I live in southwest ohio.
everything I do is boring.
I use the iphone stock earbuds because they don’t block shit for shit and are free basically.
Totally deaf people can still ride a bike safely. You just need to look around a little more. therefore, if people riding in headphones make you mad you are an asshole.
Unless they never look around and take the whole lane and can’t hear my bell and I get stuck behind them for 2 blocks. Fuck those people.
Maybe it’s the shape of my ears, but wind noise is awful. As it is I need cat ears . I’d like to see some wind tunnel testing done, but I have a feeling they make your head more aero. Less turbulent air along the side of your head!
Some earbuds did make it worse. The sealed ones I’ve used lowered all of that exterior noise and allowed me to listen to podcasts or music at a low level. Never one ear. That’s guaranteeing hearing loss. I really try to protect my hearing.
I don’t get the sealed ones (I assume you’re talking about the ones with a silicone thing on the end that is supposed to shut out sound). I can’t handle the amount of noise caused by the vibration of the cord moving around or touching things. I never use them and I’m confused as to why they’re the popular type of headphone now. O also don’t like that I can’t hear ambient noise when they’re in.
Look, Im sure ya’ll are responsible with your ear buds and awareness, but anecdotally 99% of the folks I have to pass who are using ear buds are dead to the world and can’t hear me or my bell from a foot away.
weed speaker lyfe
Fair point, but as a counterpoint I rode without a bell for 15 years and rarely had trouble passing people when I needed to. Not to say that having a bell hasn’t made things nicer.
Edit:. I shouldn’t make this conversation about bells.
Someone should find a blog post from an indignant jogger that gets scared by passing cyclists because their music is too loud to hear anything.
Route the wire over and behind your ear to cut out the cable noise. Some of them are designed to be worn that way and others are dumb.
ATMO, a completely open earbud, used loud enough to be heard over road/wind noise == loud enough to cause hearing damage long-term.
A lot of the copycat ones you’re complaining about aren’t great, but it’s worth trying out a good balanced-armature in-ear driver like Etymotic hf5. Serious “I never heard those details” level of quality in those. Isolation from ambient noise is part of the bargain.
I used to have an earlier version of those Etymotics. God damn, amazing.
talk me out of trying to make a wind baffle with a 3d printer. I think if I can put some dots/ diagonals on the straps I can reduce wind noise enough without looking like a huge dorko.
We will never try to talk you out of tinkering. Do it and keep us updated.
Save me from my Elvis impersonation.
I have historically done most of my motorcycle riding with Etymotic earplugbuds. I am switching over to Bluetooth headset/helmet speakers and it’s convenient not to be futzing around with the adjustment of the earplugbuds or wires but man do I miss the noise isolation. Never really been bothered by not being able to hear on a motorcycle, only time it’s a problem is when some chucklehead wants to bullshit.
On a bicycle I guess I must just ride angry enough (and not far enough) to not want earbuds. I agree with Todd that most earbud using cyclists around here seem highly oblivious, but as long as they look over their shoulder at the right times I guess it doesn’t make a huge difference
I need something to drown out co-workers’ conversations in our glorious open-plan office. Came across this article:
Anyone tried the ones listed? Other recommendations? Will be using primarily with my iPhone.
I had a set of Bose QC15 for ~7 years before they finally shit the bed. I found the “active” noise cancelling in that particular model to be fine albeit overkill for the office, but great for travel.
I replaced them with Sony MDR7506 (closed ear, no noise cancel) about a year ago and honestly don’t miss the noise cancelling.
I work with more shitheads than previously thought possible, and I bought basically the cheapest possible noise-cancelling headphones and they’ve been fine for over a year of daily, multi-hour use. The sound is fine, especially if you’re mostly listening to podcasts and audiobooks. I seriously doubt that sound quality jumps dramatically for anything less than $75 more. Many of the reviews of these rate them higher than Bose (an admittedly low bar).
[quote=Rentable Faxmachine]I need something to drown out co-workers’ conversations in our glorious open-plan office. Came across this article:
Anyone tried the ones listed? Other recommendations? Will be using primarily with my iPhone.[/quote]
I wore out a pair of the HD280. The build wasn’t as good as my Sony MDR 7506.
I scored an abandoned pair of MDR V6 in an office move that needed a little rehab. On really noisy days, I’ll wear those with a pink noise generator playing.
I’ve been using Etymotic MK5 for years. They make music and also podcasts sound just fine, and block out a lot of background noise.
unsolicited but related: when working at home I use Grado somethingsomething120s and anything that makes pink noise. Great for tuning out the world / my cats.