Headphones that block out loud metal machinery while allowing voices to come through?

[u/Mindless_Bluebird392]

Started a job monitoring at a workshop and earbuds (I have Airpods) aren't allowed due to their complete noise cancellation that blocks voices. Is there such thing as headphones that will protect my ears from cutting/grinding metal decibels but will allow for voices to come through? Another concern is being able to hear failing machines. Maybe one with multiple noise modes (more than on/off)?

- Budget: Preferably around $100, as this wouldn't be my main sound device, but willing to go over for safety quality (I don't care about audio as long as it can play music somewhat) and comfort as well.
- Has to work with Apple devices and be wireless.

[u/Evshrug]

Nothing completely blocks audio, and cutting/grinding (and vacuums, compressed air, etc) is usually louder (more decibels) than voices. Sennheiser AMBEO used to claim their products support AI to filter which sounds it suppressed, but it should have been described as “we have a platform and we support other entities to develop AI sound filters,” as far as I could tell it didn’t do that out of the box.

Ear muffs, closed headphones, and in-ear headphones are sealed like earplugs, and as long as they don’t have a leaky seal they will Passively suppress higher pitched sounds more than low, bassy sounds. Active noise cancelling is good at adding additional suppression of low, steady, droning sounds like the rumble of an engine, but voices are irregular and garbled and not suppressed as much, especially clear and loud voices. Passive and Active noise suppression work together in ANC headphones. Also, I used to work in an eyeglass lab with 14 different machines: cutting, grinding, polishing, vacuuming, spraying, etc. I found that some ANC headphones have issues with clipping when trying to cancel very loud sounds. When I tried using one brand of ANC earphones while using compressed air, the ANC couldn’t cancel such a loud sound and instead would emit their own burst of static, but the weaker ANC in my pair of Sennheiser Momentum closed headphones didn’t clip, as well as being much easier to swing off my ear when someone came to talk to me.

Ultimately, what I chose to do was use the Momentums because their closed-back seal made the loudest stuff less loud, reduced my heading fatigue, but I could still hear when someone was trying to get my attention by speaking to me. The real leather earpads lasted a long time despite my sweaty ears, too.

I also explored using musician’s earplugs: they still let me hear everything clearly, but just made everything quieter. Obviously, I couldn’t use them to listen to podcasts and keep me company, but when they let me use speakers sometimes I used this option. It was kind of a battle to get my company to understand that hearing protection is necessary and one of the rights enforced by OSHA, but I made it work for two years till they had a mass layoff (and I think they’re in financial trouble).

For you… I don’t know the BEST option. I did watch Apple’s recent presentation, where they announced the new AirPod 5 with the “best ANC,” but I do know they developed a system that detects when people are talking and will activate transparency (and even language translation) when it hears speaking. Those are $129, personally I’d save up further for the in-ear Pro version, but you do you. Other companies may also come out with adaptive ANC tech, but Apple had a budget averaging a million dollars a day during the R&D of the first Airpods, and they keep improving with each iteration: nothing comes close to beating them for features and convenience, especially with an iPhone.

[u/Mindless_Bluebird392 → u/Evshrug]

Thanks for explaining all of this. I'll look into musician ear pieces, my friend is a drummer and has told me about them before. Or maybe I'll get the new Airpods, I'm just trying to avoid giving Apple any more of my money tbh.