matt69olds

I knew the day would come when I got old, it just got here much sooner than I expected.

You know the age. Things you had as a kid are now “vintage”. When you trip or fall, people around you don’t smirk and laugh, they instead rush to your aid with a look of alarm and concern. The music you listen to is now “classic”.

The technical term for this point of life is “geezerhood”.

While I have always proudly marched to the beat of a different drummer, as I have gotten older I find myself caring even less about people perception or opinion of my appearance. I’m comfortable with myself.

Ok, now to the point of my post. When I mow the grass, I have a pair of large headphone with a built in radio, that also will play the aforementioned “classic” music. When I’m on the mower, the volume is no louder than it would be if I was listening to the music in my living room.

Over the weekend, I was busy with other Bob Vila type projects. (By the way, if you understand the Bob Vila reference, more than likely you are also in the geezer category!!) My wife decided she would mow the lawn for me. When I offered the headphones, she flat out refused. Her reason? I look like a “dork” while wearing them. She said her noise canceling earbuds are nearly invisible and fashionable.

The way I understand it, noise canceling headphones work by sampling the surrounding noise, and creating a sound wave that reversed. Kinda like having a single speaker wired out of phase with the other. The sound is still there, but because one speaker cone is moving out to create a sound, the other in moving in which cancels the sound. Correct?


It seems to me that even though the headphones are noise canceling, the sound is still there. And she has admitted to hear her music over thr mower, the volume need to be at a higher level than would be normal.

I work in a hot noisy factory, I wear hearing protection all the time. It’s required to get your hearing tested yearly, even with hearing protection there has been a measured decline in my hearing, no doubt a side effect of geezerhood.

Opinions? Are noise canceling headphones hearing protection or just vanity?

BackInTheGame

I have recently purchased a set of Klipsch high end noise cancelling ear buds. They have pass-through mode, as well as NC. I don't really notice any difference. Perhaps the method to change between the modes is INOP in my set? Maybe I don't know what to expect? I don't know. But like your wife says, external noise does get in and I have to turn up the volume when the electric heater/fan in the room in which I wear them kicks on. I always wear foam "crush" style ear protection when mowing, weed whacking, shooting, and riding my dirt bike. I've considered trying the new Klipsch's while riding, but haven't tried it yet.

The NC headphones are the bomb, I've heard. I work in an airport and see scores of travelers using them, so there must be something to it. Besides, the big cups over the ear do a great job of cutting out the noise.

Fun71

I have a set of Bose noise cancelling headphones and they work very well. On an airplane, they cut out the engine noise and the kid crying in the next row. It's like magic when I turn them on and all the background noise is gone. I don't know how I survived air travel without them.

JohnnyBs68S

NC headphones (in contrast to "hearing protection" that simply muffles all outside sound waves from reaching your ear drums), operate by measuring the external noise environment (via microphones), and then using DSP (digital signal processing) create an inverse signal for predicable (repeatable) noises and then combines it with the intended signal (music / voice from the MP3 player or whatever) and then feeds that back to the sound driver (earbuds / headphone voice coils). The end effect is that the receptive signals are canceled / reduced in amplitude by the two out-of-phase signals your ear drums are hearing (the canceling signal from the DSP and the external, undesired, repetitive noise) while the intended signal (from the MP3 player for example) is picked up by your eardrums. Since the DSP cannot predict non-periodic random noise signals, it cannot possibly create a perfectly effective cancelation signal, therefore the "noise reduction" is not perfect by any means, but it IS a significant improvement, ESPECIALLY if the undesired external noise is repetitive and predicable.

Oldsguy

I think geezerhood is where I am as well, don't know about NC headphones but if you have tinnitus (like me) it makes no difference. The sound is ALWAYS there.

Olds64

Uncle Sam issues double hearing protection to service members working in noisy environments now (rubber/foam ear plugs & Mickey mouse ears).

jaunty75

Fashionable??? While cutting the damn grass? You just got done saying that you're beyond caring about what people think? So what if you look like a dork? Wear it proudly! I use a pair of earmuffs that look like headphones while I'm going around on my riding mower. Many people do. None of them look like dorks to me. Are you a dork for wearing ear protection when at work? Of course not.

There are many situations where you want to look fashionable, even if you are a geezer. But lawn care is not one of them. In this situation, health and safety come first, and ear protection is what matters, not whether the headphones are pink with purple polka dots.

Tri-Carb

Sensorineural hearing loss may still the top occupational disease in the USA. It gives a characteristic pattern on audigrams which is different than other causes of hearing loss like ototoxic medications, infections, etc. Wearing hearing protection is important but it is not a perfect solution. EAR type inserts are limited by canal shape differences among the population. If the noise is loud enough the protection ratings can still allow harmful effects. In factory settings, with hard floors like concrete, tactile induction can occur through the boney structure of the the body bypassing the ear canal. Periodic workplace test results can be illusory due to the phenomenon of temporary threshold shift.

The declination in hearing loss over time can be insidious. The ability to hear higher frequencies is the first to go. The end stage is a loss of speech frequencies which not only affects one’s ability to understand another, it affects one’s own ability to speak. A tell tell sign is the loss of the ability to communicate over the phone which focuses transmission on the speech frequencies. There are often psychological consequences associated with these chronic cases.

There are many other potential twists and turns, but they are further afield from the topic at hand.

matt69olds

Exactly!! Fashionable has always been very low on my list of priorities.

Ok geezers, remember the ending of Back to the Future where Doc Brown jumps out of the delorean wearing the futuristic sunglasses? That’s the sunglasses I wear while mowing. I bought them for the following reasons: they were on clearance, they are actual safety glasses, and they kinda wrap around my head. So between the large headphones and the wild sunglasses, maybe I am a dork. I don’t lose any sleep over it.

I do have mild tinnitus. I’m sure all these years in a noisy factory, snowmobiles, automotive events, are a big part of that.

I was basically looking for clarification: are noise canceling headphones and hearing protection the same? I didn’t think so, the opinions here seem to confirm. Not that I will change anyone’s mind.

Tri-Carb

We have flown with Bose aircraft noise canceling headsets for years due to the quieter cockpit experience they provide. They work so much better than the traditional Dave Clark headsets which did not have active noise cancellation technology.

I should also have mentioned is that exposure to loud noise has another very important, non auditory consequence. It is associated with hypertension. If left uncontrolled, hypertension can cause premature dirt naps.

https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-015-1671-z#:~:text=Literature%20review%20of%20non%2Dhearing %20effects%20of%20noise%20exposure&text=%5B22%5D%2 0showed%20that%20both%20systolic,≥%2085%20dB(A).

Tri-Carb

https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentra...889-015-1671-z

BackInTheGame

Great discussion, guys! Thanks for all the technical details!

Weezer

I've been wearing ear buds with my noise-protecting earmuffs (the orange ones you see lumberjacks and mowing companies using) for a few years now. I recently upgraded to Apple earbuds, and really like their noise cancelling capability. I have combined them with the muffs already this spring, and I don't need to turn the volume up to hear my music any more than normal.

I tried some Bose over-the-ear noise cancelling cans a few years ago, and they were incredible.

And the wrap-around sunglasses/safety glasses? You'll thank yourself when a piece of string comes off your trimmer and bounces off them. Better safe than sorry.

Koda

For yard work, I wear gloves, safety glasses and 32 dB earplugs. I just bought some walker brand muffs for my shooting work and am considering using both for high power rifles under a shelter. I wear plugs for lawn mowing (both push and ride), trimming, weed whacking, leaf blowing (both blower and vacuum), and chainsawing. I omit plugs for spraying round up, and I add a respirator for spraying bifentrin with a hose sprayer.