Advice for noise-cancelling

[arias]

Hey guys,

I have a problem. Living together with a housemate in rooms separated by a thin wall, and said housemate loves loud music/bass and other entertainment in higher than average magnitudes. Planning to move out in 3 months, not now, but in the meantime I would like to know if noise-cancelling headphones can actually help.

I'm aware that noise-cancelling is not perfectly exclusion but a dampening of external sounds, but my concern is whether the treatment is for treble-only or whether it includes dampening external bass sounds. I'm aware that I'll still feel the vibrations coming from the walls..

Anyways, if it can help, could you guys PLEASE help out and recommend me a good heaphones pair or two? And something somewhere of the price range of $150-200 MAX. And one that sounds excellent without relying on an amplifier.

Thank you very much..

[A440]

Noise cancellation headphones are close to a scam. They are supposed to sense the noise around you and cancel it out by generating their own counter-noise. But they add noise to the music you're playing, and you can usually hear a high whiny sound. Also, they need power, which means a battery has to be somewhere on the cord or on your head.

Instead of trying to do it electronically, the better way is to do it mechanically: put earbuds into earplugs.

So you should look into in-ear monitors, or IEMs. They reduce noise BETTER than noise-cancelling phones--if you look at specs, noise cancelling phones get rid of fewer decibels--and they can sound quite good because they are deep inside your ear. They're what rock musicians use onstage now instead of monitors so they can hear themselves. An arena concert stage is probably louder than your neighbor. At least, I hope so.

I have the Shure E4C, and they are wonderful--a big wide soundstage, very realistic instrumental sounds, a sturdy cord. They're dark gray--the E4 is the same thing in white. If you look around online you can find them for around $180. For somewhat less, Shure also makes an E3, which is quite good but a little less three-dimensional-sounding. List prices for both are high, but with Froogle you can find steep discounts.

They arrive with about half a dozen different kinds and sizes of earplugs: soft rubber, harder rubber, foam and flanges. You should try all of them, because the plugs make a significant difference. Mine only sound good with the large gray soft rubber plugs, but everyone's ears are different. With the right plug, they are very isolating and very hi-fi. I wear them on subways and airplanes, which have some serious bass.

Etymotic, which gets a lot of praise, has weak bass and a weird, noisy, fragile twisted cord. I tried Ultimate Ears once and didn't like them, but they may have had the wrong earplugs for my ears. Other people are very fond of them as well.

Edited October 2, 2006 by A440

[atrain]

i'd second a440's advice with a caveat. try someone else's iems before you buy, even if they're only the cheaper ex51/71 or senns or something.

some people, myself included find in ear phones uncomfortable or even painful. if you don't know if you can get used to them you could try a pair of closed headphones. closed audio-technicas, senns, koss etc. would be great.

try the iem option first, most people don't have the issues.

[King Ghidora]

Noise cancelling phones are designed to cancel noise that is steady and constant like motor noise or a constant hum. They will not cancel noise that is random. For example my Aiwa noise cancelling headphones will cancel out noise from my room air conditioner great. You put them on and flip the switch and it's like the noise from the air conditioner is gone. The same goes for noise that comes from the motor on my lawn mower. I can't hear a thing if I try to listen to music while riding my lawnmower until I turn on the noise cancelling feature of my Aiwa's. Once I turn it on it's like I'm riding a silent lawn mower and I can hear the music just great. They don't cancel all of the noise from my mower but they cancel enough so that I can hear the music quite well.

What noise cancelling phones won't do is cancel someone talking in the background or a dog barking or a tv going or anything that isn't a steady type of noise. They aren't designed to work with noise like that and they won't do a thing to remove it. The only kind of phones that can reduce that type of noise is the kind of phones that fit tightly over your ear or plug your ear like ear plugs. Those can block noise but they don't really cancel it.

Noise cancelling technology is designed to put out a cancelling noise for any noise that is going on steady. So any noise that is steady the noise cancelling technology will pick up on the noise and create a cancelling type sound. If the sound isn't constant then the technology can't anticipate what kind of noise is going to happen.

The bottom line is that the good noise cancelling phones will block out any steady type noise like a motor. Bad noise cancelling phones won't even do that well. No noise cancelling phones can cancel noise that isn't steady.

[sector001]

u can try the noise cancelling from bose, they do have a 30 day return guarantee....

though they are a bit pricey. $349 for their newest version.

[arias]

Thank you all for the very helpful comments. I did make a guess that noise cancelling headphones were designed to counter only white-noise, but I hoped they had treatment for other non-steady noises as well.

The Shure 4c looks great, but I can't think of any Canadian dealer that has them at such low prices. They look like I can find them for $350 CAD, which is supremely pricey. I'll have to think about this and continue to scout places..

[Richard]

You could always get some Sony NC11A noise-cancelling phones. These are both in-ear phones and noise cancelling. I'm not sure how effective they are against noisy neighbours but I have used them to great effect on planes and trains.

They also sound not bad with the NC off and have a freq response of 10-22000hz. The Japanese model can be bought on ebay for around $65 USD (link) plus shipping or you can get them from SonyStyle in North America I think.

[A440]

u can try the noise cancelling from bose, they do have a 30 day return guarantee....

There's a saying among the audiophiles:

"No highs, no lows/must be a Bose."

I've tried Bose triports, though not the noise-cancelling ones, and the best way to describe them is weak.

Look on Ebay for the Shure E4c.

There are a bunch of dealers with shipping to Canada, though some charge a big premium for it.

Try these guys for instance: http://djdeals.com/shureE4.htm

Or try this: Go to http://www.google.com/ncr which will give you US Google--and I assume US Froogle--to look for prices.

And if you can't find an affordable pair, then the E3c are still pretty darn good.

Edited October 3, 2006 by A440

[sector001]

There's a saying among the audiophiles:

"No highs, no lows/must be a Bose."

I've tried Bose triports, though not the noise-cancelling ones, and the best way to describe them is weak.

Look on Ebay for the Shure E4c.

There are a bunch of dealers with shipping to Canada, though some charge a big premium for it.

Try these guys for instance: http://djdeals.com/shureE4.htm

Or try this: Go to http://www.google.com/ncr which will give you US Google--and I assume US Froogle--to look for prices.

And if you can't find an affordable pair, then the E3c are still pretty darn good.

i never tried the bose either, and personally dont like them that much either. i think they are overrated as well. but they were noise cancelling....so thought i suggestted them.

[trw1089]

I recently obtained a pair of Sennheiser PXC 300's which I must say I am fairly impressed with. As was said above, they do well at cancelling mid-range noise, but are not as great with voices etc. That being said, last Sunday I was flying home and had a screaming baby in the seat just behind me. Putting on the Senns and listening to the in-flight entertainment just about completely drowned out said infant to the point that I was able to fall asleep, just fantastic. They also work very well with my NH1, so I must say I'm hooked. The only drawback I have seen with the Senn's are they are not completely enclosed like the Bose ones, but a damn sight cheaper at around 50 pounds Sterling off Ebay.

HTH

Tony