What's your hearing worth?

[Colonel Sanders]

Keep forgetting to mention: what sunglasses you
wear affects how much attenuation you get. If you
get great big thick trendy arms on your sunglasses,
they lift the ear seals off.

Another advantage to the Clarity-style ear buds.

[BobBates]

I concoure with the colonel about the glasses, even with small arms. i wear my eye glasses pushed up over top of my earphones.
I reiterate, DC's are the pits in a Beaver, yet everybody seems to use them. The clarity worked very well.

[Pavese]

I am not a great fan of the ANR conversion kits. The ones that I have seen have required the removal of damping material which reduced the passive attenuation, which is going to allow the mid/high freqs in.

FWIW, the Headsets Inc kits now provide damping material that is custom cut to fit both their inserts and your earcups when you upgrade. I haven't seen a David Clark with damping material that was particularly fancy.

Been flying with the Headsets Inc conversion for some time. Concur that it is very good at attenuating ambient noise and the passive damping foam is more "lossy" than the material supplied with DC passives.

These guys: http://www.anrman.co.uk/ref_files/ANR_c ... _Jan08.pdf have done real measurements that show the HI kits are on par with the high dollar factory units (within experimental error) and confirm that the DC's do not perform well.

BTW, when we're comparing performance, a reduction 6dB in measured sound power level amounts to being half as loud (e.g. 24dB reduction means twice as much sound level reduction compared to 18db and 4x as compared to 12 db).

D

[Pavese]

I even put earplugs in under my helmet when on the bike.

You're not alone, I do this to knock down the wind noise on the highway and I drive a very quiet bike, the wind noise dominates.

D

[newbiewings]

I haven't spent much time at all in a cockpit, but I have worked in a lot of high noise environments for the past 20 odd years.

I've had custom moulded hearing protection in a few different configurations, and have used several types of the disposable foam earplugs. I'll just pass on my thoughts from experience.

Custom ear moulds - I've had three different pairs. All of them were drilled through so you could carry on a conversation while wearing them, this also allows pressure equalization. The best ones had a second hole that was not full depth, where you could install a small barbed plug attached to an "idiot string" to keep you from losing them. You could also install the plugs in the through drilled hole to make them even quieter.

Second set had small wire loops installed to connect to the string. Found one earplug gave me headaches because the wire base was set too close to the edge and created a pressure point. A replacement had to be made.

Last set did not have any means of attaching them to a string.

They are washable, and if you don't lose them, are generally good for about five years. Keep them clean to avoid the chance of ear infections, and away from cats & dogs...

The disposable ones are a matter of finding what ones are most comfortable, but keep in mind;

The North DeciDamps are most firm, and use over time will expand your ear canal. NRR of 29 db

3M 1100 Soft and will fit smaller ear canals, and comfortable over extended periods. NRR of 29 db

Laser Lites ( can't remember the maker ) quite similar to the 3M, and can be bought with or without cords attached

Moldex Pura-Fit - Soft, a bit larger than the 3M & Laser Lites, smaller than the North. NRR of 33 db ( my personal favourite of the disposable ones )

Hope this helps someone hear a bit better for a longer time.

[AirFrame]

I even put earplugs in under my helmet when on the bike. It makes a world of difference to me at the end of the day.

Me too. I had a pair of the custom molded silicone ones made, too, they were even better than the squishy foam ones.

All of the in-ear ones have one minor problem... Chewing will make the seal pop on you. I had that both with the squishy foam ones and the silicone inserts. More with the silicone inserts, because they had less "give" to them. Simple solution... Don't eat while wearing them.

[Rowdy]

Don't eat while wearing them.

Kind of hard to eat and ride

[AirFrame]

Kind of hard to eat and ride

Not everyone wears a full-face helmet (although they should). But I was more referring to the chewing motion... Easy to chew gum while riding.

[Liquid Charlie]

A lot of people like the in-ear bud Clarity Aloft. No
ANR, but a boatload of passive. And there's a company
which makes exactly the same thing, except cheaper:

I used the Lightspeed Mach1 for years -- best headset I ever had -- I prefer the "in ear" style -- but as for most things popular for me it seems maybe not so much for the majority -- mmmm -- anyway having worn that headset out to my dismay it was discontinued -- so I took advantage of their trade up and got the zulu 2 - not a bad headset -- poor passive protection so always carry spare batteries --

The Mach 1 - in ear - had as much protection as the Zulu an so light -- no head band so now I'm considering ordering the Halo from Quiet Tech and with 45 day return policy it's worth a try -- I did see the Halo when I was looking but the headband turned me off -- but I'm not that happy with the Zulu because after wearing in ear head sets for 15 years it's difficult to go back to bulky - heavy over priced ear muffs -- Bose is like apple too many people have drank the koolaide