Are Noise Cancelling Headphones Safer or More Dangerous?

hi everyone my name is Blake Cadwell I'm

the co-founder at soundly.com it's a

site all about hearing and sound and in

this video we're going to be talking

about noise canceling headphones and

specifically we're to talk about whether

or not they're good or bad for your

hearing and to talk about this I'm

joined by audiologist Dr Amy sorrow so

for anyone who's in a rush let's start

with the burning question we know from

research from the world of Health

Organization and others that headphone

use is a problem for hearing broadly

there are over a billion people in the

Gen Z and Millennial Generations who are

likely going to have hearing loss

because of headphone use that's what the

Research indicates so if someone is

faced with the choice between noise

cancellation headphones or normal

headphones which one should they choose

which one is generally safer for your

ears

generally speaking the noise

cancellation is going to be better for

your ears the reason is it's going to

block out some of that background noise

so you don't have to crank the volume up

as high so that's that's the short

answer

okay so let's back up how do noise

canceling headphones actually work so

with noise cancellation there are two

types we have active and passive passive

noise cancellation is accomplished by a

piece in your ear that seals it up to

prevent sound from coming in

active noise cancellation is done with

the technology inside of your earbuds or

headphones that is monitoring your

environment and then canceling out sound

now this is really fascinating if you

think about it so let's talk about for

example air pods if you're you're

wearing those in your ears what happens

is they have little microphones on the

outside that are going to monitor your

environment and they'll try to catch any

background noise and then they'll emit a

sound that is completely the opposite

and what happens is it cancels out or it

negates that sound so you don't perceive

it so it's like a sound wave to

counteract a sound wave so when you're

choosing a pair of headphones with

hearing Health in mind are earbuds that

sit inside the ear or over ear

headphones safer in your opinion

so the answer to this question depends a

bit on how well we can seal off your ear

the reason for that is if we can seal it

off a little better you'll get better

attenuation or reduction from the

background noise and you won't have to

turn the volume up as high a lot of the

time the best attenuation possibly is

going to be with over-the-ear headphones

which we call circum oral because they

they cover up your ear so those larger

headphones as opposed to earbuds now

both of them can work some earbuds do a

pretty good job with active noise

cancellation but the answer would be

typically those over-the-ear headphones

so the next time you're choosing

headphones air pods beats Skull Candy

give noise cancellation a second look it

can be great for your hearing health and

help you cut out some of that background

noise and turn down your overall volume

so thank you Dr Amy for your time and to

you the viewer we wish you the best

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