[funkoid]

I've been playing with various chinese IEMs this last 12 months, vsd3s, vsd5, havi b3 pro mk1s... And a handful of others.

I've been enjoying my music way more and will start to use them traveling more shortly, I've never been amazed or content with any of the above so am looking for something new.

Sound stage wise I love the Beyer DT990s and the superlux 668b - isolation is the key here though as they'll be used on trains and planes! Therefore I'm not sure if pushing the boat out and getting noise cancelling ones is worth a go.

From a hearing perspective active noise cancelling does nothing further to protect your hearing, or am I wrong there?


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[billybob_jcv]

The basics of ANC are a microphone on the headphone that is receiving outside noise and electronics to invert the phase of the signal and feed it back into your headphones. The inverted soundwaves cancel the outside noise soundwaves. Of course, this can't be done perfectly, and the devil is in the details of how to do this effectively. In general, the more constant and steady the outside noise, the better the ANC will work. This is why ANC is excellent for removing the background droning from the engine and air noise inside an airplane. However, they do not work very well for more random noise, like the person next to you talking or random clangs & bangs. The effectiveness of ANC will vary depending on the frequency and other attributes of the outside noise.

Note that this is completely different from electronic ear protection found on (for example) some Peltor hearing protectors. These use a mic NOT to cancel noise, but to let outside sound into the closed hearing protector. This allows you to hear someone talking to you - but that mic is shut-off when a loud noise is sensed (like a gunshot). Sound below the adjustable threshold is allowed in, but anything sensed above that level shuts the mic off.

Passive noise cancelling is simply blocking the sound completely through isolation. For example, Etymotic IEMs provide ~40dB of noise attentuation. It's the same as wearing good earplugs. Passive isolation works fairly well at all frequencies, assuming you have a good seal blocking your eardrum. Good isolation also allows you to protect your ears because you can turn the music volume down and still hear it very well over the outside noise. If the outside noise is 70 dB at your ears (after passing through the headphone attentuation), then you need the music to be over 70dB in order to hear the music above the noise. However, if you have better isolating headphones, and the noise is reduced to 40 dB, then you only need the music to be above 40 dB to hear the music above the noise.

HTH

 

[funkoid]

Thank you so much, great detail that really helps


Sent via tapatalk on phone, excuse the typos!