Electronic Ear Protectors—Goat or Got-to?

Excerpts from The Message Boards

Mike Schwing from Md. wrote:

As a Christmas gift, my bride gave me a pair of Bose Noise Cancellation Headphones. I've been lusting after them for a while now. I did not intend them for shop use, but after giving them a try I find myself wearing them every day.

Noise cancellation technology is not new, but it is still pretty expensive. It works by sampling the sound in an environment and reproducing what it considers noise 180° out of phase. Those opposing sound waves cancel each other to effectively eliminate the sound. There are other makers of this stuff in all shapes and sizes—Discovery Store, Sharper Image, Brookstone, all have variants using the same technology (and some less expensively).

Sound is an important tool to a woodworker. We need to hear motors running for safety as much as to tell when something is wrong or we are loading them excessively. We need to hear the sounds our tools make as they work the wood in order to know when danger is near and/or to judge cutting efficiency. Sometimes we just need to hear if something is on. Removing those sounds completely is ineffective and dangerous. You can purchase normal headphones with very good noise reduction ratings, but they muffle these important sounds, too.

The headphones—They appear at first glance to be ordinary headphones, but have an on/off switch. Putting them on with the power turned off muffles sound just a tiny bit. When turned on, in a few seconds all background "noise" disappears and you can hear momentary sounds, like talking, music, or tools cutting wood (even gouges) perfectly clearly. When an air compressor turns on - you momentarily hear it at a muffled level and then a moment later it tones down to just barely noticeable—yet the radio remains clearly audible and you can still hear your gouge cutting clearly. They are just as effective at cancelling the noise of a bandsaw, dust collector, screaming shop vac or tablesaw.

They also have an input for a radio/MP3/etc. player. The nice thing about this is that you don't have to turn the volume up to excessive levels when in the presence of background noise because the background noise is gone. I don't use this in the shop because I don't like the idea of a cable attached to my head near a spinning piece of wood.

You don't really notice just how good a job they were doing until you turn them off or remove them from your head. The world is unbelievably loud! They are so comfortable as to be nearly unnoticeable, and are an extremely welcome addition to my shop. I would highly recommend noise reduction of this sort for your shop.

Please notice that I did not say "hearing protection" because I do not know if technically this satisfies that requirement. Nothing sounds loud to me with these on, but I don't want to be giving medical advice where not qualified.

Lee Schierer dissented:

I had asked for and received a set of the Rockler Electronic Ear Protectors for Christmas. I had a chance to use them and I must say I was very disappointed. I wanted to wear my hearing protection more and still be able to hear the music or phone while working in the shop.

The advertisement says, "protect your hearing around noisy workshop machinery and still hear normal conversation. If a loud noise occurs, system automatically muffles the sound!"

Well, it is true that the microphone will pick up conversation, but the sound quality is tinny and the pickup is very directional. I could hear voices if my head was pointed in the general direction of the person speaking, but I could hardly hear the music in my shop at all unless I really turned up the volume.

When some noises like running the sander occurred, the speaker actually amplified the sound making it louder. For really loud noises the microphone would cut out and no sound was passed through at all, so in that regard they seemed to live up to the dB reduction rating. I'm in the process of sending them back.

Ray Newman added:

At times I wear my Peltor Tactical electronic noise-control shooting muffs that I purchased from Peltor. Not cheap, but I can talk and hear when shooting or mowing the lawn with the John Deere.

I understand that the newer models will work around electrical motors. Mine are older and there is some static. I consider radio equipped muffs to be a hazard.

When the contractor built the last house in our seven house development, one of the workers had a pair on while cutting a sheet of ply on a table saw. I was watching him ditty-bop to the music and mouth the words to the song. When he was done, I asked him if he could hear the saw and he said, "not really."

I like the machines to talk to me and I want to hear a different whine/sound if something isn't going right. Even if something was wrong, I don't think that worker would have noticed.

Steve Knight taking an alternative tack:

You can listen and be safe. You just can't dance at the same time (G). My Peltor works well.

Lyn J. Mangiameli offered:

I got a pair for my wife about a year ago. It's important to understand that they provide minimal sound pressure reduction against impact noise. What they do is reduce the perception (and thus fatigue) of repetitive noise. This is why they are so popular with frequent flyers. There is a lot of individual difference in how much one experiences the sound reduction.

It's important to distinguish these from the electronically controlled ear protection which allows for normal (or even amplified) hearing of normal and sustained sounds, but will electronically clamp the sound of sudden impact noises like gun shots. These, rather than using a cancelling signal, limit the amplitude of high volume transient signals, which is why many (including me) who shoot just love them. They too have been appreciated by some in the shop, but I personally don't care to use mine in that environment—for one thing, it can get aggravating to have every little sudden click and snap cause a momentary drop out of sound.

For varying but high volume noise producers, like chainsaws, tablesaws and routers, it's still hard to beat a good pair of liquid filled over the ear muffs which can give 29-31 dB reduction. They are cheaper and provide better ear protection. But for filtering out the sounds of a something like the continous whine of a dust collector, I can see how the Bose might be really appreciated.

Editor's note:

The decibel was named for Alexander Graham Bell. Although it is printed as decibel, the abbreviation always appears as dB— lower case d for the prefix deci, and upper case B for Bell. It is a measure of loudness and is logarithmic. One dB represents a barely perceptible increase in sound. 3 dB is twice as loud. 10 dB is ten times as loud. With logarithmic numbers however, 20 dB is not twice as loud as 10 dB, it is ten times as loud.

A web search on the keyword decibel will net several very interesting sites with more information on sound than you thought you were interested in.