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Comment by mythmon_ | Hacker News Reader

I very recently got a pair of QC35s. The noise cancelling was neat, but didn't seem that useful in every day situations. Then I took a flight with them, and they still didn't seem that interesting. Until I took them off for the first time after take off. I was amazed at how loud the plane suddenly become. Now I'm very impressed with how much of a difference they make, and will definitely be bringing with me on every flight.

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It is very helpful in office too. Just turning the noise cancellation on without any music. It cuts out the ever present noises like the hum from the HVAC, which I didn't even know was there.

and very quiet music is enough to even drown out conversations, when combined with the noise canceling. It's almost like magic.

I use them:

In car for long drives

In office

In bed when someone snores next to me

In bed when street outside is loud

On a boat when motoring

On every flight

This sounds like the beginning of a Dr Seuss

In the car sounds like it might cause problems. There is important information in sound and when you wear noise canceling headphones you are actively making yourself deaf, which classes as a disability that would normally require some extra training before you'd get your license, and that is with a person who is already trained to be more aware of other cues.

Deaf people don't need extra training before getting their license in most countries.

This also applies to the radio. I typically have my radio cranked up. Any time I turn it off, I'm astonished at the noises my car is making. It always occurs to me that I would probably notice mechanical problems earlier if I was used to just listening to the car so I could detect changes in what it sounds like. Then I say, "screw that" and crank the tunes back up.

They don't block 100% of sounds, far from it. They block rhythmical noises. So if a piece of metal would come off and scrape the road surface - I wouldn't hear it. But police sirens would be audible.

There are luxury cars than come with Bose's ANC built-in. They'd have the same problem if there was one.

Finally, I never use it in a city, just out on a long drives, where road surface is more ruff and listening a podcast via car system is more difficult than useful.

Don't use them in cars. That's incredibly irresponsible both to yourself/others in your car and those driving alongside you, not to mention illegal in a lot of places. You use audio cues far more often than you realize while driving.

They said when they're in a car - not when they're driving a car.

I once wondered what states have laws against headphones/earbuds and was astonished not only by how many places don't have laws, but how many that do have laws that specifically say its okay (or okay with one ear uncovered). Going in I expected to find near universal laws against it.

Yeah I think it's because most of the laws were written a few years ago, where in-car Bluetooth wasn't common but one-ear headsets were. Lawmakers probably didn't want to outright exclude phone use in the car, and figured having one ear in use was "good enough".

Most modern distraction laws (the ones actually written nowadays) are very thorough. WA just passed one last year where you essentially can't touch your phone while driving. BC has had one for a few years now which includes any non-fixed electronic device while the car is running.

I assume he meant as a passenger.

There aren't that much of cues when you are the only car in a highway (I use them as a passenger too, but mostly when I drive alone for a long distance, usually somewhere remote, listening a podcast).

As for cues, the vibration from road surface is still there and plenty of cars come with ANC built-in. These headphones don't block noise completely, things like police alarms, honks or speech are still very easy to hear. I can even hear the wind from AC vents (if it blows directly into ANC's mic's).

I doubt the claim of "plenty" of cars coming with ANC built in, but even if all cars came with it, that form of noise cancellation is to national safety standards, specifically for the use of being in a car while on the road. The ANC in Bose headphones are for an entirely different purpose so it's like comparing apples to oranges.

Furthermore, Bose, and basically all other ANC headphones work at isolating and cancelling off the low frequencies you'd typically find in plane engines, which are also most of the time the kinds of frequencies that are also used on a boring road trip where you're the only one on a long stretch of highway (your exact use case). Speech and honks and police alarms aren't things you'd expect to find in this scenario, but early warnings of your car breaking down, or things happening outside of your car that would affect your car do.

Seriously, stop using your headphones while driving. It's illegal in many places for a reason, and you're missing out on far more auditory cues than you realize because your brain is good at moving sensory information into the background when it doesn't deem it as important. Let your brain do its job, it's not that hard to listen to the podcast over your car's BT/AUX connection.

sleeping with them - I broke 5 pairs sleeping with them (well, QC20). I now use $5 earbuds from the local dollar store which are much less of a headache to replace.

Yeah I can't sleep on my sides with them.

Well, I sort of can if I find this odd position where I push them into pillow, but the foam pads did get permanently compressed a bit. Easy to change tho.

How did they fail for you? I had one QC25 fail just a month after warranty expired, but Bose replaced them for free - quite a common case of one side getting quieter/crackling when rotating them. QC35 seem to be build even more seriously (thicker band).

the earbud split along the seam. the moment there's a hairline fracture, the air comes whooshing in and there's an ear-splitting whistle. (again, QC20)

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