Noise Cancelling Headphone

Posted by Peter on October 4, 2014
Posted in: Miscellaneous. Tagged: .

I recently got Bose QuietComfort 15 Acoustic Noise Cancelling Headphones.

I had previously tried passive earplugs and headphones that claimed 30 dB noise reduction, and got little value out of them.

The noise cancelling headphones suppress a good deal more train (BART) noise, enough that I’m now able to read nonfiction while on the train.

It won’t help with the situations where noise bothers me most (multiple conversations nearby) because it mainly eliminates predictable noises. It makes speech sound more distant without affecting the speech volume a lot. But reducing the cost of train and plane travel is valuable enough that I feel foolish about not having tried them earlier.

4 comments on “Noise Cancelling Headphone”

  1. If the remaining problem is unpredictable noise, why not combine the headphones with earplugs? Between the two of them, ought to get rid of most noise but the low-frequency vibrations you can’t do anything about.

  2. That’s probably worthy trying, but often my main problem is being distracted by the number of different sources of speech rather than their volume. So what I often want is something like a directional filter, but people who know more about that than I say I’d be disappointed by the ones that exist.

  3. Coincidentally I also recently invested in these noise-canceling headphones and also found them an extremely good buy.

    I had previously used earplugs and found them relatively unhelpful, but recently realized that it is possible to roll foam earplugs much more tightly than I had been, and get them quite a bit further into the ear canal (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPNPZJingZA). I can only do this with some foam earplugs (including those used in that video), and even then it took me maybe a dozen tries. I don’t know if you have had the same problem, but if so you might be able to get a larger effect. Unfortunately continued use causes irritation in my ear and I haven’t yet found a replacement that doesn’t. I still use them periodically in cases where noise is really problematic.

  4. > That’s probably worthy trying, but often my main problem is being distracted by the number of different sources of speech rather than their volume.

    I see. I have the same problem, but for a different reason. I don’t know any solutions to it.

    Anyway, while I’m here, re https://bayesianinvestor.com/blog/index.php/2012/07/22/sleep-improvements/ mention of f.lux; I’m a fan of those programs for computer use, and I’ve found they adjust my bedtime to a much saner time: http://www.gwern.net/Zeo#redshiftf.lux

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