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I've used a bunch of these.. active, passive, even headphones for the shooting range.. but nothing seems to really be what I'd call quiet. I'm using them in the office, where people blast music, speak very loudly, and really have a party. Is it really an office? I'm not sure. But whatever it is, it's very loud.

Currently I use an AKG240mkII since I need to mix and do some minor composing from time to time. Of course the 240s are open back, so a lot of sound comes in by design. When things get really bad, I switch to sony's in ears that have active noise cancellation, which is not bad. But the sound quality is compromised and I can't do any audio work on them.

Has anyone here tried to find a seriously dead silent headphone that's accurate enough to do audio work on? I mean, it doesn't have to be stellar quality playback. AKG240 is good, but really it's just good enough, so that level of reproduction is okay. Maybe such a product doesn't exist yet, or there's no demand. I mean, if it's a studio monitor, you're in a studio or a recording environment, not a party zone right..

I've tried this one:
http://www.fullcompass.com/product/347231.html
Which wasn't bad. -29db rating, uses same tech as the gun earmuffs. Sound quality was good enough to work in. If this one had active noise canceling on top of all this, then it'd probably be super quiet.

I have an old pair of Shure in-ear monitors that I like a lot. They don't use active noise canceling, but if I have them on, it takes someone to touch my shoulder before I notice them. I used them on stage a long time ago, but find them perfect for work and airplanes now. I have an old model, the E2, but now they have some that have dual or triple drivers, etc. they're worth looking into. The soft black rubber surround they offer is the most comfortable in-ear experience I've ever had especially for longer periods of use, though they do include other choices like stiffer rubber, and crushable foam surrounds, each in several different sizes to fit your ears right.

well... pick your in-ear of choice... and put the gun muffs on top
that's how drummers do it (I've been told)

cheers, Tom

I went with audio technica's anc9.. couldn't bring myself to get Bose qc15.. We'll see. I have so many noise cancelling, noise muffling gadgets I'd probably be able to prescribe a specific headphone to specific types of noise. hehe.

btw, I'm currently using EX-29, which is a drummer's headphone built from what looks very similar to gun muffs, but with a driver built in. It's rated 29db which is quite high for passive muffs, but muffs are hard to evaluate because their efficacy largely depends on fit and seal. EX-29 is interesting because while they're muffs, the drivers actually have a pretty good response so I can do sound checks and do simple mixing on them without switching over to akg k240s.

astroman wrote:well... pick your in-ear of choice... and put the gun muffs on top
that's how drummers do it (I've been told)

cheers, Tom

Yes. This is good advice. Sometimes, if I want real quiet in the bus while commuting, I use solid silicon earplugs (for sleeping) and Peltor 3 on top of them. That is a quite solid combination

sealing one's ears completely for long periods of time invites a bloom of bacteria....

wow, silicon and peltor.. that's a lot of muffling. something like -40db? it's gotta be over -30db well over..

kensuguro wrote:wow, silicon and peltor.. that's a lot of muffling. something like -40db? it's gotta be over -30db well over..

Don't ever get focused on a single dB rating on hearing protection. Most all of them are highly unlinear. If I remember right, the Peltor 3 goes from something like 20something to 40something depending on the frequency (between 125 and 8000). So the total attenuation from such a combo likely is between ~40 and ~80 dB within that frequency range.

And yes, Gary is right, that one should not seal one's ears for extended periods of time.