Headphone recommendation.

[Hrimfaxi]

I work with handheld drills and the whine is getting on my nerves...

So, I'm after a pair of decent headphones to both help dull the whine down and sound at least half decent.

In-ear phones are ok, but I find they get annoying after wearing them all day.

Any recommendations? I don't really know where to start, when it comes to a decent set.

Thanks. 😊

[jensenhealey2]

Anything by Sennheiser. I had some HD 202, (overear - I don't like in-ear) which though only about £30 were very good. After about 4 years the wire came adrift. I replaced them with some sturdier HD 25 basic, about £100. There is everything in between and below and up, including in-ear in hteir range. Would noise-cancelling help? Not sure if Sennheiser do those.

[alolympic]

I suspect that the volume you will have to have them on to be heard over the drill will be pretty dangerous to your hearing?

[ReaderScars]

There are isolation headphones that are designed for drummers which might help. If you go for 'any pair of Sennheisers' you might end up with a pair which are of open back design, which will do nothing at all to reduce the sound of the drill. Even closed back headphones won't massively reduce the sound of a drill.

On this thread: http://www.drummerworld.com/forums/showthread.php?... one of the suggestions is to use good quality ear defenders over the top of good quality in ear earphones, some of which are designed to reduce sound coming into the ear, like these: http://www.shure.co.uk/products/earphones (£42 up to £850!)

So basically you use ear defenders to reduce sounds coming in, then reduce it further by using good quality sound isolating in ear earphones.

Or look for some drummer's isolation headphones: http://www.google.co.uk/?gws_rd=ssl#newwindow=1&am...

[Funk]

As someone with tinnitus: don't fk with your hearing! If you're in an environment with noisy drilling all day you should protect your ears and isolate the noise. Don't fire additional sound into your ears even louder in order to drown out another loud noise...!

[probedb]

I'd say IEMs but you've said you find them irritating. But they're the only proper way you'll get the noise sealed out.

[SWoll]

I'd have to agree with the above regarding IEM's rather than on ear headphones if you are looking at isolating noise.

You've not mentioned a budget but I would suggest that for a mixture of build quality, comfort, sound and price the Shure SE215 are hard to beat. The removable/replaceable cable is designed to run over the top and then behind your ears so it keeps out of the way of what you are doing and not get pulled on.

I'd also suggest pairing them with some Comply Tx100 Isolation + foam tips for ultimate comfort and isolation.

I use mine on the train/tube/flights and they are wearable for hours in comfort and don't need to be wound up to high volumes even in noisy environments.

Edited by SWoll on Tuesday 12th May 09:33

[Jonsv8]

You can get the in-ear ones custom molded for your ear. I think etymotic ones even give you a voucher to get the done at places like boots hearing aid places. That should make them much more comfortable. I've had a pair for years, not custom fit, and when I flew long haul a lot I used to sleep with them in and they were better than noise cancelling headphones.

Your hearing isn't worth messing around with

[Hrimfaxi]

Thanks for the responses.

I should point out that these drills aren't loud power tools, they're similar to hand held dremels and pedal operated, so I won't be whacking up the volume in attempt to drown it out - i'm well aware of the dangers that could result.

It's just when you're operating it all day, the whine can timesome.

I've looked into the custom route, and I could see a few uses for it (my band and gigs, for example) but still not too sold on the idea of wearing in-ear phones all day, but won't write it off just yet.

Will be checking out a few mentioned though.

[Alez]

If you are interested in "closed type" headphones, I would consider these:
http://www.extremeheadphones.com/

If you are interested in normal all-purpose headphones, I recommend the Yamaha HPH-M82 I bought not long ago:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Yamaha-HPH-M82-Stylish-Hea...

I bought them after comparing the sound of many different headphones and they sounded better than anything else I tried, including significantly more expensive headphones. Mind you that they do not overemphasize bass, though, which is one of the reasons I like their balanced sound. So if you are into "DJ type" sound, these are not for you. I find them comfortable to wear (I even use them when jogging), isolation from exterior noise is alright as you would expect from earphones of this size (I wear then while commuting by underground), they look beautiful and you have plenty of colours to chose from (I went for red).