Noise-Cancelling Headphones

[Arnold F.]

Do any mixers use these?  I know some dialog editors who swear by them - one says it cuts out all the traffic noise outside her window.  I feel like they might be fine for airplane noise and traffic but might behave in an undesirable way in more dynamic environments.

A.

[Sergio Sanmiguel]

That would be silly, don't you think? Using headphones that don't let you hear what you're recording!?

[Arnold F.]

That would be silly, don't you think? Using headphones that don't let you hear what you're recording!?

HA.  Is there a way to cancel my post?  Perhaps I can go back in time.  Do any mixers do that?

[ptalsky]

I've started using noise-canceling headphones when I'm traveling (mainly on airplanes) and I find that I come off the flight much less stressed.  But I never use them on set - kind of defeats the purpose.

BTW, the Audio Technica noise canceling headphones are awesome, and about 1/3 the price of the Bose.

Phil

[FSBELLA]

Arnold,

check out the sony HN7506 , from remote audio. just sold a pair last week.  they are used more when working a Nascar race or in a helicopter. or any loud enviremonts. they are double the price, but well woth it. (protecting your ears)

yes you can remove a post or modify it.

[David Waelder]

Do any mixers use these?

This is sort of a tangential question...

How many people use in-ear headphones that are often sold as noise-control headsets because the in-ear design effectively blocks ambient noise? I've seen a number of boom operators use them and I can understand the attraction; routed under a shirt they are always ready to hand without being cumbersome. but how may mixers use them? And if you do, what brands do you recommend? I see the Etymotic E6 Isolator headsets sold at Location Sound and on-line reviews speak well of the sound quality. But how well do they serve as professional monitors? What are other good options?

David Waelder

[Sergio Sanmiguel]

HA.  Is there a way to cancel my post?  Perhaps I can go back in time.  Do any mixers do that?

You can use "posts canceling eyeglasses", I guess...

[John Blankenship]

I haven't tried them but I know a mixer who uses the Bose and likes them. 

BTW, I have a like-new set of the Etymotic for sale.  If anyone's interested I'll post them in "For Sale."  They weren't my cup of tea but they might be someone else's.

JB

[Guest jimg]

I've got a pair of the small Sennheiser NC headsets for flying. I'll sometimes use them with no input source and I'll leave the plane a lot less stressed.

Two of the boom operators I work with frequently have one version or the other of the Etymotic headsets, and a third uses the Shure in-ear headsets. I have a set of the E-6's which I used a lot when I had a set of custom earmolds for them. Somebody stole just the molds (perhaps the dumbest thief ever) when I was using them as earplugs with attenuator inserts and even though they are much less comfortable with the stock inserts, I've kept the E-6's for use in extreme conditions. Being able to keep my parka hood up on really cold days or wear a hat with a brim in a driving rain seem a good trade off to me. I think they sound pretty good, although I don't use them enough to make a comparison between them and the DT-250's I normally use.

JG

[Glen Trew]

The Bose ative noise cancelling headsets (and evidently the ones by Audio Technica and others) are great for personal listening. However, since they are designed to actively reduce ambient noise, they can also reduce the ambientce heard through the microphone (assuming that you are sitting in the same ambience, which is often the case). This is one reason that passive attenuating phones (like the Remote Audio HN-7506) are a better choice for knowing what you are actually recording. Also, since the Bose headphones (and others) take time to sample and adjust for changes in ambience, you ears would not be actively protected from sudden noises like gun fire and explosions.

Glen Trew

[BVS]

I bought a pair of Brookstone noise cancelling headphones at San Francisco International Airport for my trip home to New Zealand.The best flight I've ever had. BUT,they lack the transient response of my normal Sony 7509s and lack the clarity and depth that you need to make subjective assessments.So I've not used them on a job and never will, but for a quiet and restful flight they are great and the on-board music and films sound obviously way better than with the supplied headphones.

Brian

[S Harber]

In regards to electronically noise controlling headsets, I thought you had to basically have the mic (heaset) element as close as possible to the speaker that the mic (headset) would feed back into the circuit in an out of phase fashion. 

It seems to me that having a boom mic that would be distant yet in the same ambience as well as the leakage into the haedsets plus the out of phase version pumped back into the cans...it's got to sound very weird.

Anyone try these on a production?

Scott Harber

[FSBELLA]

SHarber,

If you are talking about the sen hmd-25 "sportscaster headset/mic" or are rental dept.slang the "chick hearn headset" I know a couple mixers using them, and are very pleased with the permormance. and there is no phase or feed back thru to the earpieces. one particular sound mixer is using a yamaha board. and the old beyer dynamic DT209's are still around on sets.

later, hope you are well.

[S Harber]

Hey Frank,

What I was referring to was the electronically active noise canceling headsets made by Senn. & others which sends an out-of-phase signal back through the drivers. It works well on airplanes and such that have a constant ambient characteristic. What would be interesting, but probably not very useful would be trying these out in the rest of the world.

SH

[FSBELLA]

harber,

copy that. does not sound like they would work for you guys out there.

[Bob Marts]

  Seven or eight years ago, I was working on a TV series where a scene we were doing took place in an extremely dusty vacant building.

I decided to keep the cart on the truck and mix from there instead of going inside. The truck was parked fairly close to a set of railroad tracks and train engines would slowly creep by all day long.  They weren't very loud inside on the set and LF cut kept them out of the recordings, but the rumble I could hear leaking through the Sony phones was very distracting. Our lead actor came out to the truck to listen to a playback and being bombarded by the low freq train noise, pulled his Bose headphones out of his bag and used those instead of my phones.  They had only been on the market for a short time and I hadn't seen them before. He left them on the cart and I mixed the rest of the day with them. Although they are far from being good sounding monitors, I was able to hear what the mics were hearing inside without all the train noise leaking in through the phones.

  I bought my own pair right away for these kinds of situations but I only used them one time - when I was set up on a busy street corner and the actors were inside of a parked car with the windows rolled up.  Never used them for production since.  They're nice for traveling though.

Bob

[Sergio Sanmiguel]

I prefer noise-isolation as opposed to noise-canceling headphones.... I had a gig a couple of week ago at an Aircraft test facility where noise levels where pretty high and still got good reference of what was going on with dialog.  I would recommend to have at least one set of these in your kit. bTW I use the Shure's SCL 3, originally designed for Live Music in ear Monitoring.