Bone Conduction and ANR

[Crashnburn]

I have both tinnitus, and hyperacousis, which make me sensitive to excessive noise. I'm just looking at headsets and started wondering if ANR is any good past about 29 dB attenuation (which is where bone conduction kicks in).

I answered my own question with a Dogpile search. Bone conduction bypasses the outer and middle ear, and directly affects the cochlea in the inner ear. So, it looks like if you have a big enough ear cup, it would require the sound to travel through more bone to get to the cochlea, and thus be attenuated more.

I've been shopping headsets, and both the Lightspeed Zulu 3, and the Bose A20s have larger than usual ear cups, so that might help with reducing bone conduction. They each are supposed to attenuate better than the average headset. Bose says 30% better, but never gives a hard number. My ears aren't quite Dumbo sized, but they are larger than average, so a larger ear cup would be more comfortable, even if they don't attenuate more.

Anyone have anything to add? (Dumb question. There are a lot of true subject matter experts on this site.)

 

[AggieMike88]

High wing and tastes great.


I have a touch of tinnitus and use a LS PFX. I hear ATC and intercom just fine. No input on Bose comparison as I never owned one.

 

[Matthew]

Halo claims 30-45 dB
http://www.quiettechnologies.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=51

Clarity Aloft says 29-47 dB
https://www.clarityaloft.com/pages/aviation-headsets

I've never used either, but would like to try them out. They don't do ANR.

Are you looking for something more than that? I think that you are trying to keep even bone-conducted sound out?

If you want to really knock out external noise, you can wear normal, unplugged, headsets (or hardware store hearing protection) over either of these.

 

[Lindberg]

I have a Lightspeed Zulu and a David Clark with ANR. I've also worn a friend's Bose on occasion. The LS and Bose seem to provide little actual attenuation. I would not use them without the ANR. The DCs are built just like regular DCs and are good without the ANR turned on and better with it.

 

[Stewartb]

Zulus have excellent passive attenuation. Bose not as good. Both are great for ANR. For hearing protection? There’s little or no data to help with that, or at least there wasn’t a few years ago when I was seeing an ENT and Audiologist regularly. I asked. I use Zulu 2s in my Cessna and A-20s retrofitted into a Gallet Helmet in the Cub. If bone transmission is a worry for you? Get a helmet with Zulu or A-20 comm built in. Can I prove it’ll be better than headsets? Nope, but applied common sense says it must be.

 

[pigpenracing]

The Lightspeeds will block out way more noise than the Bose.
If interested I can hook you up with one

 

[Checkout_my_Six]

I clamp on David Clarks.....they seem to take the endless ocean and engine noises away.

 

[wayne]

If you want to really knock out external noise, you can wear normal, unplugged, headsets (or hardware store hearing protection) over either of these.

^ This is amazingly quiet; ANR headset over an in-ear plugs.

 

[Crashnburn]

Thanks for all the replies. I think the helmet would work well. When I played football in High School, (off. tackle, def. end) our helmets all had ear holes in them so we could hear better, and they weren't designed for hearing protection, but brain protection.

From my research, and audiologist, if you don't have prior hearing loss, your ears can handle 80 dB of noise continuously with no hearing loss. They can handle 8 hours up to 85 dB. Every 5 dB after that cuts the endurance time in half.

If you have prior hearing loss, the endurance time goes down, but there are no good numbers for that. I have hearing loss, so I am very conservative about prolonged exposure to noise. And, yes, I'd like to reduce noise from bone conduction.

 

[Clip4]

I have both tinnitus, and hyperacousis, which make me sensitive to excessive noise. I'm just looking at headsets and started wondering if ANR is any good past about 29 dB attenuation (which is where bone conduction kicks in).

I answered my own question with a Dogpile search. Bone conduction bypasses the outer and middle ear, and directly affects the cochlea in the inner ear. So, it looks like if you have a big enough ear cup, it would require the sound to travel through more bone to get to the cochlea, and thus be attenuated more.

I've been shopping headsets, and both the Lightspeed Zulu 3, and the Bose A20s have larger than usual ear cups, so that might help with reducing bone conduction. They each are supposed to attenuate better than the average headset. Bose says 30% better, but never gives a hard number. My ears aren't quite Dumbo sized, but they are larger than average, so a larger ear cup would be more comfortable, even if they don't attenuate more.

Anyone have anything to add? (Dumb question. There are a lot of true subject matter experts on this site.)

I have tinitutus and I suspect ANR aggravates the condition at times.