IEM external noise reduction?

[Charlie Foxtrot]

I'm looking to buy a set of Shure or similar IEM headphones to use on the motorbike. Simply because i can't justify what some companies charge for bike specific headphones. But external noise reduction is obviously important. I can't see anything their website that states what db external muting they provide.

So over to you rockers and rollers. What IEM for ipod and what ear protection can i expect?

[Jazzy Jefferson]

I sell pro audio, I am not aware of any noise cancelling in ear monitors.
Headphones... yes. IEMs... no.

The Shure SE series is very good, however "sound isolating" is not noise cancellation.

Would you really want noise cancelling when out and about on a bike? Personally, I think I'd want to hear what was going on around me.

[Charlie Foxtrot]

Ok. Big misunderstanding of IEMs on my part. I wear ear plugs normlly because wind noise is a big problem and i don't want to further damage my hearing but would like to listen to music on the go.

[Charlie Foxtrot]

Also, have you got a link for your headphones and same question again. What sort of reduction do they offer?

Put it this way Ultimateear are nearly £200 for their biker specific set. That is far more than i can justify on headphones.

[kingston12]

Charlie Foxtrot said:

Ok. Big misunderstanding of IEMs on my part. I wear ear plugs normlly because wind noise is a big problem and i don't want to further damage my hearing but would like to listen to music on the go.

You can get in-ear noise cancelling ones as well, like these:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B005FVC56G/ref=...

I can't recommend them as I have never used them.

It might be worth trying to borrow a pair before committing. I use the large Bose headphones while on a plane and the noise reduction is fantastic, but it is so good as to be a little disorientating - fine when a passenger on a plane, but not so good when riding a bike!

Then again, I didn't even know it would be legal to listen to music whilst riding a motorbike, so what do I know?

[Charlie Foxtrot]

Thats the sort of thing i had in mind. Just trying to find as much info on them as possible. No law against listening to music. At speed you can't hear anything but wind noise anyway. I suppose it could be a problem if you caused an accident because of exessive moshing.

[probedb]

Charlie Foxtrot said:

Also, have you got a link for your headphones and same question again. What sort of reduction do they offer?

Put it this way Ultimateear are nearly £200 for their biker specific set. That is far more than i can justify on headphones.

You can pay a lot, my IEMs were more than that and they're not specialist ones for bikers

[kingston12]

Charlie Foxtrot said:

Thats the sort of thing i had in mind. Just trying to find as much info on them as possible. No law against listening to music. At speed you can't hear anything but wind noise anyway. I suppose it could be a problem if you caused an accident because of exessive moshing.

I am not sure how well they'd work in that situation. My Bose over-ear ones reduce the sound of an airplane engine to virtually nothing, but that is not that loud in the first place, just annoying.

There may be a level of noise where the active noise cancellation is overwhelmed. It is also worth noting that the way these cancel noise is to play the exact opposing frequency at the same level, so I am not sure if that is ideal if the noise they are cancelling is super loud?

Have you tried a pair of standard IEMs? These will deaden the sound just be virtue of being stuffed right down into your ear canal and might provide enough isolation.

[singlecoil]

kingston12 said:

Charlie Foxtrot said:

Ok. Big misunderstanding of IEMs on my part. I wear ear plugs normlly because wind noise is a big problem and i don't want to further damage my hearing but would like to listen to music on the go.

You can get in-ear noise cancelling ones as well, like these:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B005FVC56G/ref=...

I can't recommend them as I have never used them.

It might be worth trying to borrow a pair before committing. I use the large Bose headphones while on a plane and the noise reduction is fantastic, but it is so good as to be a little disorientating - fine when a passenger on a plane, but not so good when riding a bike!

Then again, I didn't even know it would be legal to listen to music whilst riding a motorbike, so what do I know?

If the technology in the Sony items linked to is the same as in the Sony MP3 player I bought a couple of years ago, then yes, it definitely works. Whether they will work well enough for your purposes I can't say, but the noise cancelling effect works well in respect to woodworking machinery.

[DanoS4]

I'm a pro-musician and engineer/producer. I've got a set of ACS T1-pro IEMs for when I gig. I tried a fair few, and as others have said, if you're after noise-cancelling akin to the Bose stuff, it doesn't exist in IEM format.

That said, you'll get a lot of noise reduction if you go for custom fit IEMs - get your ears moulded/fitted for it.

Makes a BIG difference.

Dan