[Shop-talk] Hearing protection for mowing

[Karl Vacek]

ANR - Active Noise Reduction - indeed does protect hearing.  The units vary 
in sophistication, but all essentially have a microphone in each earcup 
that "listens" to the sound inside.  The circuitry of course knows what 
it's putting out (assuming this is an actual audio headset and not just a 
hearing protector) and ignores that.  It generates an opposite-phase sound 
wave to whatever it "hears" as noise, and thus the noise and the ANR signal 
cancel each other.  Your ear received less sound pressure.

I have a pair of Peltor muffs for shooting with microphones in front so 
that you can speak with someone and still be ready when a shot goes off. 
They're good, but for mowing the lawn I still turn off the sound from the 
microphones and they're more quiet.

I also have aftermarket ANR kits I installed in several of my aviation 
headsets and they're far more effective even for mowing.  But the price 
difference is huge.  The Peltor ANR muffs were about $50, while the ANR 
kits I put in my David Clark headsets cost over $100, on top of a few 
hundred dollars for the headsets themselves.

David Clark sells headsets with ANR from the factory, but they're over 
$500, and Bose aviation headsets are about $1,000.  Ear plugs are cheaper 
if they're satisfactory.

On May 29, 2019 5:39:42 PM Jim Stone via Shop-talk 
<shop-talk at autox.team.net> wrote:
> "While I'd love to have a pair of Bose Quiet Comfort 20…”
> Just for what its worth, I am on my third set of the Bose QC20’s and could 
> not live without them.  They work incredibly well, but I don’t know if they 
> qualify as hearing protection.  As I understand it, they work by generating 
> anti-noise: the opposite wave length of the noise coming in.  While what 
> you can hear is greatly diminished - they are awesome on airplanes and in 
> hotels with noisy HVAC systems - I wonder if they actually prevent hearing 
> damage.   It would be nice to know if they do qualify, or if 
> noise+anti-noise is still damaging to the ears, even if you can’t actually 
> perceive it.  Does anyone here know?
>
>
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