In ear headphone advice please.

mickbald

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My  sons fiance is pregnant and wants a pair of in ear headphones, preferably noise cancelling for reasons that will soon become apparent.

When she goes in to give birth its a very noisy environment what with all the wailing, screaming and crying - she's a midwife so she knows about these things. 

It seems in ear, noise cancelling headphones are the best way of getting rest and maybe even a bit of sleep.

So, any recommendations? Sound quality isn't high on the agenda under the circumstances. 

My son is buying them so not expensive is good. 

 

Cloth-Ears.

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Active noise cancellation won't be effective against higher up sounds like wailing. Unless a manufacturer has done something new here. To block such sounds you need physical blocking properties. Indeed some in-ear phones have a good degree of that if the are of the right material and form a seal at the opening of the ear. If he is to wear them in an attempt to sleep, then why not just ear plugs ? ( and also there no wires to worry about ).

My reply is perfectly serious. I don't know exactly what frequency range a baby's screetches or women in labour fall into but I do know it is not the sort of thing the noise cancelling math tries to undo.

For woken, actual listening to material, why not full size, "closed back" design headphones of quality and weight ? With the proviso that glasses won't make getting a good seal around the ears difficult - all depends, depends. But yes, there are certain in-ear phones that also seal up well.

No harm in having noise cancellation for dealing with background noise in general, but I honestly don't think they are a solution to high up wailing type noise.

Perhaps thought could be given to ongoing use too in regular life, e.g. during commute, on flights, etc

 
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mickbald

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Active noise cancellation won't be effective against higher up sounds like wailing. Unless a manufacturer has done something new here. To block such sounds you need physical blocking properties. Indeed some in-ear phones have a good degree of that if the are of the right material and form a seal at the opening of the ear.

TBH, I know nothing about headphoes but what you say makes perfect sense. 

If he is to wear them in an attempt to sleep, then why not just ear plugs ? ( and also there no wires to worry about ). 

It's for her, not him, in the maternity ward, while calving. 

My reply is perfectly serious. I don't know exactly what frequency range a baby's screetches or women in labour fall into but I do know it is not the sort of thing the noise cancelling math tries to undo.

Yep, understand. 

For woken, actual listening to material, why not full size, "closed back" design headphones of quality and weight ? With the proviso that glasses won't make getting a good seal around the ears difficult - all depends, depends. But yes, there are certain in-ear phones that also seal up well.

Already offered the loan of my B&W P3's but it's the lying down / sleeping bit that important

No harm in having noise cancellation for dealing with background noise in general, but I honestly don't think they are a solution to high up wailing type noise.

Perhaps thought could be given to ongoing use too in regular life, e.g. during commute, on flights, etc

Thanks. The simple answer is that ear plugs or prog are the answer. 

FFS, he's 31 year old. Bit of a first world problem, but I have tried! 
 

Cloth-Ears.

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Actually, it occurs to me that active noise cacellation might work, if, the screetchy / wailey noises are distant, occluded, muffled. The more so, then such sounds tend into the background that the tech is capable of dealing with. Just depends.

Regarding in ear pieces and their fit, it is of course a highly personal and nuanced thing. I myself have difficulty accepting ear buds comfortably. To deal with this I'll give you a company to bookmark - useful for this need perhaps but also for another future one. Even with my £280 assistive listening tv/pc set, none of the three supplied options are comfortable for me, but the Comply alternative made a considerable difference, to the point of at least being tolerable for a while. Enter your earphones model on the Comply web site and there will likely be a match and if there's not one listed directly you can find a more generic fit model to use ( that's what I defaulted to and thery worked ). Not cheap these are, but they are good. I believe Comply also do ear plugs, I think.

https://www.complyfoam.com

A very useful bookmark to have.

 
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Cloth-Ears.

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If the whole job is done in the actual ear pieces, then they are likely to be bulky and therefore not good for sleep. 

Another nuuance to be aware of, is that what they refer to as noise cancellation might not be general active noise cancellation but rather using similar tech to clean up phone conversations via the ear set. I hope its the proper thing and not just that. I also hope that the ear pieces are small and that the electronics are in a litttle packge, at some point down the wires. 

 

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