A true story about noise cancelling (Anders Jacobsen's blog)

January 21, 2004

A true story about noise cancelling

I have previsouly praised my Etymotic ER-6s, and although there are other noise cancelling headphones/earplugs out there, I was so positively surprised last night I thought I'd share my laugh :-)

Taking the Heathrow Express from the airport to Paddington, I was listening to some music, and while I don't wear them at work for reasons that are (or will become) obvious, I plugged in my Etymotic earplugs to cancel out the general train noise and chat around me.

It's true what they say; these babies work. Even at reasonably low volumes, all you hear is your music. Good bye temporary deafness form playing loud music in attempts to drown out ambient noise. Hello Pink Floyd!

Disembarking form the train I headed for the taxi rank to grab a cab back to my hotel. I told the driver the name of where I'm staying and jumped in.

As I sat down, I looked up and saw the driver's face - he had turned around to face me, and I saw his lips moving. I paused the music, "sorry, what did you say?". Lips moving again.

*pop* out came the plugs. "Sorry, but these earplugs are just amazing; what did you say?"

He actually just wanted to strike up some friendly conversation, and that was fine. Crystal clear message, though: if you do listen to music with the ER-6es, don't expect to hear if your phone rings, if yor colleague walks up behind you (or if the flight cabin attendants are announcing a forthcoming crash landing...)

*knock wood*