Noise Cancelling Headphones

I just bought alpine silence earbuds. You can still hear conversations close by, but much less of the other noises that we just can’t turn our brains off to. 

Huge fan of noise cancelling headphones over here. For ages I was using a pair of low profile ear defenders but then the sound of my own heartbeat, while reassuring, became a distraction in its own right. I also have a pair of heavy duty defenders. Noise cancelling headphones are a game changer. I wear mine every change I get, and even have a pair that I leave at work, an ear bud variety, and a fancy pair for at home. My wife has a headband version that she sleeps in, whereas I use earplugs at night. She likes the ambient background. I recently purchased a pair of Loop, and so far I'm not seeing much of difference between those and my cheap bedtime earplugs. I have a colleague who slurps their tea like a demon, and were it not for the noise cancelling headphones I'd probably serving a custodial sentence by now. 

Thanks TheCatWoman , he hasn't been to the GP as he isn't currently too bad -it's mainly if he's on his back and he's ill or had a cider -he doesn't drink much, only occasionally when socialising (online). When he does, I don't hesitate to nudge him over on his side and it stops. I'll make him see the doc if it gets worse though!

The other side is him staying up late if I've gone to bed, as I'm such a light sleeper he was always waking me up. This is when earplugs are really handy, as I can wear them and he doesn't wake me up!

Has your husband tried snore strips? Or even been to the GP, snoring can be due to all sorts of things, allergies, problems with the nasal passages, being overweight or the wrong sleeping position.

Snoring is one of the reasons I sleep alone, I can't stand it and have to either move to another room before I do something drastic like smother them with thier own pillow

Thanks I will try that!

Oh yeah I wear loops with moderation because my ears get sore too. 

What helped me a lot when they start getting sore is to put a bit of coconut oil on my ears. Coconut oil will not only bring back moist but it's antibacterial and had some healing properties. So if you sleep with loops put a bit in the morning 

Thanks, that is good to know how others experience it. Yeah, I got some sleep loops but only wear them when I'm having an issue (loud winds or husband snoring) as my ears can get sore with too much use of them.

I wasn't sure if it would be worth having both, but being able to switch to what is comfortable is a good suggestion! (plus the tip on the coconut oil).

I do wear bose with glasses but after a while it does get uncomfortable. I then switch to loops for a bit and when it hurts inside my ears is time to go back to the bose. Lol. 

It's a constant flipping of things and always a little discomfort until I finally get time of real quiet free of things to cover noise. 

My ears are constantly sore for too much use of loops and I found that a great relief is to put a bit of coconut oil in my ears to recover

I think too much use of plugs is not good, we need to balance 

Thanks I do have devices thst do bluetooth but I don't know how to use it or connect it and if I had to have a cable tethering me to a device then it wouldn't suit me. But thanks for answering my questions.

No, you don’t need a smart phone to use the headphones. They come with a cable that you can plug in if you prefer to do it that way, or you can pair with any Bluetooth enabled device if you have any of those too.

What you won’t be able to do is tailor the noise cancellation without the smart phone app. It would be the all or nothing settings which come as standard.

However, I’ve found that the “Quiet” mode doesn’t shut out all noise. You can still hear people who are in the same room and some very muffled noises like pots/pans/dishes in the kitchen, but the muffled effect certainly takes the edge of these noises. I’ve found that all outdoor noise seems to be completely silenced, especially if you have some nice music playing at the same time.

Hope this helps.

Thanks Bunny I had a look at the webpage via the link, but it didn't give me any information I wanted and the chatbot ddn't understand what I was asking and could only answer three or four questions. Would I need a smart phone to be able to use them?

I think these (cancelling) are kind of on the ambient side and f headphones. I noticed on the underground some people starting to wear ear defenders over headphones. I did buy some Bose but ended up returning them although the sound and bass were good I got some leakage. The earphones I wear now are like hearing aids with a sealed fit for my ear.

If you think they're good at home wait until you try them on an airplane  Tbf it's where they first originated I think. Reducing the noise of the engines allowing the pilot to better hear ATC, copilot, etc.

I used to have a pair of bose but switched to sony's due to issues with audio quality. It only affected them when 2 devices were connected, but annoyingly you couldn't turn the feature off. I find the sony's are even better tbh.

I don't have a smart phone and I've little intention of getting one either, they're smarter than me and I'm a complete technoklutz who can crash a digital egg timer. But thanks for your reply.

Thank you both, it is one thing I wasn't sure about as it's not often mentioned in reviews if they have been tried with glasses or not!

When I wore glasses, I also - like spidey - didn’t have any comfort problems with my older style of Bose headphones (QuietComfort 35 Mk II, with similar cushioning).

Not rude at all, I do wear glasses. I was using them with my glasses on yesterday for quite a while and didn’t find it too much of a problem. They are pretty cushioned round your ears so I suppose kind of mould to the shape of the glasses rather than pushing them against your skin. I don't find the headphones tight either. 

They also have a mic for answering calls etc if that’s what you wanted to use them for. I bought them more for listening to music or podcasts when out and about, although have exclusively used them indoors so far.

Can I ask if you use headphones and wear glasses? (If it's not too rude to ask?)

My headset I use for work was very uncomfortable for ages as it pushed on my glasses on the sides with extended wear,  but now it's old and loose enough to not hurt after a few hours.

I did buy Loops(earbuds) for this reason, as I'm wary headphones might be sore after a while, especially if noise cancelling as I imagine they should be tight then? It's the kind of thing that is hard to tell straight away when just trying them out.

There is a Bose app for your phone, through which you can make adjustments.

You can either select “Quiet” mode (full noise cancellation) or “Aware” mode (no noise cancellation). You can also create your own mode and set the level of noise cancellation that suits you best. It basically works the same way as adjusting the volume.

Definitely worth giving them a go if they have a good return policy as Bunny has suggested.

TheCatWoman   If you were to buy that model (for example) directly from Bose, then you could try them out and see whether they work well for you.

When bought direct, Bose offers a 90-day trial period. If you don't like them - for whatever reason - you can return them at no cost and get a full refund:

https://www.bose.co.uk/en_gb/products/headphones/noise_cancelling_headphones/QCSC-HEADPHONEARN.html#v=QCSC-HEADPHONEARN-BLK-WW