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Comment by HPsquared | Hacker News Reader

Noise cancelling headphones have been a revelation. I can now work in an open plan office without blasting music etc in my ears. I can drive my old cheap car on the highway without lots of annoying noise. Etc etc. The benefits are many.

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driving with headphones, especially noise-cancelling, is pretty concerning. you might be blocking an ambulance making lots of "annoying noise," (and yes, they do take the highway) so maybe invest in better seals for your doors and windows?

It's basically like driving a luxury car with lots of noise insulation and double glazing.

Everything is reduced by about 30 dB, especially low-frequency road and engine noise. Sirens etc are still perfectly audible as there is less background noise.

You can get a license when deaf, but to be honest my AirPods pro didn't dampen the sound as much as my current car does, so thats a red herring.

No, you won't be blocking the noise of an ambulance with noise-canceling headphones, that's not how noise-cancelling technology works. They only block persistent sounds, which an ambulance siren isn't as it changes pitch rapidly.

It's illegal to drive with headphones on let alone noise cancelling ones in many states. Some have exceptions for one earbud being in for phone calls. One notable state with no exceptions at all is of course California. See also Ohio, Maryland, Louisiana and more.

edit: this makes me wonder about deaf drivers... what is the intent of the law here?

What about a car horn? It feels insanely dangerous to use noise cancellation whilst driving.

I fully understand that noise canceling DSP algos lend themselves fully to inverting and muxing repetitive background noise like airplane noise, not sirens, but the callous, selfish effort to muffle the outside world when you're operating a multiple ton machine, often in close vicinity of other said machines, just because you don't like the sound, is problematic.

It is illegal to wear headphones while driving covering both ears in many states in USA.

Someone told me that noise cancellation gave them tinnitus, and some weeks later out of cheer curiosity I was looking into how people who lose some of their hearing can get it back, and it turns out, when you have hearing loss, your brain / ear tries to adapt as much as possible, and you essentially could get tinnitus, its your brain trying to fill in the quiet. So if you've got any sort of hearing loss, I would take that into consideration when trying out noise cancellation. This is of course anecdotal as heck and a conclusion I drew on my own, but it made too much sense to me.

Either way, just posting this as a potential warning, if you use any noise cancellation, its not the technologies fault, its your brain trying to fill in the weirdly quiet bits its not hearing. Thankfully a lot of these noise cancelling headsets you can just not turn on the feature and they're just as good.

This gave me chills for a second. I extensively have active noise cancelling on with no music playing. Several hours a day. After a quick search I couldn't find any good results on this topic. I feel like you should provide some links or anything on that topic? I'd be glad to look into this.

I don't usually listen to silence as there is still a slight hiss from the headphones regardless. Brown noise is my preference for "null sound".

As a counterproduct, I recently discovered noise-cancelling earplugs for musicians. They work like headphones except that they don't generate sound, only reduce some frequencies. Great for people with sensitive hearing.

I can second that, love mine. No more tinnitus-like noises from fatigued ears after concerts or the cinema. And they even help with acoustics somewhat when they arent ideal at the venue, like at festivals or Nolan movies ;)

> I can drive my old cheap car on the highway without lots of annoying noise.

I admit I do this, but I'm conscious about using only a so-so noise canceling. Reducing even 30% of tire noise is a bliss and greatly reduces fatigue. With top-shelf Sony or Bose stuff it would be quite unsafe for everyone involved.

As a passenger (on the road and on flights), the full canceling is a game changer.

I find too many of noise cancelling headphones cause 'stuffy ear' feeling for me. I have yet to find a pair that doesn't cause me that discomfort.

I love my Samsung Buds Live for that. They are shaped like beans and dont go into your ear but into the "fold" in front of it. Naturally they dont block as much noise as normal buds or headphones but the noise canceling is still good and they feel so much better especially when you are using them for long stretches ie. on long flights or similar. I guess its mostly about letting the inner ear breathe.

I had this same problem... both the AirPods Pro and Max gave me a "pressurized" feeling I wasn't comfortable with. I found the 2nd Gen Pros to be significantly more comfortable, not sure why - your milage may vary.

Any recommendation for best noise cancelling headphones? I'm looking at bose quiet comfort 45 or Sony WH-1000XM5, but I can't decide.

I love my XM5s. I mow with them on, I row with them on, I take Zoom calls and phone calls with them on, they work great. I love the pass thru mode to hear ambient noises too.

I have the Sony, but the previous gen. Also had the Bose 25 and 35.

I prefer the Sony personally I feel like their ANC is a bit better.

and when I was living in an apartment in a big city it made possible to work between all the car noise and apartments being restored in my building

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