A

Alex

Well Known Member
I like to have music on while I work. However, with the air compressor running, the drill or die grinder, etc, I prefer to wear hearing protection. Recently I've been using cheap Sony headphones connected to my iPod, but the noise suppression is not good. I'm not a fan of ear bud headphones, but I might try those next. Ideally I'd like a cordless solution because the cord keeps getting in the way, but the Bluetooth headphones I've seen are all pretty expensive. I suppose I could just use a stereo and crank it up loud enough to hear through my noise protection headset, but that would probably bug the neighbors.

Does anyone have any good ideas for getting music and hearing protection at the same time?
 
Buds and muffs

I use ear buds with the cord run inside my shirt, and then some quality ear muffs over that. At work ( flying jets),I use the Bose noise canceling headset, which has an audio input, but I think the shop ear muff hearing protectors will give you better protection for tools up close.

YMMV,

David
 
I had the same problem, I order these:

http://www.amazon.com/Howard-Leight...ref=sr_1_1?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1332511171&sr=1-1

They have a headphone jack on them, and work well. My only complaint is that they aren't very pliable when its cold.

I then got frustrated with the phone/ipod in my pocket, and the cable, so I got one of these:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005OW4AWS/ref=oh_o03_s00_i03_details

I was able to clip it to the band of the headset and get all the wires out of the way.

That lets me work, listen to music, and take phone calls without taking off the hearing protection. :D

Just don't try to rivet with your wife on the other end of the call....it doesn't go over so well. :eek:
 
I use Etymotics but they are not inexpensive. I had them from my motorcycle days. I know there are similar designs for less.
 
I honestly prefer just having the radio on in the background, ya it gets softer when the Ear Pro goes on and non existent when riveting however I like to hear what else is going on, with headphones in I become completely oblivious to what is going on around me, sometimes a good thing but usually a bad thing. If you cant hear it, just turn it up :)

-david
 
comply tips

I use standard ear buds, but I replace the tips with comply foam tips. The comply foam really helps to seal the buds in your ear and block sound. The comply tips can be purchased from amazon, but different versions are available and you'll have to figure out which ones work with your head phones.
 
I have a couple pairs of Skullcandy ear buds. They come with several sets of rubber inserts so they fit your ear canal better than most out there. That said, while they do block out the background noise of, say, my office pretty well, I'm not sure whether they'd work adequately against shop noise. Worst case, you could put some cans over them for additional protection.

I love these things for long motorcycle rides.

http://www.amazon.com/Skullcandy-S2INCZ-033-INKd-Earbuds-Black/dp/B003HKTWKO
 
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I had a set of these made a several years ago. I use them for shooting, driving tractor, loud work in the shop etc. To give you an idea how effective they are at blocking outside noise, I can work next to an oilless compressor and listen to music from my iPod with the volume set on nearly the lowest level. I can't reccomend them enough.
 
Peltor Worktunes

I have had a couple of sets of these over the last 10 years:

http://www.envirosafetyproducts.com/aosafety-digital-radio-earmuff.html

Light weight and they work great. I've worn them for many hundreds of hours and like them a lot. They have an MP3 input too. I got tired of ripping my ear bud cord off while working and have been happy to have switched to these. They are a lot easier to adjust than digging out whatever mp3 source you have to set the volume or change the selection/station.

I've had the wires break on both sets where they come out of the earcups. Not hard to fix, but I wish they would change the design. It looks like the newest version of these still uses the same flat ribbon cable.
 
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