'I Bought Some Noise-Canceling Headphones. They Don't Cancel Noise' (zdnet.com) 436
"Many are seduced by the idea that they can listen in silence," complains ZDNet columnist Chris Matyszczyk.
"This doesn't seem to be true," he writes, describing a typical experience with some $279.95 Beats Studio3 wireless over-ear headphones: I could still hear so much of what was going on beyond the soccer match or movie upon which my headphones were supposed to be focused. This wasn't noise-canceling. It was noise-dulling... I did a little research. This noise-canceling thing is a splendid hype. The technology works best on quashing -- somewhat -- low-frequency sounds. The more high-pitched elements of life -- human speech, babies on planes, high-revving engines, the Darkness in concert -- get a little flattening at best, once you don your headphones. Door bells, a glass being dropped on the floor, a dog barking -- all these sounds were slightly dulled by my headphones, but still perfectly audible.
I'm not suggesting Beats is solely responsible for the promise of noise-canceling being overblown. I understand it's the same with all other headphones of the genre. It's like a self-driving car that actually needs you to check it's not about to kill you....
Yes, if I wear my Beats for a couple of hours and then take them off, I feel like I'm returning from some sort of purgatorial netherworld. But these things are supposed to cancel noise. You know, like you cancel a subscription or an air ticket. When I decide to cancel my flight from San Francisco to New York, I don't expect to still have to fly to Boise, Idaho.
"This doesn't seem to be true," he writes, describing a typical experience with some $279.95 Beats Studio3 wireless over-ear headphones: I could still hear so much of what was going on beyond the soccer match or movie upon which my headphones were supposed to be focused. This wasn't noise-canceling. It was noise-dulling... I did a little research. This noise-canceling thing is a splendid hype. The technology works best on quashing -- somewhat -- low-frequency sounds. The more high-pitched elements of life -- human speech, babies on planes, high-revving engines, the Darkness in concert -- get a little flattening at best, once you don your headphones. Door bells, a glass being dropped on the floor, a dog barking -- all these sounds were slightly dulled by my headphones, but still perfectly audible.
I'm not suggesting Beats is solely responsible for the promise of noise-canceling being overblown. I understand it's the same with all other headphones of the genre. It's like a self-driving car that actually needs you to check it's not about to kill you....
Yes, if I wear my Beats for a couple of hours and then take them off, I feel like I'm returning from some sort of purgatorial netherworld. But these things are supposed to cancel noise. You know, like you cancel a subscription or an air ticket. When I decide to cancel my flight from San Francisco to New York, I don't expect to still have to fly to Boise, Idaho.
You're LISTENING to it WRONG (Score:4, Funny)
(C)(R)(TM)Apple
Re:You're LISTENING to it WRONG (Score:5, Insightful)
He buys a shit pair of headphones and is surprised when they sound like shit.
Go get a pair of Bose QuietComfort 35 II or V-MODA Crossfade II headphones. Don't waste your money on Beats garbage.
Lol... Bose. Of all things ... (Score:2, Insightful)
They are like top-price-segment Beats. Also utterly overpriced for their quality. Poser crap.
Head over to the Head-Fi forums and check out their list of recommendations. Then try which ones *you* actually like best, purely based on how they sound (at the same subjective volume!). Then pick what you want to pay.
Trust me, you will be much happier. As will your wallet.
Re:Lol... Bose. Of all things ... (Score:4, Informative)
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FTFY.
Re:Lol... Bose. Of all things ... (Score:5, Funny)
Noise cancelling headphones are meant to cancel out repetitive predictive sound. When I was flying my Bose noise cancelling headphones worked pretty good to filter out engine noise. But in the office the only way I could figure out how to use them filter out noisy coworkers was to beat them to death with the headphones.
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Try the QuietComfort 20 ear bud's, they block out sound a lot better than the headphones (I also own the QC-25's).
I wear them on my walk to/from work everyday and they block out the sound of traffic/train almost completely so long as you're listening to music. Without music playing the external sounds are still muffled pretty well, but not completely.
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Your top-price segment Hyundai is still not a Mercedes.
That’s true... the Hyundai is likely more reliable, and definitely costs less to service.
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As Every Review Says (Score:5, Informative)
It's not like the fact that they don't make everything perfectly silent is hidden. Read any review and it makes it clear and I'm sure the columnist knew this.
I don't know about Beats but I find the noise cancelling on my Sony WH-1000XM3's invaluable. My wife and I can sit next to each other and work while the other one eats loud food or listens to something out loud. I can easily hear whatever I play on my headphones even on planes or while vacuuming.
So other than being ASTONISHED that product makers might be engaged in a degree of puffery what's the point of this piece?
Re:As Every Review Says (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't know about Beats but I find the noise cancelling on my Sony WH-1000XM3's invaluable.
I don't know about $280 Beats but I find the noise cancelling on my $4 foam earplugs (pack of eight!) that I got from the local pharmacy to be invaluable.
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Re:He said headphones. (Score:5, Insightful)
Then use the over-ear construction worker grade hearing protections. these easily fit an in-ear headphone beneath.
Re: He said headphones. (Score:2, Interesting)
This. $20 war mufflers and $30 in ear Bluetooth set works 20db better than a $300 set of beats. You need to avoid a wire with this method, or else use foam plugs and turn up the volume on over the ear sets, and use the muffs to keep it quiet for others.
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Peltors. Any of the WS series. Aka 'forklift driver headphones'. Bluetooth, exceptional at removing just about all sounds, can talk to others on the phone when needed even in excessively high noise environments, and most of them have 'punch through' to permit local audio when you need it. Also pretty damn tough; I still use my first set of Peltors I purchased a decade ago.
Only two downsides: bulky and pricey. But dang do they work well.
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I do the same with my shooting earmuffs and it works great.
This is actually an excellent solution. I did this on a few plane trips and my shooting phones + earbuds were a lifesaver. It knocked the airplane noise out as well (as most of the crying baby noise).
This method might even be better than NC headphones, to be honest. I'd have to do a side-by-side comparison to see, but shooting phones + earbuds worked very well for me.
Re:He said headphones. (Score:5, Funny)
WHAT?
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Re:As Every Review Says (Score:4, Insightful)
But then you don't hear your audio.
The actual solution is an in-ear monitor that isolates just as well as an earplug while letting you hear very accurately reproduced music. I've used a pair of old-school Etymotic ER4 [etymotic.com] for years now and it's still shocking how well they work. Like to the point where I pull them out somewhere in public and the ambient noise is louder than Metallica was just playing in my ears.
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My go-to is the Bose QC25, but I have owned some ER4 (and better) in the past. It all really depends on your use, and almost necessarily so (exception apparently being the tunable noise cancelling Sony offers). From a safety perspective, they try to avoid cancelling out human voice midrange in general.
But, I would much prefer in-ear noise cancelling to noise isolating personally. The isolation doesn’t seem to work as well on the frequency bands or noise that causes me stress when flying.
Pulling out
Life insurance doesn't mean you don't die (Score:5, Informative)
these are noise cancelling not sound canceling. Same as Life insurance is not protection for your life. Noise cancelation is NOT about quiet it's about improving signal to noise ratio. Earplugs just reduce signal and noise in equal amounts.
The dull the low freq roars that can be all around us and quite loud but that we tune out. When those are gone your stress levels go down and you can hear more. I actually find it easier to have a conversation on an airplane when I'm wearing the headphones (no music, just more quiet). I can pick out the voices just fine.
It's not even close to foam ear plugs in effect. Yes those also provide sounnd reductions but they dont change the ratio of noise to signal. Those make everything hard to hear. They con't selectively remove the roar and thus improve the fidelity of what remains.
Re: Life insurance doesn't mean you don't die (Score:5, Informative)
Generally speaking they're intended to cancel *ambient* noise. As in sustained noise with a consistent pattern.
If noise is not predictable, then it's extremely difficult to cancel, as you only have the time between when the sound reaches the microphone and when it reaches the speaker to characterize it and generate the appropriate counter-wave to neutralize it with destructive interference.
Being generous and assuming a 1" separation of the two, you're talking only 74 micro-seconds - it can be done reasonably well with high quality analog electronics produced with sufficiently tight tolerances, but cheap electronics, especially a digital systems, have essentially no chance.
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I know it's off topic somewhat, but in all seriousness I highly recommend getting a set of construction-grade hearing protectors ("earmuffs") instead of using foam earplugs. I find I tend to use them a lot more because they are much easier to "put on". They are also large enough that you can wear a set of AirPods or whatever ear buds you like under them. If you want "noise cancelling" then that is the way to go. Eliminates about 30db. You may not look as cool as you do wearing Beats though...
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Re:As Every Review Says (Score:5, Insightful)
Looking at the Beats site they don't actually claim to completely block all sound. I don't know where the author got that impression.
TBH they sound pretty clueless. I mean they bought Beats headphones expecting them to be good, when everyone with a clue knows that they are extremely shit and only really good as fashion accessories. It's their hallmark, their brand identity.
Re:As Every Review Says (Score:4, Interesting)
Looking at the Beats site they don't actually claim to completely block all sound. I don't know where the author got that impression.
TBH they sound pretty clueless. I mean they bought Beats headphones expecting them to be good, when everyone with a clue knows that they are extremely shit and only really good as fashion accessories. It's their hallmark, their brand identity.
To be fair, the Studio Wireless 3 are pretty good [wired.com] and far more neutral than the other Beat headphones, which are rather bass heavy. I had some older Studio Wireless headphones, and while I prefer Sennheiser Momentum and the latest Sony WH-1000XM3s, the Beats were not bad.
Of course, with the bass heavy noise whippersnappers call music these days, no headphone can salvage it.
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I wouldn't say everyone knows their shit. I would say most people think it's all shit and a few people still don't know what it all means and the fools should bring a concierge shopping
Everyone apart from the people that bought them, and even at that they might know but not care because beats are the ones that are 'cool'.
Re:As Every Review Says (Score:5, Informative)
A blender has limits, it can't blend any arbitrary object. In fact there is an entire YouTube channel dedicated to determining what can and cannot be blended.
I think most people buying a blender will not be surprised to learn that they cannot use it to blend a house brick, for example.
"Cancelling" does not imply perfect operation. Just like cleaning liquid does not imply that it can remove any and all contamination perfectly. A sharpening stone does not turn the blade of your knife into a Sinclair molecule chain etc.
But "unlimited" is quite specific, so screw those guys.
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"Cancelling" does not imply perfect operation. Just like cleaning liquid does not imply that it can remove any and all contamination perfectly. A sharpening stone does not turn the blade of your knife into a Sinclair molecule chain etc.
I'm going to disagree. A blender at least blends some things, even if not everything. It sounds like these headphones rarely if ever completely delete anything. In my mind, "cancel" is a pretty clear word, and implies a total stop. We have other words for "of diminished effect" including "reducing" "diminishing" "dampening" "softening", "muffling" etc. They are definitely over-stating their case.
Re:As Every Review Says (Score:4, Informative)
In this case cancelling refers to how they work. They produce sound with a waveform that is opposite to the external noise, cancelling it out. Because the waveform is not a perfect inversion of the actual sound (it can't be, due to limitations of the speakers and electronics) some sound leaks through.
"Dampening" and "muffing" seem more associated with physical barriers or blocking. I guess that's why they don't use them. "Reducing" might be the best word to describe the effect, but "cancelling" does accurately describe the method of operation.
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Noise cancelling headphones do cancel sound. That's how they work. The technique works best at low frequencies, on sounds with stationary or slowly varying spectra.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
When did Slashdot switch from being a tech site to a whiney hipster forum?
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That's because they don't attenuate noise, they cancel it by measuring it and producing matching but out of phase sound of their own. No, they don't do it perfectly. Very few things are perfect.
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Any cancellation gained by generating a 180 degree phase shift will work better the lower the frequency, at a certain point in the mid-high range they will not do anything, where the short wavelength cannot be cancelled acurately. This can be demonstrated by phase reversing speakers pointing directly at each other and sweeping the frequency-for a Sine wave.
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You can cancel higher frequencies if you really want to, it's just harder and costs more because everything has to be more precise. There are techniques for creating virtual speakers using precisely controlled cancellation of ultrasound.
In regular consumer gear there's a bit of a synergy between noise cancellation, which works best at lower frequencies, and attenuation, which works better at higher frequencies. Big over-ear noise cancelling headphones, or in-ear ones designed to work like ear plugs, work mu
Re:As Every Review Says (Score:5, Informative)
But they do cancel noise. They just don't cancel all of it. I don't get why that's hard to understand. They're not called for e.g. noise attenuating because they don't really attenuate noise (or not especially so, all closed back headphones attenuate some): attenuation and cancellation are different physical processes. Noise cancellation is the process of actively applying a phase-shifted waveform that (to some degree) matches and cancels the incoming noise. Calling it noise "cancelling" is a bit of a marketing gimmick, sure, but it's not misleading to anyone who's paid any attention to the technology in the past 20 years, or even just tried the things on in the store for 5 minutes (though some of the new offerings from Bose and especially Sony are really really good).
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Why exactly should the columnist need to read a review to find out that the sellers of a type of headphone are blatantly lying about its capabilities?
Why exactly do you want to live in a society in which not only are businesses allowed to do this in practice, but consumers aren't even warned about it?
I'm not exactly sure how you reconcile these two points. Consumers are able to learn about this and become empowered. Its called reading reviews.
And who the fuck reads reviews for headphones except audiophiles and professional sound engineers, neither of which are likely to be in the market for noise cancelling head phones?
Anyone who wants to make an informed purchase and not waste their money. Why would you ever buy any high dollar item without researching it first? Even doing the bare minimum and reading the amazon reviews is better than nothing.
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Care to demonstrate anywhere that the companies referred to are lying in their advertising? Saying something is noise cancelling doesn't mean that it stops 100% of noise and it would be ridiculous to expect that, it means that it cancels noise. There are literally thousands of products that are referred to, or have capabilities named after, functionality that
Re:As Every Review Says (Score:4, Informative)
Care to demonstrate anywhere that the companies referred to are lying in their advertising? Saying something is noise cancelling doesn't mean that it stops 100% of noise and it would be ridiculous to expect that, it means that it cancels noise.
I sometimes wonder what happened to Slashdot. I don't expect everyone to be incredibly brilliant, but it seems we are one small step away from becoming a haven for flat earthers and ID kooks.
Anyone doing the slightest bit of research will find out very quickly that these devices will do a very good job of cancelling noise that is coming from a source that is regular. The phase reversal technology tends to cancel out that pretty well. Completely irregular, short duration noise makes it's way through just fine.
Air conditioning, jet engine, lawn mower noise gets inverted and cancelled. Your sister's children screaming, or breaking glass - not so much.
If you spend a small fortune on a pair of noise cancelling headphones without any research and are then surprised that they don't stop every noise imaginable that isn't false advertising it's lack of thought or intelligence on the buyers part.
This also has the hidden reason for SlashRage. Apple. Unless there have been some real recent changes, the technology is all very similar. So the overpriced Beats sound cancelling is pretty much the same thing as the 60 dollar Sony.
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"do a very good job of cancelling noise that is coming from a source that is regular. The phase reversal technology tends to cancel out that pretty well. Completely irregular, short duration noise makes it's way through just fine."
I think that's not correct. Active noise canceling is limited to lower frequencies (to 500 Hz or so), for which the loudspeaker and signal processing are fast enough to respond and which have wavelengths much larger than the earpad, so that the ANC circuits don't have to account f
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: As Every Review Says (Score:5, Insightful)
Sales guys invariably hand you the most expensive pair even when you asked for specific features. I've learned to keep asking questions even if the sales guy doesn't listen. I'll always eventually buy the right stuff.
That is his job. If you go in to a place with no knowledge and expect the sales people to take care of you they certainly will at that.
Re:As Every Review Says (Score:4, Informative)
Failure to perform as specced is unacceptable(especially if the noise reduction system is sold as occupational safety and health PPE, that's extra serious business); but pretty much the whole point of consumer noise cancelling headphones is that you accept the tradeoffs(in some cases want the tradeoffs, the failure to attenuate higher frequencies makes it easier to hear people speaking while still blocking out engine drone) of active cancellation systems in exchange for not looking like you just wandered out of an industrial site wearing giant beefy passive attenuation earmuffs.
Re:As Every Review Says (Score:5, Insightful)
The author is clearly clueless, I mean be bought a pair of Beats headphones for a start so clearly didn't do any research.
For what they are designed for noise cancelling headphones work great. They are better at cutting out low frequency noise, the like you get on aircraft or in road vehicles. For higher frequencies you need to block the noise with a physical barrier. I have some much cheaper AKG Y50BT cans that do that just by creating a good seal with your ear using soft pads. IEMs are even better.
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Exactly, its just another case of ignorance by the author. Anybody that has worn Bose NC headphones on a plane will attest to the significant noise reduction they can achieve. Other brands have varying performance.
In the early days of consumer noise canceling, a good way to make a flight instructor to panic was to "forget" and turn on their Bose headset a minute or so AFTER they put it on. The sudden disappearance of low-frequency sound was a good simulation of an engine failure, if you weren't accustomed to it.
True NOISE cancellation doesn't work well, because NOISE is random, hard to predict. Constant sounds that are annoying, that can be relatively easy. While Bose aviation headsets (and newer, more general use he
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Different categories (Score:2)
I don't know about Beats but I find the noise cancelling on my Sony WH-1000XM3's invaluable.
Those Sonys you're speaking of, and the Bose QuietComfort 35 II that other are mentionning, are about the current absolute best ANC phones on the market, short of specialized equipment for aircraft pilots (and Bose actually make such equipment too).
If that's your point of reference, of course you won't understand the fuss about beats.
Beats, if you remember, is that company that was caught putting metal elements inside earphone just to make them heavier, and make them "seem" better quality.
(Putting psycholo
Re: As Every Review Says (Score:5, Informative)
So many things wrong with what you said that I have to assume you are fundamentally broken.
apart from (i.e., blacks) that statement is perfectly fine and true. Beats are crap overpriced to the point people assume they must be good. I'll even give you the benefit of the doubt and say they didn't start that way but once being acquired by apple that's certainly what they are now.
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However most Beats can be considered to be objectively garbage if you look up reviews that test things like frequency response curves. And when you also consider how they are priced, there's not much left except perhaps being some kind of status symbol in certain circles.
Of course there are people who will say that they love the sound. And who am I to obj
Depends what you buy (Score:4, Informative)
Bose QuietComfort work very well for a similar price
Re:Depends what you buy (Score:4, Informative)
Bose QuietComfort work very well for a similar price
I have one of those, I also have a Sennheiser Momentum 2.0. The Bose is better at cancelling basically any ambient noises to the point where it is hard to hear people speak when you turn the music off but the sound is ... well .... 'flatter' and and it lacks 'depth'. It's sort of like drinking flat Coca Cola. One of my friends uses these without listening to any music when he is working in a machine room for extended periods of time because it completely kills the constant hum and buzz of the machinery and you have (limited) control over the level of noise-cancelling. The Sennheiser does not take the shotgun approach, it seems to concentrate more on dampening loud buzzing and humming noises, like fans, engines and that sound you get when hundreds of voices merge into a single fatiguing clatter but the sound quality of the Sennheiser is better than the Bose. Neither of them eliminates 100% of all ambient noise and anybody expecting that is like one of those idiots on Amazon complaining that his $6.99 Sony earbuds did not deliver concert quality audio. So anybody contemplating buying one of these should not expect " that they can listen in silence,", just with less interference.
Ear plugs work better (Score:3, Interesting)
You can get ear plugs at a local drug store that work out to something like $0.10 per pair that will do a far better job than noise-cancelling headphones. Not all ear plugs are made the same, and some are significantly more comfortable for extended wear (like on a transcontinental flight) than others, but good ones are out there.
When I want to listen to something in the middle of a noisy environment (like on a plane), I put in ear plugs and then put on a normal pair of over-the-ear headphones. The ear plugs drop the noise floor, and I turn up the volume to compensate. Yes, slightly less convenient than the multi-hundred-dollar noise-cancelling version, but much less expensive, and more effective.
Re:Ear plugs work better (Score:5, Insightful)
It's especially more effective toward the people around you, who have to endure your musical choices because you maxed out your headphone volume and they're hearing the music better than you.
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Valid only for open headphones. Closed ones dull the sound they produce enough that if there's some sort of ambient noise, you would find it very difficult to realize someone next to you is playing music.
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I do the same. Works well with the right earplugs. If you do this often, it may pay off to experiment a little.
Re:Ear plugs work better (Score:4, Interesting)
Essentially a quality set of earbuds embedded in a set of ear plugs(usually custom fitted, either by an audiologist or with a 'fit forms into your ears, mail back to us' kit); intended to strongly attenuate outside noise and allow a suitable mix of stage audio, at safe volume, to be piped in through the earbuds so that the musician can still coordinate with the rest of the band.
Also tend to have the virtue of being designed to be inconspicuous, since it's considered a trifle incongruous to see a musician wearing earplugs while playing; though the reasons are sound. And, since the earbuds are integral to the design, very little bleed outward.
Re:Ear plugs work better (Score:4, Insightful)
Bingo. I once spent 3 months bouncing around Iraq on helicopters every other day. I wore Shure IEMs and was able to listen to my iPod at 25% volume, even when sitting in the hurricane seat on a Blackhawk.
IEMs are infinitely better than "Noise Cancelling" as they even work to silence that screaming baby two rows back on the airplane.
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Noise cancelling headphones are easier to remove or pause if you need to listen to something external, like someone you need to talk to.
Also you don't annoy your seat neighbour by turning your cans up to 11.
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Also you don't annoy your seat neighbour by turning your cans up to 11.
Yeah but fuck them, they should get their own noise cancelling solution lol
Bose is actually the best here (Score:2, Insightful)
Firstly, they're beats. I hate to say it, but at least for aviation, Bose's headsets are FAR in front of others in terms of noise cancellation, and I'm guessing their Quiet Comforts are too.
Apple and Beats work hand-in-hand because they are marketing brands whose survival relies on clever marketing.
Re:Bose is actually the best here (Score:5, Insightful)
Apple and Beats work hand-in-hand because Apple owns Beats.
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Beats can call me again as soon as dr. dre gets his degree in electroaccustics. Until then, get beats when you want something that's looking good
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Sony noise cancelling is as good as Bose. But personally I use a cheaper pair of over-ear cans that simply block external noise - AKG Y50BTs. They are a fraction of the price (which is good because I'm not worried about them getting damaged or lost all the time) and very comfortable.
They are easy to clean too. I get sweaty ears, and they have leather (faux?) pads that you can just wipe down. They fold up nice and small too.
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If i saw a pilot using a pair of beats in place of their normal aviation headset, id turn right back around and step off that aircraft.
I'd have to be carried off, too busy laughing to be able to do anything else.
Needing silence (Score:2)
In the last couple of years, I've gotten extremely sensitive to noise. I think it's due to age, plus the fact that we've got a five-year old that is obsessed with the sound of their voice. So there's the family, and there's work, and there's needing some goddamn silence.
I've tried a number of things to reduce input. Simply adding music to the mix only made things worse. Noise cancellation barely helps with talking, as the article mentions. I've found that there are throw-away earplugs from 3M, called E-A-Rs
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Engineering vs. marketing (Score:5, Informative)
Engineering tells you they cannot be perfect and that the effect gets less with higher frequencies. Marketing calls that "noise canceling" and it does. It just cancels only a part of the noise.
As always, you need to find out a bit about the product type and specific product to know what you get. After all, that new aftershave does not turn you into an instant chick-magnet in actual reality either and that soft-drink does not really blow your mind.
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I agree on that. The thing that marketing does is to try to give the impression that the signal gets canceled (i.e. nothing left), when engineering really means that the signal has an (imperfect) operation of type "cancellation" applied to it, as opposed to dampening or the like.
Of course, anybody halfway smart realizes that marketing always tries to make the product appear better than it is. Personally, I just use good-quality earplugs and if I want music with that, I use suitably high volume. The Beyerdyn
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Sure. Like "broadband". "Broadband" originally referred to a signal that had no DC (0 Hz) component, and which therefore could be frequency shifted to be multiplexed on a medium like cable TV coax or telephone pair. The opposite of "broadband" was "baseband", not "narrow band".
The fact that a term *has* a precise meaning DOESN'T mean that marketers aren't full of shit when they use it. When marketers seized on "broadband" they used it in a completely different way -- to imply that you were getting a f
Expectation management (Score:2)
I have the Sony WH-1000XM3 Bluetooth Noise Cancelling headphones and am very happy with it.
At no moment I expected that I would not hear anything.
But the effect in planes and trains is close to magical. I can turn down the music volume drastically (from full down to 1/3rd) when I am using those headphones. I do not hear the engines any more but a stewardess can still initiate a communication without yelling.
I also use the headphones without any music when a colleague in my office is doing a conference call.
Do your homework (Score:2)
Re:Do your homework (Score:4, Insightful)
Invaluable anyway (Score:2)
Priceless (Score:2)
Buying Beats and expecting a quality product, then being surprised it's crap, is funny. Also stupid, but mostly funny.
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It "beats" a Bose as far as build and sound quality is concerned. Still too expensive for a pair of headphones, the $15 work just as well, there is no special circuitry that make one better than the other.
Research (Score:2)
If you have that much money to throw at noise cancelling headphones then maybe you should research before buying them and claiming they don't work as advertised.
For instance, based on hundreds of reviews, Sony WH-1000XM3 headphones do their job near perfectly.
Hearmuffs and buds (Score:2)
I too have found noise cancelling headsets less than adequate.
I suffer from tinnitus and know from experience that any loud noise for an extended period of time will cause my ears to ring for days. I put buds in my ears, then put sound proofing earmuffs over my buds. Now I can dial the music or audionbook down to a comfortable level and not hear any of the crying babies, plane roar, or lawn mower noise. To top it off I save $200.
Proper earmuffs take up some luggage space, but they are "the right tool for
Foam isolates high frequencies (Score:2)
So you need big headphones with foam around the ears, plus active noise cancellation, to blind out the noises around you.
You keep using that word... (Score:2)
"Noise Cancelling" You keep using that phrase... I don't think it means what you THINK it means....
How well your noise cancelling headphones work varies greatly between designs, and none of them are 100% effective. I cannot speak for the Beats brand, or the specific model the author is complaining about, but there are LOTS of cheap "sort of works, mostly doesn't" implementations out there at all price points.
I will say though, that in my experience, noise cancelling is largely frequency dependent. Most
What one expects... (Score:2)
My over ear closed headphones cancel noise quite well. I'm working with table saw and router and similar equipment and I can comfortably listen to music while doing it.
I mean of course I steal hear the machines... what bozo would expect otherwise? If not over the ears themselves, the noise travels through your bones as well and you will always be aware of it. The question is can you enjoy your music?
If you can't, then you probably have the wrong headphones for you. And there I can only say welcome to the cl
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*still hear the machines...
#FirstWorldProblems (Score:2)
Slow news cycle today?
Noise type (Score:2)
Sony WH-1000XM2 owner here (Score:2)
I never thought of doing a thorough analysis of the noise cancelling capabilities of my WH-1000XM2. I got this rather than Bose QC for its "voice focus" mode (not enabled by default, you need to check a box in the app).
It just happened that as I was reading the article somebody started a vacuum or a drill machine, so it was perfect time to test what the article says. Sure enough, the drill noise was gone, the A/C noise was gone, but the clink of dishes in the kitchen was pretty audible, as were voices (alth
Why waste $200? (Score:4, Interesting)
FWIW = I like them that way (Score:2)
I've owned various Bose NC headphones/earbuds for years. I have poor sound discrimination. If I'm in a crowded airport and I want to hear the person beside me, I'll put on some NC headphones to narrow my audio field, works a treat. I don't need total sound isolation, I could use earplugs for that (and sometimes do). I want to be able to hear some of my environment (car horns, my kid yelling for me, etc), I just want to only hear the things that are immediately important to me
So at least for me, feature,
Bose QC+earplugs for long flight (Score:3)
Otherwise for normal use the Bose is nice to better appreciate the audio no matter the background noise, without needing to pump up the volume. The Bose is also warm and pleasant sounding. Mind, I heard audiophile headsets by Oppo (defunct now I think) and Stax that cost a lot more and are indeed noticeably more musical still, yet the benefit of the noise reduction system is for me bigger, except if you only listen at home.
It's the name of a technology (Score:3)
Noise cancelling is most important for open headphones, which are more comfortable to wear than closed ones, but are impossible to isolate. (Good old Sennheiser, selling noise cancelling headphones for many decades).
And their claim is absolutely correct: They cancel out the noise. It's not perfect. Nothing is perfect.
Help (Score:5, Funny)
A sucker is born every minute (Score:3)
Ah (Score:3)
pilot here (Score:3)
I gave up on noise canceling headphones years ago (Score:3)
I gave up on noise canceling headphones years ago. Recently, I bought some good ear muffs for hearing protection while I mow the lawn. They just happened to include a bluetooth headset, which happened to have excellent quality.
They're so good, I use them when I fly, and even when I'm in an office situation. A lot of people will start talking to me, and I can't hear them at all if the music is at a normal volume. It's surprising that a $50 ear protection can outperform a high-priced set of bluetooth noise canceling headphones, but sometimes simpler is better.
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Other way round... some engineer took the principle of creating phase inverted sound, tried how far he could go actually cancelling noises and found out that it works well with sounds like airplane background noise and then marketed it towards that.
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Yeah it turns out that Physics. Not everything gets better forever. Tech guys have a hard time believing it, and they claim to be knowledgeable about science.
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I have a pair of active noise-cancelling David Clark headsets and it's amazing. They truly cancel probably 90% of all outside sound. It's relaxing until you realize you still have tinnitus.
Silence is golden, unless you have tinnitus :(
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These are the ones you want, creative ep-630. Best in ear sound quality and noise isolation I've found. A fraction of the price of decent over ear cans and the only thing they really lack that cans have is the bass, these do have good bass for in ears though. Plus the more rubberised bud bits are more grippy than the normal material so less slippage.
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Bose quietcomfort comes to mind, I've completely missed a fire alarm wearing those... without any sound playing on the headphones.
Reminds me of a little incident that happened my freshman year of college. I managed by accident to find a spot on my bed that, whenever there was a fire alarm, the sound would be almost completely cancelled out due to the shape of the room. Lean to the right or left and I could hear it again. Made it real easy to ignore all those false alarms.