Active vs. passive nc earbuds
 

Some years back I had a pair of Sony active nc earbuds (don't remember which anymore) that have long since died from frayed cable syndrome. Those were nice but were always falling out of my ears no matter which tips I used. The nr was OK but not great. Since then I've used both over- and on-ear active nr cans. Now I'm thinking of trying some of the newer buds.

Has anyone experienced active and passive earbuds on long flights? Bose QC20 and Etymotic ER4-PT for example. The Bose buds are battery powered active nc types, while the Etymotics claim -35 db of passive ambient suppression. The Etymotics are more like ear plugs with a sound driver; they rest deeper into the ear canal than the Bose. The Ety's are "completely sealed": I wonder how that is in the cabin?

Substantial discussion here:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...earphones.html

Yes, thanks, read through that one. Not too much on sealed in-ear vs. in-ear with active nr. I did find a few threads elsewhere (Google "etymotic airplane" or similar) most of which were quite old and not much information re: on a plane. I did find two tidbits: cabin pressure changes may not be much of a problem, and it does seem like the Ety's and similar provide a greater degree of sound blocking, although being able to hear around you is important to some as in asking for a drink or choosing chicken or beef (or nothing!). If I try a pair in the next three weeks (I'm slated for 15,000 miles or so) I will post about the experience.

use passive tight earbuds for several years Once I started, gave my Bose away since the noise was so much lower. You do neednto experiment with fit and know how to put them in.

On long trips I find in-the-ear earbuds are more fatiguing than over the ear NC cans. So for me, they don't work on longer flights and I prefer my Bose phones. I find for short flights, they're fine, but at home when I wear headphones it's usually over-the-ear kind as well, not sure why, I suppose they are more comfortable.

For me, I am in the passive camp (my thoughts are in this thread on my Westone monitors). Custom in-ear passive headphones win on all fronts, as passive reduction is vastly superior to active reduction (18dB with Bose QuietComfort closed-can versus 25-27 with custom thermoplastic in-ear monitors). Non-custom in ear can also be superior to active reduction, but it is dependent on construction.

Combining the two may offer additional protection in a non-custom bud, but I'm not sure of how much additional protection it offers. Additionally, I would wonder about how well it controls cabin noise beyond air/engine noise -- namely people talking, PA announcements, in-flight meal trolleys, and so on.

I work in heavy manufacturing and can attest that active reduction is generally not acceptable as a permissible exposure limit control (at least that is why our industrial hygiene folks told me at a previous company). Given that I'm trying to protect my hearing, I'm comfortable with their advice.

Cheers.

For long flights, especially when sleep is involved, I'm the exact opposite, except I'm using custom in-ears. I don't really like the clamping pressure of Bose cans, but I didn't like their ANC aviation [pilot] headsets either. When I tried Koss buds and just a standard ear bud, I found them to be quite uncomfortable as well.

Do you find ear plugs uncomfortable as well (e.g. you don't like in-ear pressure), or are earbuds what bother your ears?

Cheers.

it's the earbuds that bother my ears after awhile.

The problem with headphones is they don't accommodate much head movement when you're resting your head on a headrest...it's not a perfect world :)

I've been pretty happy with the passive, in ear canal style of headphones for a while now. They're definitely not perfect, but I do find they do a pretty reasonable job of muting the cabin environment. Regular ear buds aren't going to work for it, they need to be the type that seal into your ear canal. But I also really dislike the big over the ear headphones, they've always felt hot and uncomfortable for me.

Personally, I can't really sleep well with either style myself, but I also don't sleep well on a plane to begin with.

Unfortunately, on my last flight I discovered that the headphones I've been using have ceased functioning, so now I need to find another pair. Unfortunately, I don't think the Sony EX71's I had are made anymore, so I'll have to find something different (I'm not really looking at spending Ety prices myself).

I moved from the Ety's to the Bose QC20i's about 6 months ago. I think it comes down to how comfortable you can get from a fit and general tolerance perspective on the in-ears that require a proper seal. I struggled with more then an hour with the Ety's in where I think I can go much longer (and sleep better) with the Bose. I've been positively surprised by the battery life of the Bose also.

custom iems are the way to go. Great audio quality, great passive sound isolation, extremely comfortable, and no fatigue.

for sleeping try the Howard Leight Max Lite or Lazer Light ear plugs. I live by them in hotels and on long flights. I've been much less satisfied with other brands.

My over-ear Nokia BH-910's are not top of the line but they do a fair job of reducing low-frequency noise while still allowing me to hear louder conversation nearby and announcements. But on my flights this week they were again uncomfortable after an hour or two. I wear glasses; the earpieces get squeezed by the phones. I can't see the monitor in front of me without them, so I'm stuck there.

The Etymotic HF-3's will arrive today. They have an app called Awareness that uses the mic in the cord to listen and feed outside sound above a settable threshold level into the phones--can it keep the screaming kids out but let me hear announcements? Next week and a half I"ll rack up about 24 air-hours and 6 train-hours, so here comes a good opportunity for test and comparison.

I use Etymotics with the triple flange ear tips.
http://www.amazon.com/Etymotic-Resea.../dp/B006WT2AD8
I find them the most comfortable and best sealing.

No - the kid will emit much higher db than the announcement.

First I thought the Awareness to be a cool app, but after using it for a while it's just annoying.

The HF-3 is an axcellent bud - if you insert it correctly, the SQ will be excellent and balanced and the noise isolation is topnotch.

The only negative I would say with the Etymotic's is the join from the cable to to the earbud is very prone to fraying back to an exposed wire.

I got mine replaced twice under warranty (the first after 11 months, the second about 18 months) before finally deciding that it was a design fault and the store generously gave me full credit credit which I used to buy the Bose QC20is.

Or, you can go for the best of both worlds.

(I have no affiliation with this company, I just drool at the concept:)

http://www.averysound.com/as.bose.html

After the outbound leg, I agree with WilcoRoger. Awareness is kinda cool but I was bothered by the scratching noise when I toggled the pause/play buttons and the mic was turned on by the app.

The Ety's were much more comfortable than the Nokia over-the-ear NR phones for a 9+ hour flight. The Ety's, when fully inserted, are a little difficult to remove, tho. SQ was quite good, and much better than the Nokia's under noisy in-air conditions. Haven't really evaluated in a normal ambient sound environment. Sure couldn't hear the FA's: had to rely on memory and cues like seeing the food or bev cart to reply to them. No way I can hear the announcements when not plugged into the media system.

The biggest downside also is found on most in-ear buds: cable noise. When you touch the cables above the sliding retaining clip a loud scratching noise is generated. Wonder if active in-ear would fix that?

I found it best to insert only far enough so that you can grab the ends and not the wires to get them out. There seemed to be a range of insertion depth that worked well.

Some more segments coming up and will post again later this week.

Landed at home port yesterday after another about 18 h from hotel to home. The Etymotic earbuds were great--wore them all the way in-air and for part of the time traipsing through terminals.

My ears are a little asymmetric: the left ear leaks a little more noise and requires more attention to seating the buds. This would be a good reason to go to custom tips...

I think these are not so great for jogging/running since I hear a loud thud with each footfall (or could that be my heavy feet...) when walking around. Anyway, I will leave the over-the-ear phones at home next time.

A comment about sound quality: very good for earbuds, abou t the best I've heard, but not up to reference phones (no surprises here). The response sounds fairly flat to me--the best overall performance was obtained with the source (iPhone 5 in this case) equalization set to "flat" or just off. Bass is clear and crisp without any hot spots or booming effects. Mids are strong, and highs are present but not shrill.

The quality is best, of course, with low ambient noise but on the plane it is still very good, just turn it up a little. The highs are clear enough that I was reminded that I wanted to re-rip a bunch of my CDs into a lossless (flac or something) codec instead of MP3, which I used years ago when first moving my collection off of discs: I can really hear the typical high-frequency distortion from high-compression codecs but the few lossless tracks I do have are like hearing the fog lift.

Anyway, enough said about this. I'm switching to the buds until something better comes along that can combine comfort with acceptable or better sound.

Good that you like the ety's! I'm a convert (though on flights I alternate with the QC15). For daily use - unbeatable. The plastics flangs provide the best noise isolation while the rubber-foam tip is the most comfy (I use 3rd party foamies)