ANR headphones

Holy-Fire · Post by **Holy-Fire** » Tue Jul 07, 2009 5:43 am

Hi. Can anyone recommend any active noise reduction headphones? Both comfort and noise blocking effectiveness are important. Audio reproduction quality, however, is not, as I will not use them to play anything (they could lack audio input altogether for all I care). Price matters too, of course, but I'm willing to spend extra for something worthy.

Thanks.

bonestonne · Post by **bonestonne** » Tue Jul 07, 2009 2:40 pm

no input at all? If you want earmuffs like that, you might as well pick up some work type ones, available at nearly every hardware store...

No point in buying ANR headphones if you aren't going to use them...the work type earmuffs might even prove to be much cheaper.

Darth Santa Fe · Post by **Darth Santa Fe** » Tue Jul 07, 2009 3:29 pm

I tried on some Sony noise-cancellers at Best Buy a couple days ago, and they seemed to do a pretty good job. I don't know what the model number is, though.

One thing to watch out for is reliability. Bose, Logitech, and Creative all make (or made, in the case of Logitech) great noise-cancellers, but I believe all of them suffer from cheap headbands that will break after a year or two. I loved my Logitechs, but then one day, they just broke due to poor design.

Sennheiser also makes a couple models of noise-cancellers, but they're very expensive. I don't know about their build quality, but I'm guessing it's better than the others.

Everything I've mentioned has audio input. I don't know about any that don't (I haven't studied non-audio headphones), but who knows? You may end up wanting to use them for listening to whatever.

mcoleg · Post by **mcoleg** » Tue Jul 07, 2009 6:27 pm

audio-technica ATH-ANC7 are pretty good. the cable is removable and the built is pretty solid. they are about half-sized but cover the ears nicely. i prefer these to sens, btw.

Holy-Fire · Post by **Holy-Fire** » Wed Jul 08, 2009 2:39 am

Thanks for all the replies.

bonestonne wrote:no input at all? If you want earmuffs like that, you might as well pick up some work type ones, available at nearly every hardware store...

No point in buying ANR headphones if you aren't going to use them...the work type earmuffs might even prove to be much cheaper.

This is of course another option, but I got the impression that passive earmuffs are less effective for low frequencies. Is this wrong? I also gather that these might fail in the comfort department.

judge56988 · Post by **judge56988** » Wed Jul 08, 2009 8:16 am

Holy-Fire wrote: This is of course another option, but I got the impression that passive earmuffs are less effective for low frequencies. Is this wrong? I also gather that these might fail in the comfort department.

If you get good quality ear defenders they are not too uncomfortable - they are designed to be worn all day at work. Not quite as discreet as ANR type - in what situation will you use them?
Even better is to wear a pair of these and also a pair of the disposable in ear plugs - the kind that you squeeze and put in your ear where they then expand to fit. You won't hear anything unless you are standing next to a jet engine.

Holy-Fire · Post by **Holy-Fire** » Sat Jul 11, 2009 10:54 am

I'll use them mostly for reading.

N7SC · Post by **N7SC** » Sat Jul 11, 2009 5:33 pm

How about these, from David Clark: http://www.davidclark.com/HeadsetPgs/ENCHearProt.html

I have a set of David Clark H10-30s that I used in my flight training, and can vouch for the exceptionally high quality of their products. The noise reduction you get will be impressive. They are pretty big, though, and you will be aware of them, but they are not uncomfortable, and you can wear Clarks for many hours easily.

Holy-Fire · Post by **Holy-Fire** » Sun Jul 12, 2009 3:29 am

Ok, thanks.