Looking for combination hearing protectors/headphones?

Cleve

Super Member
Now that I have my very nice personal audio player, I thought to use it while mowing lawns on Saturday. So I put on earbuds that came with my player, then placed my hearing protection ear muffs over my ears. It worked ok, but I had problems with the ear buds popping out as I rode, and also the fidelity of the ear buds is less than stellar.

Does anyone make a combination over the ear muffs combined with headphones? I had seen combination AM/FM radio/ear muffs years ago. Or do some nice over the ear headphones (Grados, Koss, etc) offer enough sealing to be adequate ear protection while mowing? Thanks in advance for the help.
 
I'd suggest you check out Dave Clark headphones for the protection aspects. This is what is considered standard for pilots of military and small aircraft. I've tried them for hi-fi work and they're not the best for that application, though. Some playback devices will have problems with the impedance of these things.

Finding the best tradeoff of fidelity and noise protection is where you'll have the biggest problem. I'd suggest you check out any of the noise canceling headphones that are 'cover the ear' rather than 'sit on the ear' types.

Personally, I've come to love my Bose noise canceling headphones for flying. It tunes out the background roar on long trips and I can use them with or without an iPod or other music source. There are other brands, too, like this so this isn't a full endorsement but its what works for me.

Cheers,

David
 
Hmmm... as long as they provide good enough isolation so that one doesn't turn up the music that much louder to overcome any additional ambient noise.
 
In response to some of the bad reviews on Musicians Friend:

-I think they sound decent. My headphone reference is a pair of Grado SR-60's (not TOTL, but good sound none the less). No surprise that they don’t sound as good as the Grado’s, but still listenable.

-Build quality seems fine. Some report of theirs falling apart. Had mine a year with no problems so far(and I sweat).

-The level of isolation is ideal for my needs. I can hear my drums SLIGHTLY (and the room is very reflective). I run the drums through a mixer so I can hear them some when I practice.
 
Combination hearing protector and headphone, is that an oxymoron? :scratch2:

Wow, whoareu99, with all that amplification available to you, I'd certainly have to wear them just driving by your place:smoke:.

Cheers,

David
 
I've got a set of Peltor ANR300 active noise reduction headphones I use whilst mowing the yard. I bought mine a couple of years ago from woot.com and it doesn't look like the model is available any longer. They may not have the best of sound, but they do a good job on the noise reduction.
 
Check out these Sennheiser HD280 Pro headphones. They attenuate 32 db of ambient noise and sound great. I have a pair at work and another pair at home. :music:

http://www.sennheiserusa.com/newsite/productdetail.asp?transid=004974

The Sennheiser site lists them at $199.95 but I bought my first pair in 2002 for $100 and the second pair a couple of years later for $85.

I also read somewhere on the web that Mark Knopfler used them to engineer one of his CD's, although I can't remember which one. I believe it was Ragpicker's Dream.
 
Wow, whoareu99, with all that amplification available to you, I'd certainly have to wear them just driving by your place:smoke:.

Cheers,

David

I rarely use the big stuff anywhere remotely near its potential, it's too easy to get a visit from "the man". :thumbsdn:
 
Check out these Sennheiser HD280 Pro headphones. They attenuate 32 db of ambient noise and sound great. I have a pair at work and another pair at home. :music:

http://www.sennheiserusa.com/newsite/productdetail.asp?transid=004974

The Sennheiser site lists them at $199.95 but I bought my first pair in 2002 for $100 and the second pair a couple of years later for $85.

I also read somewhere on the web that Mark Knopfler used them to engineer one of his CD's, although I can't remember which one. I believe it was Ragpicker's Dream.

I second the HD280s. I use them for mowing the lawn, and they work great. I got mine for about $70 off Amazon with free shipping. Pretty good sounding, too. I find that the bass is kind of nonexistant on the lawnmower, but perhaps that's because it is drowned out by the motor. Oh well. I would say you can't go wrong with those for the price. :thmbsp:
 
I second the HD280s. I use them for mowing the lawn, and they work great. I got mine for about $70 off Amazon with free shipping. Pretty good sounding, too. I find that the bass is kind of nonexistant on the lawnmower, but perhaps that's because it is drowned out by the motor. Oh well. I would say you can't go wrong with those for the price. :thmbsp:


After weighing the suggestions, those are the phones I ordered. I've always like Sennheiser's phones. I would have considered Koss, but their website provides no specs on noise reduction.

Got them for $99 at Amazon, which is half the list at Sennheiser's website. Thanks for the help, guys. I'll let you know how I like them.
 
In my opinion, the low end on the HD280's is very good. I hope you like them. :thmbsp:
 
Carl, thanks for the recommendation. This is the second week I've worn them mowing, and they're great. Almost as much noise reduction as my ear muffs. And they sound good too - very solid bass.


It's a heckuva lot more fun mowing and listening to some good tunes. Thanks again!
 
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