Active noise reducing hearing protection

[Bill Dufour]

3M products are a good bet in my experience.

I beleive 3m bought out Peltor several years ago and is selling some of the Peltor stuff branded as 3m. If it is made in Sweden it was/is Peltor.
Bill D

[Bill Dufour]

Several years ago i bought the harbor fright electronic noise earmuffs. They worked okay but they did not turn off. There was always a static hum, crackle when it was quiet. I could not wear them unless it was continually noisy enough to need the reduction effect. Turning tools on and off did not work for me. I returned them.
Bill D

[tim walker]

Still further researching, but I found an article from an ENT doctor concerning hearing protection. He stated that he had never seen music focused headphones with active noise cancelling circuitry state what the ANSI noise ratings were. Here is his statement : Cancelling noise is hard – like, REALLY hard. There are only a few headsets that actually cancel noise, and NONE of them are considered a hearing protector. Try to find a Noise Reduction Rating* (NRR) on the Bose Quiet Comforts– you can’t, because they aren’t hearing protectors. They are designed to give you a high fidelity listening experience while reducing lower frequency sounds, but they will not protect your hearing in really loud noisy environments. In fact, they could actually increase chances for hearing loss if used in a noisy environment dominated by high frequencies.

[Jim Becker]

I agree with that doctor. ANC works by listening through a microphone to background sound and injecting the same sound that's targeting 180º out of phase so it "cancels" it to a noticeable effect -- the media being sent to your ears isn't then being overrun with that background sound. Noise cancelling is very helpful to reduce "background noise" (low frequency drone mostly) in certain environments but for actual noise protection...ya need something that's actually made with that in mind. You can certainly have a devices that does both and the ANC can further reduce the "drone" primarily from low frequencies, but you have to stop the actual sound level in its tracks to protect hearing from high decibel sound. So be sure whatever is chosen is picked for actual noise reduction first and then for any additional benefits. Typical NR headphones are not a good choice.

[mike calabrese]

some of this may help your search also seethe additional vids at the right.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7u0RK9FE5A
calabrese55

[Bruce Page]

Not for everyone but Santa gifted me a pair of Sony WH-1000XM5 headphones with eight integrated microphones that make for some amazing active noise cancelling. I wear them for everything from mowing to running the cnc router. They work as good or better than my 3M 34db passive muffs.

[Eugene Dixon]

When using my orange tools (Husky, Kubota), I use Isotones buds with the electronics turned off. When the electronics are on, particularly for the tractor, they seem to amplify the engine noise. YMMV.

[George Yetka]

https://www.amazon.com/Howard-Leight...ps%2C93&sr=8-5

I added gel to these and they are very comfortable. 30db NRR I use them to shoot

For the garage the Isotune pro aware are very nice for my use.

[Wayne Cannon]

My "Avantree Aria Bluetooth Noise Cancelling Headphones with Microphone, [optional, removable] Boom Mic" to work very well. I work surrounded by racks of electronic equipment where I cannot hear my phone ring at max volume over the noise.

They are $80 to $90 (compared with $150 to $250 for most mentioned here) and the active noise cancellation reduces the background noise tremendously.

They are quite light and comfortable (minimal head-squeeze) for over-the-ear muffs, so much so that I frequently find myself accidentally wearing them to lunch or to the restroom.

[Wayne Cannon]

Re: Sound-Protection muffs interfering with face shields, etc.

Try "3M PELTOR Optime 105 Earmuffs H10B, Behind-the-Head" muffs. They are identical to their over-the-head models, but instead have a thin fabric strap over the head and a behind-the-neck spring wire for tension.

3M PELTOR Optime 105 Earmuffs H10B, Behind-the-Head Black https://a.co/d/84ivE2Y

They work equally well (no interference) with my 3M PAPR helmet-faceshield in the shop and my wide-brimmed hat for outdoor work.

They are, in my not-so-humble opinion, more comfortable than any over-the-head muffs.

[Wayne Cannon]

I would like to hear/read more about the non-cancelling "active noise cancelling" (ANC) headphones issue.

As an electrical engineer, my understanding of ANC is that sounds picked up by an external microphone are injected inside the headphones/muffs at an equal amplitude, but opposite phase to literally cancel the outside sounds -- nice for listening to wired or Bluetooth music or phone conversations. Without selectively filtering frequencies (desirable in most cases), this would attenuate ANY "external" sounds, including voices.

[Michael Burnside]

Not active noise canceling but very comfortable gel cups and 23 dB reduction. Bluetooth functionality and battery life is excellent. 3M products are a good bet in my experience.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

This is what I use and best of all after 3 years of using them, I was able to pickup a replacment set of earpads for pretty cheap. These work every time I use them, battery lasts a very long time and they're comfortable for hours on end. But, they aren't noise canceling...irrelevant when I'm listening to something, but usually if it isn't noisy, they're not on my ears.

[Bob Jones 5443]

Reading between the lines, it seems that if you want to "cancel" the sound of your table saw, 3-1/2 HP router, dust collector, or the old extra loud peasant-level shop vac I have, you don't look for electronics in the ear muffs. You just get muffs that lower the sound as much as possible. That's not in question here, is it?

Where the confusion comes in for me is with those units that let you listen to music. Sorry, but when I'm in a dangerously loud environment, the last thing I want is to listen to music. My many years of international travel with Bose cancelling phones taught me that I was just replacing an annoying loud sound with a pleasant loud sound. Overall, not so good for my ears.

I use "3M Pro-Grade Noise Reducing" muffs that claim 30 dB Noise Reduction Rating. Got them at Home Depot and chose them because they had the highest NRR on the shelf. I just saw an online description of them saying "highest NRR in retail stores." That got me thinking.

I came across this thread because I wondered if any muffs are made that both 1) reduce all sound by at least 30 dB and 2) use out-of-phase sound waves to cancel incoming sound. You can find guys hawking muffs for shooting with electronics specs like "1.5 ms response time" or that compress any ambient noise above 85 dB. But I don't think anyone's mentioned them here unless I missed it. And I'm in Jim Becker's camp that this is probably not what we want in the wood shop.

I'm very happy with my 3M set –– I reach for them before I throw any switch in the shop –– but I just got curious whether augmenting something like these with active sound wave cancellation would be an enhancement. So far, it's hard to find.

[Monte Milanuk]

I've worked in high noise environments most of my adult life, and do a fair bit of target shooting as well. I've tried several different kinds of the in-ear buds with various styles of 'ANC'... and have been very disappointed in the performance. Granted, when I'm used to wearing NRR 32 plugs at work, electronic hearing protection rated @ NRR 25 doesn't impress me very much. I'm more inclined to double up plugs and muffs than to go for the electronic ear buds, personally.

[Ole Anderson]

Key to any earmuffs working correctly is a tight fit. Key is tight but not uncomfortable. Adjustable would be best. My wife has a pair of Sony headphones with active noise cancelling, but they aren't as effective as her cheap pair of regular muffs that fit very tightly. I mow (JD z425) with a pair of ear plugs, or a set of Stihl earmuffs or a set of no-name bluetooth earmuffs, that claimed in the ads to be noise cancelling but were not. None work as good as the earplugs.