Best ever noise isolating headphones? The Remote Audio HN-7506

I

IronFilm

Veteran
Quite excited to give this a spin, once the new gel pads arrive. They share the same drivers as in my Sony MDR-7506 headphones, thus the listening experience should be the same but with a 45dB reduction on any external sounds leaking in!

This would have been especially useful last weekend when I was recording next to a busy road, so I could more accurately discern between what precisely was I recording or not.

 
Attenuation of -45 dB isn't possible. There are too many paths to the ear drum, the ear canal is just one. The big culprit is the nose and nasal passages which resonate at interesting frequencies. Also the eyes. The mouth also gives a reasonably efficient path to the nasal passages. This is why if you need serious attenuation, you have to get your head out of the sound space, as in a "green room" or control room in a studio.

About the best real (as opposed to advertising copy) attenuation you can reasonably expect to obtain is going to be in the low to mid -30's dB range. And yes, the Remote Audio HN-7506 is at the head of its class for this duty.
 
I think he's thinking that he wants to hear what's being recorded, so he can experiment with different techniques - I've been there too many times - you hear noises but assume the mics aren't picking it up, but are, or you think the mics will hear that noisy fan in a light - but they don't, and isolating yourself from the room really helps.
 
Essami said:
Wouldn't you actually be recording all that noise but not hear it? How could that be useful? Am I missing something here...
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It makes it easier to discern what the mic is actually hearing/picking up, as opposed to what your ears are hearing naturally.
 
The main problem with the 7506 for location recording is the acoustic noise that can occur when using in wind, I personally find there are other better options and the HD25 tends to be better for location recording.
 
Bruce Watson said:
Attenuation of -45 dB isn't possible. There are too many paths to the ear drum, the ear canal is just one. The big culprit is the nose and nasal passages which resonate at interesting frequencies. Also the eyes. The mouth also gives a reasonably efficient path to the nasal passages. This is why if you need serious attenuation, you have to get your head out of the sound space, as in a "green room" or control room in a studio.

About the best real (as opposed to advertising copy) attenuation you can reasonably expect to obtain is going to be in the low to mid -30's dB range. And yes, the Remote Audio HN-7506 is at the head of its class for this duty.
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The un modified ear protectors are only rated in the 26-27 dB range so the modified ones are not going to do better than that.
 
These are essentially what dialog editors have been making for themselves for years.
 
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Essami said:
Wouldn't you actually be recording all that noise but not hear it? How could that be useful? Am I missing something here...
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Frequently when you're in the environment itself, it isn't always the easiest to be 110% sure as to what exactly it is you're recording vs what you're directly hearing in the environment itself. This is one of the reasons why I try to listen to playbacks as much as possible. And also why PSMs might position their cart very slightly off set.
 
Essami said:
Wouldn't you actually be recording all that noise but not hear it? How could that be useful? Am I missing something here...
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These are not "noise cancelling" headsets they are essentially sony headphones mounted inside big industrial hearing protectors. So they shield outside noise out and you are hearing what you are actually recording a lot better since sound the mic is not picking up is not getting to your ears.
 
Noiz2 said:
These are not "noise cancelling" headsets they are essentially sony headphones mounted inside big industrial hearing protectors. So they shield outside noise out and you are hearing what you are actually recording a lot better since sound the mic is not picking up is not getting to your ears.
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Ah, of course! I got the "cancelling" and "isolating" technologies mixed up.
 
Noiz2 said:
These are not "noise cancelling" headsets they are essentially sony headphones mounted inside big industrial hearing protectors. So they shield outside noise out and you are hearing what you are actually recording a lot better since sound the mic is not picking up is not getting to your ears.
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The one thing that still kinda annoys me is if anything touches the headphones, of course I directly hear that (but it never gets recorded, naturally). A common example is the headphone cable which runs out, if there is too much movement of that then I'll hear a bit of that in the background, so I need to be careful in how I run the cable from my headphones down into my bag.
 
IronFilm said:
The one thing that still kinda annoys me is if anything touches the headphones, of course I directly hear that (but it never gets recorded, naturally). A common example is the headphone cable which runs out, if there is too much movement of that then I'll hear a bit of that in the background, so I need to be careful in how I run the cable from my headphones down into my bag.
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This is where the design of the HD is better as the main cable is semi isolated from the headphone and does not run into the body of it.
 
Sennheiser have been quite clever with the HD25 as the cable is quite independent of the drivers assembly and therefore replaceable.
 
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