Ear Protection

woodlandfarms · May 14, 2007

My tractor, with the engine in the rear, is a bit loud. I am thinking about getting some ear protection. One of the things i want, though is to play the ipod through the system.

I found a couple of "noise proof" headsets that can be wired to the ipod

Amazon.com: AO Safety WorkTunes i.3 AM/FM Hearing Protector, Silver and White #90569: Home Improvement

Amazon.com: Peltor HRX52A-01347-BD-GV Racetunes AM/FM Radio Headset and 22 dB Reduction Hearing Protector with Audio Jack and Scanner Patch Cord: Home Improvement

I am really not sure of the true noise reduction of these. I have also mulled over either Senheiser or Bose noise cancelling headsets, as well as just regular over the ear head phones.

Love to hear anyones thoughts on this...
Carl

stoneyfork · May 14, 2007

I use a set of the noise canceling headphones with my Ipod and it works great. The noise canceling headphones seem to allow me to play the Ipod at a lower volume and still hear the music, cranking up the music too loud defeats the whole purpose. Be sure to watch your cord, branches love to grab them.

Z-Michigan · May 14, 2007

No comments on those two, but I definitely encourage you to wear hearing protection. My JD is a bit loud; the one time I operated it for two hours without ear protection, I could feel it. Since then I use earmuffs (24db nrr) if I'm going to run it more than 5 minutes or so.

scott_vt · May 15, 2007

Mornin Carl,
As Z mentions, definitely wear hearing protection ! I started wearing protection late but better late than never ! I even use it on my garden tractor now cutting the grass around the house, its amazing how noisy that darn thing gets, your ears will thank you many years down the road !

woodlandfarms · May 15, 2007

The Power Trac has a fantastic canopy of thick steel, extends over you and the a bit of the engine compartment. I think it also creates this level of additional noise by reflecting everything down.

I looked around last night for something more industrial. Not much luck, so I went to Amazon and looked at Noise Cancelling Headsets. Not OSHA approved but neither am I. I think I am going with this

Amazon.com: Philips HN 110 Folding Noise Canceling Headphones: Electronics

Carl

scott_vt · May 15, 2007

Afternoon Carl,
Those look like a good set ! When Im on the tractor runnin the bush hog I wear these, some station fade up in the mountains but not bad !

Farmwithjunk · May 15, 2007

scott_vt said:
Afternoon Carl,
Those look like a good set ! When Im on the tractor runnin the bush hog I wear these, some station fade up in the mountains but not bad !

Howdy Scott,

What brand are those if you don't mind my asking? I have a set of the Peltor "WorkTunes" that look a bit like yours, excepting mine are yellow and black. Yours appear to be a little higher quality, at least in the picture. I'm not overly impressed with mine, but I can still hear. I'd like to find a better grade, maybe with better reception.

scott_vt · May 15, 2007

Farmwithjunk said:
Howdy Scott,

What brand are those if you don't mind my asking? I have a set of the Peltor "WorkTunes" that look a bit like yours, excepting mine are yellow and black. Yours appear to be a little higher quality, at least in the picture. I'm not overly impressed with mine, but I can still hear. I'd like to find a better grade, maybe with better reception.

Hey Bill,
They are Bell and Howell, I got them through the Heartland USA catologue. If memory serves me I think they were on sale for $19.99. Up in the mountains I listen to Froggy 107.1 country !

Farmwithjunk · May 15, 2007

scott_vt said:
Hey Bill,
They are Bell and Howell, I got them through the Heartland USA catologue. If memory serves me I think they were on sale for $19.99. Up in the mountains I listen to Froggy 107.1 country !

Hmmm. I paid $59 for the Peltors if my old decrepid brain is thinking straight.

My youngest daughter is a high tech junkie. I'm gonna start dropping hints as it gets closer to fathers day. A buddy here at work has a pair of Bose headphones. MAYBE.....??????

woodlandfarms · May 15, 2007

Farmwithjunk said:
Hmmm. I paid $59 for the Peltors if my old decrepid brain is thinking straight.

My youngest daughter is a high tech junkie. I'm gonna start dropping hints as it gets closer to fathers day. A buddy here at work has a pair of Bose headphones. MAYBE.....??????

I have a pair of Bose... Really nice. But at $300 I would cry and cry if the cable got snagged and fell back into the mower. That is why the $50 pair sound good to me. Just wish someone would come up with a way to discard the cable... Wait, I have an idea... Will just have the wife sew a little pouch to the headsets. Put the Ipod Nano in that!!!!

Now someone is going to steal this idea and make a million...

scott_vt · May 15, 2007

woodlandfarms said:
Now someone is going to steal this idea and make a million...

Afternoon Carl,
I understand the Chinese monitor this site closely just for ideas to steal !

BTW my $19.99 pair work pretty darn good !

patrick_g · May 15, 2007

What price your hearing? There are noise canceling headphones and then there are NOISE CANCELING HEADPHONES. Aircraft accessory/pilot shops handle INDUSTRIAL STRENGTH noise suppression headphones for pilots and persons exposed to loud noise fields. They are intended to keep out loud sounds and of course can be driven by just about any sound source a radio or iPod or Walkman or whatever..

I'm not saying there aren't less expensive gear but it is like comparing a kid with a spoon to an operator and a DitchWitch. They both can get the job done but one is a more professional and sure approach. Try to find reliable specifications giving noise suppression figures for the cheap imported radios built into headphones. Bose is good consumer quality gear. There is better available. To get good performance and low cost (not always easy) consider ear buds AND over the ear hearing protectors like you see ground crew wearing at the airport around jet engines. They make these with built in speakers too but they are not HIFI, as they are intended for comms not music.

You can buy the highest NRR (Noise Reduction Rating) ear protectors you can find/afford and wear earbuds under them.. What is the most important part of the equation, $, music quality, or hearing protection?

If you get a cheap set of radio/headsets and have to crank the volume to hear the music you can easily be damaging your hearing. You need something to exclude so much sound that you can play your tunes at a low volume level and hear them OK. This is safe.

I spent too much time around too much noise for too many years with too little concern and too little knowledge of the cumulative effects. I never saw a pair of "muffs" on the firing range the whole time I was in the service nor used them in off duty or civilian shooting till I had already sewn the seeds of irreversible hearing loss. Tractoring and such didn't help. When I was discharged I could hear 21,500 Hz in one ear and 20,500 in the other. I could hear untrasonic burgular alarms. No lie, I could hear bats doing echolocating and was a real HiFi buff with golden ears. Unfortunately the seeds of the destruction were already sewn and even with no further damaging exposure I was already doomed over time to successive hearing loss.

Don't think because you hear fine now that you aren't ruining your future hearing because you may be doing so unwittingly. Damage is cumulative and the loss related to exposure to loud sounds may not show up for quite a while. Last year I was fitted with aids to boost my hearing in the higher ranges so I could understand human speech well enough to approach "normal."

Pat

scott_vt · May 15, 2007

patrick_g said:
What price your hearing?

If you get a cheap set of radio/headsets and have to crank the volume to hear the music you can easily be damaging your hearing. You need something to exclude so much sound that you can play your tunes at a low volume level and hear them OK. This is safe.

I

Don't think because you hear fine now that you aren't ruining your future hearing because you may be doing so unwittingly. Damage is cumulative and the loss related to exposure to loud sounds may not show up for quite a while. Last year I was fitted with aids to boost my hearing in the higher ranges so I could understand human speech well enough to approach "normal."

Pat

Good Evenin Pat,
I do agree with all your very valuable information and I certainly dont want to make light of something as serious as your hearing ! The Bell and Howell headset was originally a $50 so not total junk !

Unfortunately I lost some hearing when I was serving my apprenticeship many years ago, very early seventies, nobody seemed to worry about that stuff then, unfortunately as you say, bad things can happen years later !

Farmwithjunk · May 15, 2007

scott_vt said:
Good Evenin Pat,
I do agree with all your very valuable information and I certainly dont want to make light of something as serious as your hearing ! The Bell and Howell headset was originally a $50 so not total junk !
Unfortunately I lost some hearing when I was serving my apprenticeship many years ago, very early seventies, nobody seemed to worry about that stuff then, unfortunately as you say, bad things can happen years later !

Huh?????

The U.S. Army and their fine artillery took what hearing I had left after being a LOUD MUSIC PLAYIN' LONG HAIRED PUNK (as my dad refered to me in 1965) Then my love for loud tractors finished it off. I now have less than 40% of "normal" hearing. (My marriage has benifited from my loss, I'd say)

Point being, I need to keep what hearing I have. I HATE hearing aids. (Feels like I have a finger in my ear) I just walked in the house from an afternoon of helping my son get his first cutting of hay up off the ground. He raked, I baled. I got 4 hours in the new 6430 Deere. You can hear a pin drop in that cab! After a couple hours it dawned on me that there might be a reason why Jonathan let me run it. I do believe he's trying to trick the ol' man into buying one for myself.

Dang thing is just a bit more expensive than a set of headphones though.

Rara Avis · May 15, 2007

$66,000+
Yeah...a bit more expensive than ear muffs...

woodlandfarms · May 16, 2007

Pat

Not a bad idea on putting earbuds on under muffs. Will have to mull that idea over. I really hate anything in my ear so I have been looking for full enclosures. Saddly, I feel all of the full enclosure Machine Room headsets that you an listen through are complete junk for the price. But the straight muffs seem to be really god.

Will have to give a few things a try..

Carl

MikePA · May 16, 2007

We've (wife and I) have tried the Worktunes, but the AM reception is not that good, but if you're an FM type they are fine.

I use a pair of Pro Ears Dimension 2 noise cancelling ear protectors. I can turn them off and use them as muffs or if I want to hear I can turn them on.

Typically, I have them off and put them over my iPod ear buds. They also come with a cable that can plus into most music players, including the iPod.

Farmwithjunk · May 16, 2007

MikePA said:
We've (wife and I) have tried the Worktunes, but the AM reception is not that good, but if you're an FM type they are fine.

I use a pair of Pro Ears Dimension 2 noise cancelling ear protectors. I can turn them off and use them as muffs or if I want to hear I can turn them on.

Typically, I have them off and put them over my iPod ear buds. They also come with a cable that can plus into most music players, including the iPod.

Mike, any suggestions as to where a fellow might find a pair of those headphones? (Other than on your head

)

patrick_g · May 16, 2007

I talked to a guy on the flight line at Gillespie field in Santee, CA who had taken a fair set of earphones, disassembled them, and put the little speakers inside a pair of good muffs. He refused to put anything inside his ears like buds or whatever. He said it gave him several advantages: better protection, nothing inside the ear, and better than just acceptable music.

He had special needs the rest of us might not have. He needed to monitor the aircraft AM band (120 MHz or so) and hear his tunes. His boss (a friend of mine) and I suggested a circuit (we are both ham radio types and electronically proficient) that let him listen to his Walkman (pre iPod era) but when squelch was broken by an aircraft transmission on the freq he monitored, it cut out the music and fed only the audio from the VHF radio. He had to hear requests for service or fuel delivery by truck from pilots but wanted music the rest of the time.

Pat

EddieWalker · May 16, 2007

My dozer in mind numbing loud. I started out with the big, bulky hearing protection that I use to shoot my rifles, but after a few hours, they hurt my skull. The constant preasure from them just sort of adds up and it gets painful. I switched to ear plugs and those work good too, but with either, after a full day on the dozer, my head is rattled for a few hours.

I bought a good pair of headphones to listen to talk radio and music while running the tractors and was suprised to learn that when I was done for the day, my head was clear. The difference is amazing!!!!

Eddie