Headphones recommendation
 

Hi all,

I'd like to start listening to music at work but sometimes it can get
pretty quiet and I don't want to disturb anyone else. I've looked into
it and seen that you can get headphones which attempt to cancel out
noise but they stop external sound getting in and don't seem to try and
stop their own generated sound from getting out, what I want is pretty
much the reverse, i.e. I want to avoid disturbing others around me but
want to know when someone comes up behind me and starts talking :)

Any suggestions?

TIA,

Peter.

Headphones recommendation
 

Peter Spikings wrote:
Hi all,

I'd like to start listening to music at work but sometimes it can get
pretty quiet and I don't want to disturb anyone else. I've looked into
it and seen that you can get headphones which attempt to cancel out
noise but they stop external sound getting in and don't seem to try and
stop their own generated sound from getting out, what I want is pretty
much the reverse, i.e. I want to avoid disturbing others around me but
want to know when someone comes up behind me and starts talking :)

Any suggestions?

TIA,

Peter.

Peter,
What you will need to do is buy headphones which are what are called
"closed designed" which means they let less sound out of the headphones
than the more common "open design" h'phones. The only draw back to
closed is that they generally don't sound as good as the open type so
you might have to spend a bit more to get the quality up a bit. I would
suggest you look at Sennheiser as they do a massive range of all types
of h'phones and you don't generally get crap sound with any of them.
hope this is of help.
Borosteve.

Headphones recommendation
 

On Tue, 2006-09-05 at 08:59 -0700, borosteve wrote:
Peter Spikings wrote:
Hi all,

I'd like to start listening to music at work but sometimes it can get
pretty quiet and I don't want to disturb anyone else. I've looked into
it and seen that you can get headphones which attempt to cancel out
noise but they stop external sound getting in and don't seem to try and
stop their own generated sound from getting out, what I want is pretty
much the reverse, i.e. I want to avoid disturbing others around me but
want to know when someone comes up behind me and starts talking :)

Any suggestions?

TIA,

Peter.

Peter,
What you will need to do is buy headphones which are what are called
"closed designed" which means they let less sound out of the headphones
than the more common "open design" h'phones. The only draw back to
closed is that they generally don't sound as good as the open type so
you might have to spend a bit more to get the quality up a bit. I would
suggest you look at Sennheiser as they do a massive range of all types
of h'phones and you don't generally get crap sound with any of them.
hope this is of help.
Borosteve.

I'll definitely look into that :)

Cheers,

Peter.

Headphones recommendation
 

On Tue, 05 Sep 2006 13:19:30 +0100, Peter Spikings wrote:

Hi all,

I'd like to start listening to music at work but sometimes it can get
pretty quiet and I don't want to disturb anyone else. I've looked into
it and seen that you can get headphones which attempt to cancel out
noise but they stop external sound getting in and don't seem to try and
stop their own generated sound from getting out, what I want is pretty
much the reverse, i.e. I want to avoid disturbing others around me but
want to know when someone comes up behind me and starts talking :)

Any suggestions?

Closed headphones.
You should look into ones at a music shop, those that are commonly used for recording
vocals are often the closed type so as to not have spill from the headphone get into
the vocal track.

Or go retro and pick up a Pioneer SE-205 or something.

Or just default to one of the many workhorses like the Pioneer SE-450, lots of DJs
used it in the 90s. I got two off ebay to monitor at my computers to block them out.
They are rather directional and at moderate levels do not leak very much at all.

-Mikkel

Headphones recommendation
 

"Mikkel Breiler" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 05 Sep 2006 13:19:30 +0100, Peter Spikings
wrote:

Hi all,

I'd like to start listening to music at work but sometimes it can get
pretty quiet and I don't want to disturb anyone else. I've looked into
it and seen that you can get headphones which attempt to cancel out
noise but they stop external sound getting in and don't seem to try and
stop their own generated sound from getting out, what I want is pretty
much the reverse, i.e. I want to avoid disturbing others around me but
want to know when someone comes up behind me and starts talking :)

Any suggestions?

Closed headphones.
You should look into ones at a music shop, those that are commonly used
for recording
vocals are often the closed type so as to not have spill from the
headphone get into
the vocal track.

Or go retro and pick up a Pioneer SE-205 or something.

Or just default to one of the many workhorses like the Pioneer SE-450,
lots of DJs
used it in the 90s. I got two off ebay to monitor at my computers to block
them out.
They are rather directional and at moderate levels do not leak very much
at all.

-Mikkel

I have two sets of encloded headphones for just the reason you give. AKG
K270 and Koss Pro4AA. The Koss give better sound insulation, but are
heavier, and sound more coloured, the AKGs are excellent.

S.

--
http://audiopages.googlepages.com

Headphones recommendation
 

On Tue, 05 Sep 2006 13:19:30 +0100, Peter Spikings
wrote:

Hi all,

I'd like to start listening to music at work but
sometimes it can get pretty quiet and I don't want to
disturb anyone else. I've looked into it and seen that
you can get headphones which attempt to cancel out noise
but they stop external sound getting in and don't seem
to try and stop their own generated sound from getting
out, what I want is pretty much the reverse, i.e. I want
to avoid disturbing others around me but want to know
when someone comes up behind me and starts talking :)

In sound theory, there is something called the reciprocity law. As applied
to your situation, it means that any headphones that let you hear others
will radiate some reproduced sound.

You could obtain the effect you desire by mixing the output of a micophone
into the music that you are listening to, and using tightly-sealed
headphones, perhaps IEMs.

Headphones recommendation
 

Mikkel Breiler wrote:
On Tue, 05 Sep 2006 13:19:30 +0100, Peter Spikings
wrote:

Hi all,

I'd like to start listening to music at work but sometimes it can get
pretty quiet and I don't want to disturb anyone else. I've looked
into it and seen that you can get headphones which attempt to cancel
out noise but they stop external sound getting in and don't seem to
try and stop their own generated sound from getting out, what I want
is pretty much the reverse, i.e. I want to avoid disturbing others
around me but want to know when someone comes up behind me and
starts talking :)

Any suggestions?


The noise cancelling headphones we tried at a Bose shop worked very well
with long, continuous noises but failed with any short lasting, unexpected
sounds like speech. Not sure what they were like with letting the sound out
though as we both had them on...

Les

--
Remove Frontal Lobes to reply direct.

"These people believe the souls of fried space aliens inhabit their
bodies and hold soup cans to get rid of them. I should care what they
think?"...Valerie Emmanuel

Les Hemmings a.a #2251 SA