Great headphones for high noise environments

Active Noise Canceling, or Active Noise reduction headphones are a remarkable technology. Using microphones, they listen to the "Noise" outside of the headphones, then generate that same noise except they invert the sound wave, effectively canceling out the noise. Helicopter pilots have had them for years. When I saw these Altec Lansing ones at Costco for around $90 Cdn, I decided to buy them.

Upon opening the package, I found that the noise canceling headphones were permanently wired into a control module that held one AAA battery (not included) and had a volume knob on the side (which controlled the volume of the music, not the noise canceling level). Plugging into that is either an included short wire (for using with a walkman) or a long wire, each of which could plug into the included airline adapter or the 0.25" adapter. Everything fit in the very nice included velvet-lined bag. The headphones fold down fairly compactly. Clearly, this comprehensive package was designed with travelers in mind and, as I soon discovered, were not meant to be everyday headphones (unless you spend every day in very loud environments).

I inserted a AAA battery, put the headphones on, and turned them on. When I did so, my ears felt as though there was an air pressure change inside the headphones. The hum of the refrigerator disappeared, and I had to strain to hear the aquarium air pump. There was a noticeable white noise hiss in the background. I connected to my MP3 player. At low volume levels, the sound was okay...but clearly, these headphones were not engineered for this type of environment. They also worked when not powered, but the sound quality was greatly reduced. In both cases, my regular headphones were better.

This is one caveat of these headphones. In a normal household-type environment, with typical noise (air conditioners, fish tank air pumps, computer fans), you would be better off with regular headphones. They would cost less and the sound quality at low volume levels would be better; you could easily drown out that type of noise while staying at a safe volume level. These headphones were engineered for what I would call real noise. The type of noise that causes you to raise your voice, obliterates the hourly chime on your digital watch, and induces headaches. I'm talking about jet engines, jackhammers, lawn mowers, generators...the sort of stuff that would cause you to crank your walkman to maximum volume just to hear your music. The factory in which I work is one such place, so I decided to give these headphones a real test there.

The leather pads make a good seal over my ear, which I think is critical for how these headphones work. Upon powering up the headphones, the steady, thundering boom-boom of the robotic welders sounded more like popcorn popping, and much of the noise was erased. There was still noise, but it became much more tolerable. I could actually hear my music at the lowest volume setting. I should mention that powering on the headphones amplifies the signal a bit. I could still hear people talking to me, but the factory became a much quieter place.

After about 10 minutes, my ears were noticeably warm. However, it should be pointed out that they got no warmer than if I were wearing ear muff style hearing protectors; this happens when you seal off your ears from the outside world. I started to turn the music up to higher volume levels. I noticed two things. One, it didn't take much volume to cancel out people talking to me; and two, increasing the volume really brought out the range of the music. The bass was really quite bassy, and the high notes came through quite clear. Increase the volume a little more, and I was in my own aural world. I wasn't at the pain threshhold nor maximum volume, but it sure was a nice treat for my ears as I felt like I was right there with the band getting my ear drums massaged. I did not expect this kind of sound quality in the environment I was in. I realized that this could very well be a hazard for someone walking about or working on a job where hearing someone calling to you is critical.

I tested them for two hours straight and, besides warm ears, experienced absolutely no discomfort. I would have tested them for longer had my supervisor not come along and advised me that walkmans were not permitted in the plant. That's another thing about these headphones; they're hardly subtle. By wearing them, you are visually screaming, "I am listening to my music!" Though not so big as to be bulky, they aren't discrete either. Even if I painted them yellow, they'd look too nice to be hearing protectors.

Oh, well. There you have it. If you can hear the white noise in the background, use regular headphones; otherwise, these will sound great.