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Hearing Aids and Noise Cancelling Headphones

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In my previous life (before retirement), I used a number of Noise Cancelling Headphones, particularly for airplane travel, but also for things such as mowing the grass or even working on the computer to avoid distractions.
Fast forward to today (retired), I have the Philips 9050s, and very satisfied with their performance in daily situations. But, I have not traveled on airplanes since retirement, and today am faced with mowing my yard. :grin: Airline travel is looming in the near future as well.
Am curious how others with use noise cancelling headphones in high noise environments, or if they simply use their HAs. If just using the HAs, do they perform well enough for high noise activities such as airplane travel? Or, if using noise cancelling headphones, do they also wear their HAs inside the headphones?
The reason for the post today is that Sony just introduced their new XM6 headphones, and I am tempted. There are also hints of a new XM6 set of earbuds coming.

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I have the XM4 headphones and have had no problems wearing them over my Jabra Enhance Pro 20s in noise-canceling mode, either wired or wireless. The EP20s will squeal when I use the Music setting at mid-volume, but turning it down to 30% or so eliminates the feedback.

Thx LarsRR. I wasn’t sure if wearing my and noise cancelling headphones at the same time (in certain situations) would be a smart move or not. I just have this overwhelming belief that noise cancelling headphones will do much better than the HAs in high noise environments. I definitely do not want to get on a plane and then find out I should have purchased headphones.

Back in my traveling days (75k-100k a year) I’d use noise cancelling headphones that I had my office buy (can’t remember the brand) and wore my hearing aides except when I’d rack out on flights to Europe or Asia. I never used anything but my hearing aids for yard work, but I used an electric mower on my tiny townhouse lot. I have rechargeable Shure noise cancelling headphones now that I use either my hearing aids for music practice. They also allow me to attach a microphone so I can get away without buying $1k David Clark headsets when I fly light planes and need to talk to ATC.

I have this situation all the time.
You will probably find a couple of things.
Firstly, you need headphones with big earcups. that’s ok, all the ANC phones I’ve tried do seem to have large enough earcups, at least for me to get my ’s and ears in at the same time.
Secondly, you will hear more noise through the headphones as a result of putting your HA’s in. What I mean is that the noise canceling is vastly reduced when you wear HA’s iin the headphones.

I am also going to get the xm6s. If I were you, this is the brand I’d try, not so much because of the noise canceling, but because they have a 6 or maybe 8 I can’t remember, band equaliser. so you could work with that to get exactly the sound you want. I hope you don’t run into feedback issues with your hA’s, that’s the other thing that can sometimes happen although it’s noticably less at least for me when wearing sony headphones, where as the airpods max caused a lot of issues.

Thx for the reply. Good to know about the xm6 equalizer, that could actually help me wear the headphones and perhaps not wear my at the same time.
A related question: Do you have experience with the earbuds options? The reason I ask is that I have tried riding my bicycle with HAs in, and they had objectionable wind noise. Will be trying a bike ride very soon with my new HAs (9050s), so that may address that concern without having to go to a noise cancelling option.

Someone here on the forums recently put a sweatband or something over the to block the wind but still hear.

WH

In reply to @smcc

There is a company, I forget what it’s called, that makes tiny little… socks? I guess that’s as good a word as any, for hearing aids. you put them over to quieten down wind noise. might be worth looking into.

As for earbuds, yeah there are tons of options out there. If you can wait until September and use an iPhone, the obvious ones to go for will be the new airpods pro 3s. The airpods already have some hearing aid features, not amazing but they kind of help, plus they have really good noise canceling.
Sony also have some earbuds with EQ, the noise canceling isn’t amazing, actually the ones I’d go for right now if you want some are the Anker Soundcore liberty 5. they have good noise canceling, quite good transparency mode but their EQ is really wide ranging so you can probably force a good soundd that you like out of them.

Flying I use Airpod Pro 2’s with hearing assistance enabled.

You can set them on noise cancelling (which works better than my old Bose over the ear headphones) and listen to media with excellent quality on Bluetooth.

If you need to interact with aircrew or others transparency mode works great.

Now it depends on the length of your flight and . The Airpod Pro 2’s last around 5 - 6 hours on a charge and hearing assistance (if available in your region) needs an audiogram showing mild to moderate loss.

What HiFi Apple AirPods Pro 2 review1

In the US they are on sale at Costco for around $160 including AppleCare+

Costal California’s reply mirrors my own flight experiences. Before our trip, I had downloaded items to watch and the flight noise overwhelmed any noise cancelation ability of my aids. Next trip was with AirPod2s and they worked perfectly, silencing flight noise but still allowing conversation in transparency mode. I use the AirPods while mowing and listening to music. Also have used them in the shop with power tools. And, listening to music while walking is far superior to what my KS10s offer, especially if you take the time to enter your into your iPhone. Good travels!

The small case that holds the AirPods also has a built in battery to recharge the Pods although many planes now have USB ports

The sony WH xm6 has a 10 bande EQ by the way which is really wild. It’s not designed for hearing loss of course but it does mean you can shape the basic sound for your ’s or at least to deal with some of the loss you have if you listen to things on headphones.

I’ve enjoyed wearing these Anker Liberty 411 noise canceling earbuds in loud environments. A feature I was pleasantly surprised by is the HearID Sound - you can basically take a hearing test in their app, and it will then adjust the sound you hear based on your level of hearing loss. I’m not an audiologist or anything, but I really prefer this feature and music sounds much better listening in this mode than in the standard mode. It also has a fit test to ensure that the earbuds are in with a proper seal, and multiple earbud sizes.

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