Yes, they’d all work, and some year-over-year upgrades don’t matter much. All active noise canceling products have quality limitations, but they can be the best option too.
Beware sweat when wearing headphones while working. Beware. Because of this, you might do better with tight sealing in-ear monitors/earbuds from a company like Etymotic (wired). They keep out external sound very well.
The household has the Sony’s. For noise cancelling they are very good. Won’t completely eliminate the sound of a lawnmower but will reduce it enough to make it worthwhile. SQ is decent but I wouldn’t use them for critical listening. For around the house just casual listening they are fine. They maintain connection well and have really good battery life. There is also a new version released not too long ago, not sure what makes them different.
My only issue with the Sony’s are that the cups are a little small.
I think it’s important to note, none of these are cancel enough noise to adequately qualify as real hearing protection.
Thanks for the info…and I’ll check out the Etymotic’s!
Kenn
Thanks for your comments!!
Kenn
That’s a very good point. There are active protection products with a Noise Reduction Rating (NRR = 22 dB below):
The over-ear headphones from Bose, Sony, etc. do block noise. I’m not aware if any of them at all have been tested as hearing protectors. Long ago I saw some ‘ambient aware’ ear plugs (such as for concerts) with a mere 6 dB NRR.
EDIT: The site below has some NRR headphones with radios and Bluetooth.
https://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/NTESearch?storeId=6970&ipp=48&Ntt=headphones
I just wear wireless ear buds under my ear protection when I’m running my table saw or other noisy things.
It’s the reason I have kept the Sennheiser true wireless II buds, the Sony buds don’t fit with the 3M cups over them.
I often double-plug: 29 dB foam disposable in-ear plus another 29 dB Peltors.
Thanks for the input! I’ve probably been thinking about this wrong…as in “Noise Cancellation equaling Protection”. I’ve been doing a LOT of gardening and yard work the last 18 months, and listening to music and news through my phone (2 to 6 hours a day) and putting in ear plugs when running the mower and weed eater. After spending 3 hours mowing a huge yard for a neighbor, I started thinking about the noise cancelling aspect of some headphones and earbuds I’d seen on Amazon, and wondering if they would allow for listening to music while mowing…not so much for protection, as for entertainment while mowing. I Guess I have more research to do… Weed eater is gas powered and noisy enough to require protection…mower is not so loud, but to noisy for standard Apple earbuds that came with the iPhone.
Kenn
That’s a good idea. I’ve been looking at something for passive protection and since I have serviceable wireless buds it’s become more appealing.
alternatively, I suppose you could take Porta Pro drivers and glue them inside some peltor cups. hehe
In case you haven’t thought of this - Drowning out something loud and unwanted (lawnmower) with something louder may seem like mission accomplished but you are probably exposing your ears to damaging volumes, especially when done for hours at a time.
You want to keep sound level low, which is why @ProfFalkin posted about the passive protection.
That is one way, but active noise canceling (ANC) is NOT using a louder sound to drown out noise. ANC generates mirror-image sound waves to literally make the original sound disappear for the listener. One can keep the volume low with either ANC or an effective passive system, or combine them for the most effective solution.
Good question. I’ve reduced the noise from the lawnmower by going electric. Same for the weedeater. This permits me to use my Koss Porta-Pros, or some IEMs to work. But it doesn’t stop the sweat at all, and even with electric lawnmower, I turn up the sound louder than I ought.
Depending on how sensitive you are to things in your ears, you might find that an IEM with the right tip - a two flange model like some Spinfits - will block a lot of sound. The use case you have is very clearly not a case for ultra-high quality sound. I do have a suggestion. I use wired 1More triple drivers most of the time now for lawn work because the mic is good with my iPhone, and there sound is fine for casual listening. I see that they have a THX certified wireless ANC model, that claims 39db noise reduction in one mode.
It’s not a perfect system though. If it were, I wouldn’t need the 3M ear protection while sawing. ANC just can’t keep up with those levels and frequencies of sound.
Road noise while commuting, or the background noise of a shopping center or cubicle farm, sure. I think anyone who has used ANC on an airplane can testify it’s is not 100% effective.
Also, I don’t think it was too much of a stretch to understand what @NickZ was getting at, and that was putting on headphones to drown out the sound of your lawnmower is a bad idea. I don’t think he was saying that ANC just drowns out the noise with louder noise.
Sure, but ANC is not perfect so when a gas powered weed-wacker is close by you still wind up competing with what ANC doesn’t handle.
I was trying to get the idea out that preserving hearing is also a factor when listening to music in loud environments.
Edit: I think I see where the confusion came from. @KennVFRidr talked about ANC in the post that I replied to, so it’s easy to think that I was addressing ANC specifically.
My linked post discusses combining ANC with passive. I suppose a 3 layer system might work best:
When I double-plug using earplugs plus Peltors, most leaking sound comes through my mouth. The eustachian tubes let in more sound than the ears. Bones also conduct some frequencies, so all sound can’t be fully blocked. (See MEST thread on bone conduction in audio.)
Asking for a friend.
Would you prefer;
1 x Final D8000 Pro or equiv. high end beast
or
1 x Hifiman Arya level headphone and 1 x Sony Z1R / TH900 MK2 type closed back
The latter. 2 > 1 headphone, because variety is the spice of life.
I’d also promptly sell/trade the Arya.
Savage haha.
I’m finding below the Verite/Utopia/D8000 level, not much in the open cans impress me.
I really liked the HE1000SE, but thats quite expensive.
What in that Arya price bracket is the go-to? I’m not a fan of the Focal Clear either, and recently sold off the Aeolus, as pretty as it was.