Noise cancelling headphones vs ear defenders?

So, like many of you, I have a problem with extraneous noise, in fact, any noise that *I* haven't chosen. To help with this I've been looking at solutions. When I'm listening to an audiobook or a podcast, I wear earbuds which are great at blocking out (most) external noise, allowing me to only hear what I'm playing, but there are times when I don't want to listen to *any* sounds at all, so my earbuds are useless then. I've bought myself a pair of ear defenders which work brilliantly (and they've already saved a life! I longer have an uncontrollable urge to strangle my partner when she suddenly plays a Facebook video at full blast! Lol!). However, someone mentioned noise cancelling headphones to me as a better alternative and I'm wondering what your thoughts are, one versus the other? I'm not 100% sure how NC headphones work. I know they emit sound waves that supposedly cancels out the same external sound waves at anything before a certain pitch (apparently, they don't work well on kids voices..), but I've also read that you can still hear conversation if you're talking to someone, but not the TV in the background, for instance. Can anyone give first hand info on whether any of that is correct? 

Parents
  • yes NC headphones dont block voices very well  and block regular sounds like you have already described.   But they are pretty expensive so i couldnt justify buying them 

    they are getting better so keep researching them and the prices in amazon go up and down quite grammatically

    to really block noise i use earplugs plus very good eardefenders

    or

    my eardefenders with built in radio at full vol either at white noise ( no channel) or radio whatever plus ear plugs as well

    or 

    eardefenders with buit in radio playing say radio 1 plus ear bug headphones inside them attached  to  a mini mp3 player tuned to same radio station

    the eardefenders with built in radio also have an external earphone jack so you can play sound inside them from whatever

    heres the eardefenders i mean  .......they have an CE certified Single Number Rating (SNR) 30dB.

    downside is they take getting used to 

    www.amazon.co.uk/.../ref=syn_sd_onsite_desktop_139

Reply
  • yes NC headphones dont block voices very well  and block regular sounds like you have already described.   But they are pretty expensive so i couldnt justify buying them 

    they are getting better so keep researching them and the prices in amazon go up and down quite grammatically

    to really block noise i use earplugs plus very good eardefenders

    or

    my eardefenders with built in radio at full vol either at white noise ( no channel) or radio whatever plus ear plugs as well

    or 

    eardefenders with buit in radio playing say radio 1 plus ear bug headphones inside them attached  to  a mini mp3 player tuned to same radio station

    the eardefenders with built in radio also have an external earphone jack so you can play sound inside them from whatever

    heres the eardefenders i mean  .......they have an CE certified Single Number Rating (SNR) 30dB.

    downside is they take getting used to 

    www.amazon.co.uk/.../ref=syn_sd_onsite_desktop_139

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