Noise-cancelling headphones

Post Reply New Topic

Now that I've returned home, I am living with my musician brother in the next room. I am seriously giving consideration to purchasing a set of noise/sound-cancelling headphones, not for the sound quality, but just to block out the noise. Earplugs don't do the job well enough. Does anyone have any brands they could suggest? I know of Bose, but at $299 a pair, they are out of my price range.

You may want to consider custom fitted in-canal earplugs, you have to go to an audiologist to get molds of your ear canals made, but they attenuate sound to a much greater degree. From what I've read, noise canceling headphones do not work well at high frequencies.

P.S. Well look at that, apparently Sophist has a pair of those Bose headphones, perhaps she can help.

Yes, the noise canceling headphones in general only cut out certain frequencies. So the higher noises aren't as well dispatched with. However, the bass tones seem to be masked fairly well and also some of the midtones.

If you have a band next door, it might be more the bass you want rid of, yes?

Maybe you and your brother could establish some kind of schedule. He could be loud during certain hours as long as he is quiet during other hours.

Or just tell him to STFU.

Most amps have a head phone jack he sould use headphones not you or a mic connected to headphones if the amp does not have a plug.

I always wear headphones/plugs when listening to things. I really hate the thought of other people being able to hear what I'm doing, and this extends to what audio output I'm getting from the computer/tv/whatever. Since I can hear everything other people do in the surrounding rooms (turning in bed, coughing, shagging etc), I find it hard to convince myself that it's just my hypersensitive hearing.

I use Shure E2c ear phones. They are not noise cancellers they are simply an ear phone with a kind of ear plug thing. They work very well with amazing sound quality and can block out most noises with out having the volume on my I pod above halfway. IT can be very surreal walking through the London underground and to mot hear any one else or the sound of the trains. they do quite a good job at the high frequencies too. Not too expensive either at £60

I did quite a bit of research before I brought them. From what I read most of the cheep noise cancellers are useless.

Oh what I wouldn't give for a good pair of earplugs... *wistful*

I find that classical music, with any type of headphne, is a good noise canceller. I use it in class to keep from going mad.

I had to fight my year 11 maths teacher to let me listen to music in class! Apparently I wasn't supposed to because it would be isolating, and he liked the way people were free to chat and be all nice and friendly... BUT IT'S HARDLY CONDUCIVE TO CONCENTRATION NOW IS IT?! *grins* So basically he knew it was noisey, but he couldn't understand that I wanted to work... lol!

I bought a bunch of ultra-cheap headphones. They were about 80p each, so I got 5 sets. Bugger me, they're crap! The sound quality is dire, they give a kind of unhealthy, sharp burrrring sound at high frequencies or volumes, they literally fall apart when handled, the leads are too short to be useful and the monofilament wire in them is very prone to breaking.

I'll be putting their remains into my scrap electronics collection for me to play around with once they've all died (which will probably be a couple of weeks from now; I've had them for a week and already destroyed 2 sets).

I received a nice pair of noise-canceling headphones made by Sony a couple of years ago. They work really well in a car, and even while vacuuming. They cost about $50 I think. I don't know if they're made anymore. They don't work in an environment where there is a lot of air movement though.