Headphones For Noisy Environments? 16
Here's another query from an Anonymous Coward with ringing ears: "I may be forced to spend a lot of time in a computer machine room soon, and was thinking of using some noise-cancellation headphones (like those made by Sony or BOSE). Unfortunately, I must spend a lot of time on the telephone. I can try and hack one of the airplane model units BOSE makes (which also has a built in boom microphone) to interface to a telephone, but it occurred to me maybe someone knew of something better that already exists? It would be nice to be able to listen to music when I'm not on the telephone..."
Re:OSHA's rules about noise (Score:2)
My company has foam ear plugs in the labs, for anyone to take if they are spending time in the lab. Some of us care about our ears enough to use them too. (I find them very handy in the office area for runing everything out once in a while)
Re:How to cope with machine room noise. (Score:2)
I'd be really suprised if you can't get a decent passive noise cancelling electret mic on a headphone. We pilots have them on our headsets (passive or active noise cancelling), and it allows us to be heard over an incredibly noise piston engine and propellor. And yes, we have side tone in our in-plane intercomms - I often turn on the intercomm even when I'm alone in the plane so that I can hear myself muttering to myself. "mixture rich, check carb heat, throttle back, trim back, maintain altitude until I've slowed down to 70..." (Yes, I've been a licensed pilot for 5 years and I still say these things to myself)
I believe the noise cancelling mechanism on aviation headset microphones is something as holes on the back of the microphone diaphram that allows the ambient noise to "push" on the back as well as the front, while your talking only "pushes" on the front of the diaphram. But I could be wrong about that.
Re:How to cope with machine room noise. (Score:1)
The drawbacks: they only cancel up to around 1500Hz, though it does an excellent job against computer fans and hard drives in my room and in lab. It definitely gets rid of the annoying lower-pitched whines. These particular headphones leave a small static-ish hiss in place of the noise. It's not annoying when you're actually playing music (I don't hear it if the music is loud enough to be recognizable), but it's there.
I haven't used them at work yet, where the big machine room is (on the order of 100 mainframes and thousands of hard disks), but I'll post when I've tried them there.
Of course these won't help you much if you want to talk on the phone at the same time. It simply isn't possible. :-)
Re:An electronics project to do just that. (Score:1)
http://headwize.com/projects/noise_prj.htm [headwize.com]
One thing to look for.. (Score:1)
Quick test: have the salesperson take you into a _quiet_ room. Listen to a few types of music with the cancellation turned off and on. Since there's no noise to cancel, it should sound the same either way, right?
Nope, all 5 sets I've tried tend to cancel out their own sounds, dropping out different frequency bands even with the volume turned way down.
If anyone finds a set that doesn't, let me know..
-zlexiss
OSHA's rules about noise (Score:2)
Most employers could care less about safety and their computer geeks. Save your ears. Ruining them now, and being deaf when you're old, sucks.
Try Etymotic earphones (Score:1)
Of course, like most anything, you get what you pay for. The ER-4S list for $330 a pair at <http://www.etymotic.com/>, but you can get them for about $300 from <http://headroom.headphone.com/> (when their site isn't hacked).
I've used these headphones for nearly three years now and they're still holding up very well. I also use their standard earplugs when riding on the highway on my motorcycle. They're quite comfortable for all day use!
An electronics project to do just that. (Score:2)
http://headwize.com/projects/noise_prj.htm
It's instructions to build your own noise canceling headphones.
BBK
Comments from a Sony NCR-NC5 owner (Score:1)
I've found out that they work better with low frequency noises, like car engines. They also do a good job with very high frequencies, like turbines, etc. I use them mainly for those long trips (by plane, train or bus), where you have the constant engine noise, and therefore they are perfect for that job. However they do nothing to remove other "noises" like the "background" noise of people speaking nearby.
Also, they can get "tiring" to use. It's hard to explain... When you turn their noise cancelling circuit on, you inmediatly notice that there is much less noise, but also you start noticing other "noises" that where masked before. Or maybe is the noise cancelling loop that adds some extra noise I don't know, but although this is hardly noticeable if you use them for a long time your hears get tired of it. However this is a very small issue, and only matters if you plan to use them continously for 9 hours or something.
As I said, for flights and bus trips they are really nice, specially coupled with my MZ-90 Minidisc portable player, but that is a totally different story!
I hope this helps,
Angel
Passive Noise Reduction (Great Music) (Score:1)
While this won't help with the phone part (without some patching), you should also consider the Etymotic ER-4S [etymotic.com] headphones, which provide 23db of sound isolation and really good quality music sound. These are passive noise reduction headphones, so they stick part way into your ear like an ear plug. Some people find the feeling unnerving, but they are very effective. You can buy them cheaper and find more information at http://www.headphone.com/ProductsHeadphones/Etymot icER4Sasp.asp">HeadRoom (also check out their headphone amps).
As for the active noise reduction models like the Sonys and Bose, I would recommend trying them out against a similar noise background. These systems (at least the consumer versions I've tried) are good at filtering out some frequecies/types of noise, but less effective on others. The Sonys were pretty good at upper frequency in the airplane, but not on the lower end in my experience (i.e. the "whoosh" of air running along the fuselage was somewhat taken out, but not the droning of the engines).
Regards, RJS
from the cool inventions dept. (Score:1)
Anyway, in your situation, with a setup like that, you could just wear regular earplugs.
I know this may never be read... (Score:1)
RE: I know this may never be read... (Score:1)
How to cope with machine room noise. (Score:2)
I have sensitive ears, and yet work with lots of machines, so I understand your plight. I once had a job where the idiot manager almost forced me to have my "office" in the machine room.
Well, the best solution is to avoid being in the machine room as much as possible. You can usually get by with "remote control software" like VNC [att.com] or PCAnywhere. If you have to do a lot of pre-boot activity on PC's, a KVM extender [nti1.com] might be in order.
Buy high-noise-reduction foam earplugs. You can buy them easily at any drugstore (the foamy ones kinds with NRR of 27 or higher are best). Better yet, by them in bulk-buy them from medical and/or construction supply stores.
Finally, if you expect to be "on the phone" while being in the machine room, a regular noise-cancelling headphone won't help you. You'll get much of the machine room noise fed back to you because telephones have "sidetone" (which feeds back what you say into the mouthpiece back into your earpiece -- it helps to regulate the speech volume of the telephone user). (BTW, if you're at an airport/concert/etc. and have a hard time hearing the other party, just cover your mouthpiece with your hand. It helps a lot.) A telephone with noise-cancelling mic might help. I dunno.
By the way, an active-noise-cancellation headset helps cut out the low-frequency noise, but it doesn't help you much with the high-frequency noise. So, you're still better off avoiding the noise in the first place.
Good luck.
Here's exactly what you need (Score:2)
What you need is a tank crew helmet [rbr-international.com]!
Come on
Closed Backed Headphones... (Score:1)