Bose Headphones as ear protection

[jgourlay]

I have a pair of bose wireless noise cancelling ear-muffs for travel.  Out of curiosity today I tried them out in the shop.  If you have these, you should too.  Lighter and cooler than regular earmuffs, they do a surprisingly great job of noise suppression.

Example:  the DW735 is a *LOUD* thickness planer.  I have one of those and a 5HP cyclone system.  Normally for me this is earplugs with muffs over them loud.  These noise cancelling headphones took the whole ruckus down to a 'motor spinning' noise.  Quiet enough that the ruckus doesn't appreciably detract from the Zep coming through the headphones.

[David G]

I have wondered about that.  They do not have any db reduction rating.  Thanks for the info.

I would still were earplugs for a Dewalt planer though.

[Halfathumb]

I've worn a pair of these in my shop connected to my MP3. Works great, unless someone wants to get my attention.

[gMike]

Interesting.  Never thought about noise cancelling headphones for shop use.  Good idea.  They don't give those headphones away ($$$) but with as little hearing as I have left it might be cheap hearing protection.

[Steve N]

Anyone looking for a really good earmuff type These 3M rock at a NRR of 30, and 21 bux I have a lot of guys in the hard hat mounted version of this at work, and get nothing but "thank you" from those guys. There is another with a noise canx side, but NRR is only 27. I would suggest the 30 every day.

Plus if you are playing music in them, and people can't get your attention, in reality you would do just as good with nothing listening to a stereo, gonna be deaf either way

[AHill]

If you really want to shell out the bucks, try the Bose aviation noise cancelling headsets.  They are made for pilots and they will really knock down the noise.  A thickness planer and a turboprop or piston engine prop make a very similar noise.  As for myself, I have the "normal" Bose noise cancelling headsets.

[Steve N]

I'm just not going to trust that they are adequate, if they don't supply an NRR (Noise reduction rating) I've never seen that they do. Pushing you fingers in your ears really decreases a lot of noise, studies infer an NRR of 23 to 25 depending on the fit of your fingers. That is not adequate to stop loss in sound over 90 Db, it will help slow it down. Hearing protection really is difficult to get people excited about, but hearing loss is readily available in a shop setting.

You guys in industry probably remember from safety training that at 85 Db you need to be warned, and at 90Db you need to take action, or you will have loss if you aren't covered up real well.

It is difficult to find noise ratings on a lot of equipment, lunchbox planers are some of the worst, we know they are LOUD, but they pussyfoot about telling you how loud. I used this article in a thread before, it has some tall numbers Some are tools talked about here frequently.

Comparative noises Most of the aircraft examples I have seen are on flight lines, and carrier decks, not so much in the upholstered/insulated insides. This one mentions the DC-9 and 737, but they don't say where in the plane. I've flown a bit, and it's not 90 Db in the passenger area, at least it seems nothing like areas at work designated as 90Db, they make you seek hearing protection, inside a passenger plane you can have a fairly comfortable conversation. You cannot in 90Db, you must raise your voice to be heard.

[fishhh4]

I have them . I run a concrete saw all day ..Loud.. probably 110 db range . They do a decent job .

[fixtureman]

I have a set of these that I got on clearance from Home Depot that came with a flashlight, small drill,scissors and cell phone charger all for $29

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Ryobi-Tek4-Au.../100671268

[jppierson]

I did a quick search for noise attenation of active noise reduction. Found this study concerning the Bose Quiet Comfort 2.
Bottom line is that they seem OK for upto 98dBa exposures, anything higher must be time weighted. So Fishhh4 you probably need to re-evaluate how you are using noise cancellation for you primary hearing protection.

http://www.hearingreview.com/2008/06/att...headphone/

They tested at 85dBa and got a 13 dBa reduction. They did not test at higher levels so caution consumers as to how much attenuation you get at higher levels.

Here is the important part, "The amount of NR provided by this technology is sufficient to allow for extended exposure to noise levels up to approximately 98 dBA to remain within a safe listening level, providing the attenuation does not vary in higher levels of noise. Environments such as an average office or home (75 dBA), a machine shop (85-95 dBA), or average street noise (70-85 dBA) would be suitable for using this hearing protection system without limiting exposure.13 Louder environments, such as inside of a subway car (95-105 dBA), use of a power mower (105-115 dBA), or exposure to loud street noise (90-110 dBA),13 would require limited time exposure when using this device as a noise reductor."