Has anyone tried these earphones?

[Bateman]

Philips SBCHN060 Noise Reduction In Ear Headphones - about £25. I'm wondering if the noise reduction system will reduce the amount of wind noise on my bike and at the same time allow me to listen to music at relatively low volume. I'd plan to wear them purely for bike use - I did have the Sony ear buds which had great sound but I needed to have them very loud to counteract the wind noise I get.

 

[Tony T]

Might be worth reading the reviews found in the link below. I have some microbuds from Sensorcom which are small and work well.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos...62721-9917447?show=-submittime&Go.x=8&Go.y=13

 

[power2learn]

Etymotic - earbud heaven

I use a pair of Etymotic ER6i's.

They feel a bit weird at first (need to be deep in ear canal and forma seal before you get any bass), and they're really not cheap (about £70), but sound better than anything else I've ever heard - headphones or speakers.

The sound damping is great too, and I listen to music at abot 1/4 of the volume it would otherwise be, either on the bike or on a flight.

Highly recommended if you are going to use them / appreciate them enough to make it worth while.

http://www.etymotic.com/ephp/er6i.aspx

http://www.expansys.com/product.asp?code=118586

However, I'm tempted to try autocom, as want to be able to listen to music and get GPS instructions as well.

But the wind noise on the GS seems very loud to me (first bike for a while) - even though BM claim the helmet is super quiet. Now if autocom had a system for reducing ambient noise like the headphones at the top of this thread, and if it actually worked, like the bose quite comfort headphones, that would be worth having. Until then, I might just stick with the etymotics, listen to great music, and occassionally get lost.

 

[Bateman]

I find the wind noise a real problem and have yet to find a tobinator setting that makes a great amount of difference, so any music I listen to has to be at a loud level. I did try the flat earpieces similar to the ones that come with autocom but they were far too quiet at anything above 50. I do like the look of the Etymotics but for the moment didn't feel that I would get the most out of them given the wind noise/engine noise etc. I thought those Philips Noise Cancelling ones, at that price, would be just the job but in the end I have opted for a cheap set of Koss Sparkplugs which seem to get good reviews for the price

 

[El Thermidor]

I looked at some similar Sonys, but decided they were too big round the ears to get under my lid.

I tried the sensorcom microbuds, but found them a bit lacking in the bass department. Ended up bodging together the Sonys and the microbuds to produce high quality, bassy (Sony) but attenuating (Sensorcom) plugs. Worked a treat.

 

[Bateman]

Well, despite the less than positive reviews, I have decided to get a pair of the Philips as well as the Koss Spark Plugs. I figured I can try the Philips out - if they are as bad as the reviews say, then I have wasted £25. If they are good, then I'll sell the Koss Plugs on ebay. Either way, I'll provide a full report on the Philips and their ability to cancel out wind noise.

 

[Bigtwin]

Well, despite the less than positive reviews, I have decided to get a pair of the Philips as well as the Koss Spark Plugs. I figured I can try the Philips out - if they are as bad as the reviews say, then I have wasted £25. If they are good, then I'll sell the Koss Plugs on ebay. Either way, I'll provide a full report on the Philips and their ability to cancel out wind noise.

Please do - I'd be very interested to read it, especially to find out if the wind buffeting is a frequency that can be matched by the plugs, or if it's too low. If it can - this should be a real result, when combined with custom fit ear bits. :dj

 

[Bateman]

I have also just seen these, but at over £100 and with reviews as poor as the Philips ones, I think they should probably be avoided. Then again some of the reviews have ben very positive. http://www.hifibitz.co.uk/product.asp?id=802&aid=99999

 

[Bateman]

Forgot the picture....

 

[Tony T]

As a helicopter pilot I have tried noise cancelling headphones, some of which are very good. The way in which they work is to have a microphone in the earcup which picks up the unwanted noise "turns it around" and puts an equal and opposite noise back in, cancelling out the unwanted noise and leaving clear speech. I'm only guessing, but it looks like the microphone to pick up the unwanted noise is probably in the "dangly switch box", which would mean it would not pick up the noise affecting your ear, indeed it may add to it!? It would work well where the same ambient noise was affecting both your ear and the microphone, as in an aircraft or car, but probably not where your ear is sonically removed from the microphone. The reasons I gave up on noise cancelling headphones were twofold, firstly the active curcuitry takes up a lot of space in the earcup and cuts down on the passive noise reduction and secondly, as I work with Naval ships, any radar or electrical signal was picked up by the active side and magnified. (Hmmm I wonder if it would pick up radar guns??!)

 

[Speedy23]

creative earbuds

Try these - Creative ep 630 earbuds £18 from Amazon - I've got a set I use with my syncrotech 2 helmet & I-pod they work well and if they don't suit - well hey, it's only £18...

Regards

Jan

 

[Bateman]

Please do - I'd be very interested to read it, especially to find out if the wind buffeting is a frequency that can be matched by the plugs, or if it's too low. If it can - this should be a real result, when combined with custom fit ear bits. :dj

Well, curiosity got the better of me so i decided to purchase a pair of these noise-cancelling headphones - available for £25 on Amazon and the same price at Currys stores (£9 off RRP). Most review of these phones are quite poor - but given that I have decent portable phones already, I was looking for a set purely for riding on the bike, that would reduce some of the wind howl that I am plagued by and that I can't seem to eliminate using tobinators. So, onto my thoughts - sound quality is more than acceptable, though not as good as the Sony earbuds. Volume is also quite low, especially with the Noise cancelling turned off. Build quality is acceptable - in fact the cord setup to dangle the phones around your neck when not in the ears is very good. The noise cancelling unit is bulkier than it appears in the picture, and made of plastic. The switch to turn the unit on/off is fiddly, but there is also a volume control on the unit.

Now the important piece - the effect of the Noise Cancelling feature. I have discovered some interesting things playing around with this. Firstly, it is very good at cancelling low frequency external noise (but obviously not as effective as BOSE ones, which are significantly more expensive) - there is a very noticeable difference when volume is set to zero and you switch the unit on. But thats off the bike....
On the bike, I have realised that much of the wind noise seems to be generated by the wind passing across the ear or the ear piece, which presumably creates vibrations that are picked up in the ear and converted to the perception of sound. It is not external sound as such that can be picked up by the microphone and cancelled out. For this reason, whilst the phones do a great job of reducing external noise, they don't do a good job of reducing what I call internal noise (not those voices in my head....) - which I think is what a lot of the wind noise is. The microphones that detect external noise are located on each of the earpieces but i don't think much "noise" exists in the space directly outside these mic's. Thats my theory anyhow. all you probably want is the verdict. That's a tough one. I know I could have bought better earphones, with a better passsive seal, that produce better sound and louder sound. But I didn't want that - I wanted acceptable quality sound at a reduced volume, whilst still being aware of external noises. I'd say these give an overall 30% reduction on external sound whilst riding the bike. By the time I have tried lots of earphones, I could have got a pair of the Etymotics, but in the interests of this forum, I am happy to sacrifice a few quid if it means sharing my experiences with others........

 

[sparkplug]

Have you considered custom earplugs with speakers (or Monitors as we call them).

Not cheap by any stretch of the imagination but they do cut out wind noise (because they block your ear up) and this allows you to play your music at a lower volume because it's not fighting the wind. It's also possible to plug these into your Autocom (or whatever system) if you want to.

The monitors are designed to work under a crash helmet and no electrical cable runs up into the earplug (it's a plastic tube) so you don't damage them when taking your helmet on and off. I don't know what our competitors do but that's true for our plugs...

DISCLAIMER: I sell these so am not impartial - I think they're great, they remove 80% more limescale than our nearest competitor etc etc

DISCLAIMER2: I'm not trying to sell you any (you're not in my area anyway ) just letting you know what your options are

 

[unhinged]

I use Etymotics albeit the 4-S. I bought them as a high end pair for listening to music at home. I don't use them on the bike very often due to the noise cancellation. With no music playing they're as good as a pair of ear plugs (if they're in correctly). With music playing at a medium level, I pretty much can't hear anything other than the low hum of wind noise when travelling over 70, oh, and the music. I've nigh on hit two emergency vehicles running red lights (them not me) only spotting them due to peripheral vision and wondering why all the other vehicles had stopped. Just to be clear, they isolate the noise, they don't have electronic noise cancellation. You can use them with autocom too (just like anything else I guess) you just need an adapter.

 

[fat johnny]

acs monitors

just got a pair of ACS (advanced comminications solutions) ,custom moulded in ear plugs with drivers, the audio quality from IPOD is F fantastic (i'm a live sound engineer) and the noise isolation is also excellent. However on bike there is a slight ringing about 1KHz. I think this may be a driver vibration. With audio on this is not noticable. However these are pretty expensive and with high levels of isolation from the ambient they might prove a bit dangerous. Anyway off to Morocco at the end of april and i'll post an update after 3 weeks and 3k miles. IMHO you get what you pay for and I'll take comfort any day.

 

[Egon]

Finally took the plunge at the weekend and bought a set of Etymotic ER6i's.
What can I say apart from bloody brilliant
They are like wearing conventional ear plugs keeping things quiet in the lid but having audible music coming through.
Would highly recommend them.

Cheers power2learn

I had never even heard of them before this thread.