| Author | Message | ||
     Timebandit |
Anybody have experience with them? Do they work? Do you like them? How much do they cost? Where do you get them? | ||
| C818919 |
I have surefire one I wear. Expensive...but I never ride without them. | ||
| Court |
I had mine made by an Audiologist at Carnegie Hall. . . . Same drill . . . not cheap, but I've been using them for 3 years and they are fabulous. Mine are fitted and have speakers. I suspect, rereading your post, you may be looking for active noise reduction which I've not tried. Mine were about $400 which included a complete (good idea if you are over 40) ear exam. If you are near NYC. . . I can recommend this guy. His office is 200 West 57th Street, Suite 910 (At 7th Avenue - About 4 Blocks from Columbus Circle) New York New York 10019 Any good Audiologist can surely hook you up. | ||
| Timebandit |
what kind are they? i always ride with foam earplugs, but i'm hoping to find something that would work better at getting rid of the engine/wind/exhaust noise while still allowing me to hear important things in the environment ... like people, cars, sirens, etc. i was thinking that (smart) active noise cancellation might end up being better than (dumb) foam earplugs. i'm not really looking for something to work with an MP3 player because I don't listen to tunes on the ride. i don't want the distraction. | ||
| Bigevildoer |
I like Mighty Plugs. Work like a charm and stay put, even when sweating alot in higher temperatures. Last about a month before they start turning a little brittle from constant use. http://earplugsonline.com/ | ||
| Zac4mac |
When I was working at the HD/Buell shop, a customer turned me on to several pair of Skull Screws. Never found an earplug I liked until I tried this one. They're actually comfortable for several hours at a time.  | ||
| Sparky |
I'm looking for an alternative to foam ear plugs, The main problem I've noticed using those with the S1 is that when idling, there is a heavy low bass noise that reverberates in my skull and is only noticed when sitting on the seat. But when I lift my rear off the seat, the low heavy reverberating bass sound disappears. Henrik, a medical specialist and Bueller, said that the phenomenon is due to bone conduction of low frequency vibrations from the seat up thru the spine to the skull/ear area. Foam ear plugs seem to really amplify this low frequency noise. But note, this is not a problem with the 1125R which doesn't have the same low frequency vibe affect that's characteristic of H-D's air cooled lumps. So, if those Skull Screws can keep the noise out without amplifying low frequency boominess while sitting on the seat of my tuber, I'm in. | ||
| Timebandit |
When you stuff in foam ear plugs, that attenuates air-conduction hearing but does nothing to attenuate bone-conduction hearing. It's not that the foam earplugs amplify bone-conduction, it's that they attenuate air-conduction so well that bone-conduction, which is normally far less obvious, becomes much more noticeable. If you're getting lots of BC through your seat, one possible way to help may involve getting better seat padding. Or maybe a gel insert? Part of the reason that I'm interested in an active noise-suppression headset is because they are reportedly quite effective at reducing droning-types of low frequency noise from things like jet engines, rumbling exhausts, and wind. They're far less effective at attenuating high frequency noise. I was hoping that someone who has experience with them could offer their opinions about the active setups. | ||
| Timebandit |
Those Skull Screws look scary -- and perfectly evil -- like they're an implement of torture. Now I'm starting to think about racks, iron maidens, pits and pendulums... | ||
| Zac4mac |
The Skull Screws aren't that different from other foam earplugs. Big difference is the hard core you hold to insert/remove. You don't roll it either, so no transferring dirt/grime from your fingers to your ears. Hold it by the little end, wet the pointy end in your mouth and they slide right in I still prefer over-the-ear pods for working or shooting. Z | ||
| Mke |
I've got the Etymotic Research ER7-MC3. They are earbuds in the sense that they are earphones. You can play music through them. :-) But they go inside your ear the same way earplugs do. I love them. They even work well when I don't play music. They come with several ear inserts, and take a bit to get used to because of how they fit into the ear canal. When I ride my 1125r with a Jardine RT-5, if I put them in correctly, I can't even hear it. But I know everyone else can.  The nice thing is you can adjust their position and let in as much noise as you want....If you're concerned about hearing traffic and sirens. | ||
| Rpm4x4 |
The best noise recuction ear buds Ive used is the skull candy inked. $14 at Target. My XB with the latus pipe had a deep tone the hurt my ears with extended riding. I tried all kinds of plugs and stuff. Nothing compared to the skull candy inked buds. They sound good too. My 1125 with the Rt1 exhaust does not have that painfull tone so now I use the Skull candy Titans. They have a larger speaker for more full sound but do not block the noise as well. Both are awesome but slightly different. Hope that helps. | ||
| Nuts4mc |
an article from Web Bike World...(they also rate helmets by weight and interior noise) http://www.webbikeworld.com/Earplugs/earplugs.htm scroll down in the article some interesting feedback +1 on the Skull candy RPM... Note: ear "phones" are against the law out hear in the left coast... but they allow helmet speakers... and deaf people to drive... | ||
| Wastegate |
Surefire Sonic Defenders are reasonable and allow normal conversation. http://www.surefire.com/tactical-equipment/earpro- products.html (Message edited by Wastegate on May 17, 2012) | ||
| Timebandit |
I guess a lot of people don't understand what I meant by "active" noise-cancelling buds. Lots of people are recommending in-ear music speakers that only offer passive noise protection by plugging the ear canal. Active noise reduction buds don't have speakers that play music. They have a microphone that listens for ambient noise and a speaker that produces out of phase noise to cancel it out. By definition, these devices have to have an electronic box incorporated into the design to do the signal processing. | ||
| Nuts4mc |
see my post above from web bike world ...off to the right a unit from Phillips http://www.webbikeworld.com/r4/phillips-noise-canc eling-earphones/ | ||
| Pariah |
does nothing to attenuate bone-conduction hearing. Look, just don't have a boner while riding.  Seriously, though, what's wrong with off-the-shelf Heros plugs? They work great (perhaps a little too great) for me. Active noise control as you describe it is hard to pull off. Typically, higher frequency spectral components don't get as well attenuated because conventional linear predictive filtering kinda sucks (ARMA, Kalman, what have you). But, you never know what they think of next... Kalman is after all, still alive: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_E._Kálmán | ||
| Iamarchangel |
Foam EAR works for me. The other kinds either expand and give me a headache or slide out in the heat and give me a headache. About 30 years in steel factories and I still have all my hearing. | ||
| Timebandit |
I've got a giant box of foam EAR plugs that's probably got 144 packaged units inside. It's what I use as my standard plugs. I'd rather have something that doesn't non-selectively reject all content regardless of frequency, to the point that when I try to attenuate road noise I also have to sacrifice hearing anything useful. The fact that HF spectral components don't get attenuated by active reduction is exactly what makes active noise reduction desirable. What I really want is a high pass filter that rejects LF content/noise from exhaust, wind, etc., but passes midband & HF content so that I can still hear speech, sirens, etc. Digital signal processing has been around long enough that somebody has to have figured out that what riders really need is a selective passband active filter that allows midband frequencies to pass so that you can still hear speech, while rejecting the common types of noise that generate rider fatigue. As far as DSP goes, this is a really simple filtration task. I'm surprised nobody's marketing the solution. | ||
| Pariah |
As far as DSP goes, this is a really simple filtration task. I'm surprised nobody's marketing the solution Well, I think to make it a "simple" filtration task (using a straightforward bandpass filter) you would need to insert a microphone, LNA, A/D convertor, DSP, D/A convertor and amp followed by a speaker between the ear opening and the ear drum. You'd have to place the whole system in a passive housing that would block out all sounds that would otherwise impinge on the ear drum through natural means. This way, the rider only hears what he or she wishes to hear, assuming those sounds occur outside the frequency band you are filtering out. From an implementation standpoint, this is like a sophisticated hearing aid, which themselves don't require the extra bulk of passive sound insulation (patient is already basically deaf). I think the cost would be prohibitive. But active noise control doesn't require the passive blocking of sound. It would use a speaker that generates a sound signal ("anti-noise") which completely counteracts the undesirable sound entering the ear. To do that, you aren't using a normal filter (as you would above). You need something to synthesize a signal without delay, so you can't just filter the signal you microphone, process it, then send it to the speaker. You need an algorithm with predictive qualities. | ||
| Craigsmoney |
Noise canceling ear buds??? I thought they have been around for ever. I know I have a good Bose Aviation headset with noise canceling. It works great, however 1000 bucks is pretty expensive. I would imagine that a good set of ear buds would cost a couple hundred. | ||
| Pariah |
What I really want is a high pass filter that rejects LF content/noise from exhaust, wind, etc., but passes midband & HF content so that I can still hear speech, sirens, etc. BTW, there are significant spectral components of the noise at higher frequencies which are also damaging. The damn noise is basically white, another complication. | ||
| Iamarchangel |
So, EAR is good. | ||
| Zac4mac |
My concern with Active sets, is there's still all that audio pressure. I have doubts to perfect 180 degree phase shift. 178* is gonna do damage and you won't know it. | ||
| Milt |
All that noise really makes your hearing better - you can clearly hear that high pitched buzz that nobody else hears. | ||
| Xodot |
All that noise really makes your hearing better - you can clearly hear that high pitched buzz that nobody else hears and drowns out the annoying sound of your kids asking you for stuff.  } | ||
| Cravacor |
Does noise cancellation technology reduce the sound pressure to your eardrums or just make your brain think the sound isn't there? My main interest is reducing sound pressure. The highest reduction factor I have seen is around 32 dB, which if you have a LOUD exhaust still leaves over 80 dB at the eardrum, which is still nasty. | ||
| Pariah |
As far as I can tell, there are two kinds of pressure that the eardrum can experience, namely, static and dynamic. Static pressure would be something like atmospheric pressure or cabin pressure in an airplane... you don't hear this sort of pressure, but you can feel it. Dynamic pressure is anything with a frequency content above dc (0 Hz), and this can be heard (for humans in the range of about 20Hz to 20kHz). There is no distinction in my mind between this dynamic pressure and sound. They are one and the same thing. So perfect noise cancellation technology would cancel out all noise (and therefore all pressure on the eardrum induced by this noise). It is hard to cancel out higher frequency noise from a signal processing standpoint, and I think the imperfect reduction factor is due to these limitations in what is feasible. Intuitively, I think the problem is that noise cancellation requires a predictive algorithm. The higher frequency the noise, the faster the algorithm must be, and it starts to look like a differentiator (and rapid changes in the signal produce large outputs that cause the electronics to saturate, or, if we are dealing with digital hardware, out-of-range issues, particularly for fixed-point DSPs). (Message edited by pariah on May 21, 2012) | ||
| Iamarchangel |
^ or an inexpensive solution to the problem such as foam ear plugs. Sheesh. |
