Standalone ANC headphones like Sennheiser Conversation Clear Plus

[Continuum]

James mentioned that the app is optional for the Sennheiser featured on ShortCircuit during the CES. Is there any similar devices besides this?

 

For context, this is for an elderly gentleman who is easily startled by loud, unexpected environmental noise. And while he works in the IT industry himself, he's a very infrequent user of—and loathes using—phones, smart or not (ringtones and notifications also count towards unexpected noise). So for his purposes, it needs to be an ANC devices but without any separate device/app required for operation.

 

It doesn't necessarily have to be in-ear; I just want to know what kind of options are available specifically for noise suppression, rather than any sort of playback.

[creesch]

Well, most bluetooth headphones with ANC work fine without an app.  The problem however is that active noise cancelling doesn't work for sudden loud noise all that well. In fact, because a lot of other noises are filtered out some sudden noises can actually stand out more. 

 

For example, ANC is awesome at filtering out train, car and airplane noise as well as crowds. But if in those conditions someone nearby is talking fairly loudly you can sometimes hear them better than you would without ANC. 

 

To be clear, it doesn't make those noises louder. In fact, they are probably dampened a little but. But, they do stand out more. So depending on how they are getting startled it might be suitable for them. 

 

In what sort of situations would they be using these btw? While working or also in general outside an such? 

[Continuum]

6 hours ago, creesch said:

In what sort of situations would they be using these btw? While working or also in general outside an such? 

Outside use, mainly. He's self-employed and he has almost no other human presence in his office space.

 

Filtering out crowds and vehicles are going to be useful for him, but what really startles him would be something like yelling, loud construction noises, car horns even if it was short beeps instead of crazy blaring. For me personally (and I assume majority of functioning people), they're easily ignored. But such noise that'd I count as pedestrian is not so for him.

 

As far as I understand, it will be quite acceptable as long as the ANC can dampen out the noise to something that doesn't hurt the ears. The end goal is to not have complete silence, but simply to make all the noise manageable.

 

6 hours ago, creesch said:

Well, most bluetooth headphones with ANC work fine without an app.

By that do you mean it can toggle ANC without pairing to phones and such? I've never used any ANC, so I don't really understand how they work. If any such device does work standalone, do you have recommendations?

[creesch]

1 hour ago, Continuum said:

Outside use, mainly. He's self-employed and he has almost no other human presence in his office space.

 

Filtering out crowds and vehicles are going to be useful for him, but what really startles him would be something like yelling, loud construction noises, car horns even if it was short beeps instead of crazy blaring. For me personally (and I assume majority of functioning people), they're easily ignored. But such noise that'd I count as pedestrian is not so for him.

 

As far as I understand, it will be quite acceptable as long as the ANC can dampen out the noise to something that doesn't hurt the ears. The end goal is to not have complete silence, but simply to make all the noise manageable.

 

By that do you mean it can toggle ANC without pairing to phones and such? I've never used any ANC, so I don't really understand how they work. If any such device does work standalone, do you have recommendations?

 

They would still need something to pair it to, but that doesn't have to be a phone. I am not sure if they dislike devices in general but there are still musicplayers being made (a lot of them are android based though). 

[Continuum]

He does have a phone, but switched off most of the time. For ANC to function, do these headphones need to be paired with an active device even if there's nothing to play? In that case, the titular Sennheiser might be the only real option.

[Continuum]

I've been googling, and at least Sony and Bose headphones does not do ANC without pairing. Not sure about the titular Sennheiser here; does anybody know? Is there any ANC headphones that does work without pairing? I think it merits a new topic, but I'm not sure if I should make a new one or not.