who hear voices are actually listening to themselves talk, but they don’t realize it? Very iteresting… I guess that explains why the voices in my head sound like chipmunks when I’m huffing helium.
These $60 headphones drown out enough noise trackside that you can still hear your scanner. Unless your office is full of 43 cars, full throttle, pushing over 700 hp each, then you probably don’t need $200 headphones.
I used to work for Bose headquarters in Framingham, Massachusetts (and several Dopers still do) so I know a little bit about this. I even won a pair of noise-cancelling headphones in one of their employee raffles.
Dr. Bose invented the noise-cancelling technology by scribbling down sound equations on a napkin while he was on an international plane flight. The key thing to remember is that they are supposed to cancel out ambient noise while still leaving the user the ability to hear speech and other non-ambient sounds. That means that they will work great on sounds like airplane engines, fans, air conditioners etc. but will not greatly reduce non-ambient sounds.
Any reduction in sounds such as speech is a result of the passive noise reduction characteristics of the headphones (simple sound insulation) and not due to the active noise-cancelling technology.
The way that the technology works is by analyzing the ambient sounds coming in and producing a sound wave exactly opposite that to cancel it out. It is not possible right now to intercept variable sounds such as speech and cancel it out between the time that the sound reaches the outside of the headphones and it reaches the listeners ears.
That said, Bose noise-cancelling headphones are a quality product for what it is designed to do. Other Bose headphones with the same technology are heavily used in the U.S. military and other aviation applications.
Personally, I use a $60 pair of noise isolation headphones that Vic Firth puts out. As in, they take out ambient sound by not letting it into your ear, kinda like more standard ear protection. They market them to session drum players, so they don’t have to crank the music to drum along and still hear the music over the sound of their drums.
Sound quality is great, although they do hug the ears a little tight.
Again agreed. I have had mine for several years, and they are excellent. I tied a $60 pair from Adequate Purchase before I bought the Bose unit. First problem with the AP unit was that they were “open” type headphones, so there was a limit of how well the noise cancelling worked. The second and more serious problem was that the headband was designed in such a way that after about 1/2 hour it had dug into the top of my skull and I had to take the damn things off cause they hurt. I learned that noise cancelling headphones don’t work worth squat when they are in your briefcase. :smack:
BTW if you really want to know what quiet sounds like, put a set of these on in a quiet room. Damn! :eek:
I’m curious, will they work on something, say like a lawnmower or blower? Because the landscapers come around my neighborhood on all the days I can sleep in it seems, and something about the sound of a lawnmower gives me a headache really quickly. I don’t know how practical it would be to wear a big honkin set of headphones while I’m asleep, but the fact is right now even with my bedroom window shut and earplugs, I can still hear a guy with a lawnmower working three houses away :mad:
There is one other thing that I forgot to mention. It is pretty neat to put on a pair of noise-cancelling headphones on in what you think is a quiet room with the noise-cancelling feature turned off. Listen carefully for a minute then turn on the noise-cancelling. There are a ton of ambient sounds that you didn’t even realize were there that suddenly disappear and leave you with true quiet.
I’ve been able to try a couple different noise-cancelling headphones (although I still don’t own a pair).
I’ve seen pairs ranging from $60 to a couple thousand a pair (no, I didn’t get to try that pair! Owned by a former airline captain with noisy hobbies who likes his hearing). Some of the price is noise-cancelling technology. Some of it goes into sound-proofing. Some of it goes into other materials. All can be important.
As a prior poster pointed out, after awhile a headset can dig into the top of your skull, making things very uncomfortable (even if quiet). So I would expect a $200-$400 pair to be made of very light, very strong materials to sit lightly on your head while doing their job. They should be better at filtering background sounds with sound proofing. All of them have to fit a little snug, but the material for the ear cups range considerably in quality and comfort. (Me, I like gel ear cups with flannel covers - I make the covers - which moderates the chill of the gel in winter and the sweaty “headset head” in summer)
True noise-cancelling requires power - the more sophisticated the techonology used the more power it may require. This may or may not be an issue for you. If you’re using it with a portable device you may go through a lot of batteries.
The best option would be to go somewhere where you could “test fit” several pairs. It’s not just the noise-cancelling - if they aren’t comfortable enough to wear you won’t wear 'em, and they will do you no good if they aren’t on your head.
They will work on any noise that is consistent. The circuitry has to react to the ambient noise so voices and music would not be cancelled to the extent a droning noise would. Aviation headsets start at over $300 and go straight up. You should have 2 ratings associated with each headset to give you some idea. One number will refer to the headset’s ability to muffle noise (like earplugs) and the second number should show the combined noise cancelling abilities with the electronics turned on.
The one thing I noticed on my headset is that it muffles different frequencies than the next model up. Hard to test unless you can reproduce the sound you want to muffle.
I use earplugs to sleep with and there are different grades in those. You should be able to muffle any sound to a level that allows you to sleep (except for rap music which will penetrate ANY earplug because of the low frequencies).
