ear protection/music


duckkisser

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im looking for a set of ear protection to dampen machine noice and play my ipod on. i have found several that will dampen the sound while im playing music but they all did a poor job of dampening it when the music is not on. want something i can put on to dampen noise while kids are in shop. but when there not i can plug in my tunes and jam away. what do you use and recomend? right now i just stick ear buds in and then put cans over the top but ear buds bother my ears.

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I have the Peltor work tunes which are OK for music quality. They have the AM/FM receiver and a 1/8" stereo jack for external input.

If the iPod earbuds bother yoru ears, you can try other brands. I have a pair of noise cancelling earbuds made by Voda for my iPod which have the rubber ear inserts, similar to ear plugs, and have the Sony headset for my iPhone which has the same style of rubber inserts to adust to your ears. I wouldn't trust these alone for hearing protection, they don't have a NRR.

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I have the Peltor and I have a couple of issues. The radio is unusable where I am. I went through a ton of reviews on Amazon, and it seems that the radio works fine in rural areas (good at pulling in weak signals), but doesn't work in urban areas (bad at separating strong signals). Also, the volume control is only for the radio - if you plug in a device, you need to use the volume control on that device. That's a minor annoyance when the device is tucked into a pocket somewhere.

I find wearing hearing protection without music to be distracting - my brain keeps paying more attention to the muffled sounds to compensate. Hearing protection with piped in music works great for me.

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I bought a pair of Peltor worktunes but I returned them. I found they worked too well, they isolated me from noise so thoroughly I felt disconnected from my machinery. I couldn't hear if the table saw was running, let alone working too hard. My solution was a pair of Panasonic ear drops clipped to a zip tie threaded through the foam liner of a pair of regular muffs. You can see it here. I find it is the right combination of music and ambient noise.

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I have the Worktunes, also. But, I mostly use them for yard work. I have several pair of shooting muffs lying around the shop. I only put them on when I'm actually running a power tool, which doesn't usually last too long. If I am doing an operation such as dimensioning lumber, I just crank the tunes loud enough to hear over the power tools. :o)

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For others, I might suggest earphones from Etymotic http://www.etymotic.com/

I have had 2 sets over the last 4 or 5 years. The first set died prematurely (but out of warranty) and they replaced them without a single problem, great customer service. I wear them at the gym, cutting grass, and sometimes in the shop.

Depends what I am doing, if I am running the table saw I will not wear hearing protection. If I am running the router, I will wear the standard ear plugs. And if I am doing a lot of sanding I will use the Etymotics. Something about a spinning blade and not being able to hear it that scares the piss out of me.

cheers.

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I have the AO Safety worktunes: http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=19546&filter=worktunes I have a basement shop and every now and then, the radio station will go in and out depending on which machine I turn on and where I stand. Not enough to annoy me however. They also have an audio in jack. At first, I used it for my ipod and I bought a long audio cable and even plugged in my tv to my earmuffs. I got annoyed with pulling the cable around the shop, so then I bought an FM transmitter from ebay and now I can listen to my television over the airwaves too. They are so comfortable that sometimes I forget that I still have them on after I'm finished using a machine.

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it says suppress up to 25 db does not seem like much i do like the mike part then i can teach the kids without stoping the machines. in fact i would never have to take them off.

the work tunes ones only have supression of 22db, anywhere around these db seem to be the range for all good ear protection

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Remember... 3dB is TWICE the noise reduction.

So, a 25 dB NRR device would cut the noise to half the level of a 22 dB device, and a 28 dB device would cut it to half of the 25 dB device.

That said, you often need to check the graphs in the literature for the protective device. The stated ratings can be the peak at a specific frequency, or it can be an average.

The use of the product can dictate what might be a better choice. In woodworking, we want to cut the levels of frequencies between ~ 1k and ~ 5k, because that's what our tools produce, and it's the most annoying and damaging. A product that does it's best work @ 400 Hz might not work so well for woodworking, but might be great in a power plant or aboard an airplane. On the same token, a product that's great at 2.5k would be great while routing or at the race track, but not so hot in an area where the most noise is at much lower frequencies, like the back row of a jet.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Here is what I use. I feel it is safer to be able to hear machines running. Or other sounds that may indicate danger. You can even amplify sounds around you. For example working in the yard and wanting to hear when UPS pulls up with your new woodworking tools. I pair this with an FM transmitter hooked up to my pc. Most of the time I am streaming internet radio. But sometimes I listen to podcasts and the like while I am working. I feel they are worth every penny. I am guilty of walking around with them even out of the shop. Since they are not limiting (you can hear) and they are comfortable.

This model does come with blue tooth but that option is very expensive! You can see it on the Peltor web site. It is about $300.

http://www.amazon.co...oductPromotions

James

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Here is what I use. I feel it is safer to be able to hear machines running. Or other sounds that may indicate danger. You can even amplify sounds around you. For example working in the yard and wanting to hear when UPS pulls up with your new woodworking tools. I pair this with an FM transmitter hooked up to my pc. Most of the time I am streaming internet radio. But sometimes I listen to podcasts and the like while I am working. I feel they are worth every penny. I am guilty of walking around with them even out of the shop. Since they are not limiting (you can hear) and they are comfortable.

This model does come with blue tooth but that option is very expensive! You can see it on the Peltor web site. It is about $300.

http://www.amazon.co...oductPromotions

James

Can you tell us what model of FM transmitter you are using?

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This is the model I got from ebay based on a recommendation from another woodwhisperer member.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/100mW-500mW-Power-adj-76-108Mhz-Home-FM-TRANSMITTER-/330577986499?pt=AU_Electronics_Radio_Equipment&hash=item4cf7fbc3c3

Works awesome for my shop. I have my tv plugged into it and I use my worktunes hearing protection.

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This is the model I got from ebay based on a recommendation from another woodwhisperer member.

http://www.ebay.com/...=item4cf7fbc3c3

Works awesome for my shop. I have my tv plugged into it and I use my worktunes hearing protection.

Ha Ha. That is the one I have. Works great. Reaches about 1/4 mile on the frequency I am using. Be sure to look up vacant frequency in your area.

James

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I do the same with a different transmitter.

I also use a DBX compressor / limiter to squash / bring the overall level of podcasts up for better performance with the Worktunes muffs. The compressor simply brings up the quiet sounds and limits the loud sounds, so you can better enjoy some podcasts. I set the attack as fast a possible and the release about 3/4 scale, then set the threshold to average ~ 4-6 dB of compression. It works great!

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I was hoping to read something here on "noise canselation" head sets. Does anyone have experience with them in the shop? Most importantly, do they protectyour hearing?

I have some simple non-audio noise blocking head gear but was thinking about using my noise canselation headset with music from my ipod. I do like to hear my machines somewhat so I get additional input as to how things are going.

Stephen.

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