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Gear / Technical Help => Playback Forum => Topic started by: 12milluz on September 27, 2010, 11:41:32 PM
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I need headphones/earbuds for monitoring shows and I've thought about a pair of active noise canceling. I'm worried that the noise canceling will be problematic as the live monitoring is the basically the same sound they are trying to cancel. Has anyone used noise canceling for live use? Good or bad?
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Look at IEMs, you can isolate and get better effects (especially for your hearing).
Come to mind: Etymotic, Westone, UltraEars, (or if you have a ton of money) JH Audio.
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supreme sound isolation can be achieved from the sennheiser hd 25ii
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/507447-REG/Sennheiser_HD_25_1_II_HD_25_1_II.html
they are not noise canceling or IEMS but work very well.
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It's certainly possible, but I don't think the circuitry in any available active-canceling phones have enough headroom to handle high SPL levels. The professional level phones with active cancelling that pilots use might work but I haven't looked into those as they don't really fit my requirements (huge, expensive, etc).
The best passive isloating solution I've found are the Etymotic ER4's I've had for over 10 years, installed in regular high-isolation foam ear plugs by using a leather punch, although I usually don't monitor but always wear ear-protection at loud events. With the phones installed, the foam plugs are almost as effective as they are when used alone (package claims -33dB, but I doubt they really achieve anything near that below ~150Hz).
I've tried AT 'Quiet Point' ATH-ANC3' in-ears installed in the same foam earplugs in an attempt to actively reduce more bass and achieve a more balanced tone than the foam plugs alone and the sound I got was spectacularly well balanced at lower SPL levels, eliminating all the ear-plug's 'all bass & no trebble' tone.. but the ATs clipped on bass peaks of loud material where they would be useful. I haven't tried other active canceling phones, but since they are all designed for blocking realtively low level noise and aim for good battery life, I bet they'd all clip, even if though the specific circuit may be more effective in some than others (the AT circut is quite good). Once it clips it sounds horrible as expected and is no longer cancelling the sound. I actually considered trying to hack the board from them with beefed up powering and amp circuitry but the electronics are beyond my skill level. So I consider the concept proven, but have gone back to fully crammed -33dB plugs for now.