Noise Reduction Headphones

Friday, June 16, 2006

Blocking out the Noise: Headphones and Earphones

Noise reduction headphones make any trip more comfortable--the longer the trip, the more helpful they are. During my wild youth, right between college and reality (an office job), I took a backpacking trip through Europe. On the flight over, I was given some noise reduction earphones that I used just about every day for two and a half months.

International travel should be mandatory: it's an eye-opening experience without parallel. But it's also an ear-closing experience. Planes, trains, boats, and buses wear on the nerves after a few days, to say nothing of the crowds. Have you been to Greece during the summer? It's a festival of noise.

Noise Reduction Earphones Block Out the Background
There are a few methods to reduce noise, active and passive. Active noise reduction is fairly complicated: it creates a sound wave opposite of that of the background noise, so they cancel out. Passive noise reduction relies on blocking the noise before it gets to the ear, and then filtering out specific frequencies.

Having noise reduction headphones on my big European trip was one of the smartest things I did that summer. I have trouble sleeping in new places, too, and having a way to block out the background noise was a godsend. And the more places you visit, the more chances you'll have to get some peace and quiet--even in the middle of a crowded ferry from Greece to Italy.

1 Comments:

  • Using headphones at a sufficiently high volume level may cause temporary or permanent hearing impairment or deafness due to an effect called "masking." The headphone volume has to compete with the background noise, especially in excessively loud places such as subway stations, aircraft, and large crowds.

    By Anonymous Bluetooth / Mobile Accessories, at 10:01 AM  

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