Bose QC20 Noise cancelling ear buds.

[Fido T. Dog]

Hello Friends,

I tried something new (to me) and it worked Amazingly well.

I recently bought a pair of Bose QC20 noise cancelling ear buds for air travel.

I am lucky I can get a Shoei Multitec over the new Earbuds.

With the Noise cancelling active, over 90% of the wind noise is gone. They are a major improvement over foam ear plugs.

They have an "aware" feature that allows you to hear traffic noise with a push of a button. This can be done with a glove on.

I used them on a one ride from Seattle to Reno, NV for the Hot August Nights car show.

The battery life is about 12 hours, so plan accordingly.

Fido

 

[garyahouse]

This the price you paid for them? Are these the right ones?

CLICKY

 

[Fido T. Dog]

That was the price ($299.00).

I have never seen a Bose product discounted.

Fido

 

[RPrice]

Hello Friends,
I tried something new (to me) and it worked Amazingly well.

I recently bought a pair of Bose QC20 noise cancelling ear buds for air travel.

I am lucky I can get a Shoei Multitec over the new Earbuds.

With the Noise cancelling active, over 90% of the wind noise is gone. They are a major improvement over foam ear plugs.

They have an "aware" feature that allows you to hear traffic noise with a push of a button. This can be done with a glove on.

I used them on a one ride from Seattle to Reno, NV for the Hot August Nights car show.

The battery life is about 12 hours, so plan accordingly.

Fido

Interestingly I've had good luck with the Skullcandy Ink'd, and Titan ear buds. I'd say at least 75% of the road noise is gone, if not more. Put it this way, I can't hear anybody talking to me (when stopped) until I take them out of my ears. I have mine hard wired to my Garmin 550 and my escort 9500ix via an amplirider. Works very well, and is certainly a cheaper alternative to the Bosch.

However, the noise reduction may not be as great, and they certainly do not have the "aware" feature.

 

[Hornet Pilot]

I'm not sure I'd want to be that isolated from outside sounds while riding. Might be kinda dangerous!

 

[RPrice]

Occasionally I'll ride a short distance w/o the ear buds, and I'm shocked how loud my FJR is!!

So, yeah, no doubt I'm not hearing my surroundings at low speeds, but at high speeds I'd just be hearing wind noise without the ear buds or ear plugs.

 

[lacofdfireman]

I still use the Etymotics ER6i's. They are discontinued now but I stocked up on filters and ear pieces so I should be good at least for a few years. Can't imagine having to pay $300 for ear bugs.. Ouch..

 

[someguy]

Skull Candy 50/50 with Comply tips.... pretty sweet for the money...

i do aspire for better, but the bank says no...

 

[captaincautious]

I'm sure the Bose are very good as is with all Bose products but if anyone is searching a much cheaper alternative which does a fine job of noise canceling. Check out the JVC HA NCX78. They have the noise canceling switch and are only 50 bucks and have a 5 star rating. I have used these for 3 or 4 years and they are rugged and also have the hook built onto the earpiece which provides a very secure fit.

 

[s.ga.rider]

I have the etymotic hf5's and they work great.

 

[Fred W]

Interesting stuff. For any of these noise cancelling ear "bugs" the noise sensor (microphone) would need to be located on the bud itself so that it is sampling the noise inside your helmet. Do both the Bose and the JVC HA NCX78 have that? Can't tell by looking at they respective web pages.

 

[captaincautious]

On the JVC I do not see any sensor. There is a 2 inch long switchbox with a clip

located approx. 1 foot below earbuds. I do know simply from listening that when engine is idling and I have these on under my helmet if they are switched on there is a significant decrease in engine noise and an increase in overall clarity. They do subdue outside noise.

 

[wingshot]

Skull Candy 50/50 with Comply tips.... pretty sweet for the money...
i do aspire for better, but the bank says no...

Skull Candy's with Comply wax filter tips. Almost 100,000 miles and nothing to complain about. Outstanding noise reduction for the price.

 

[Fred W]

On the JVC I do not see any sensor. There is a 2 inch long switchbox with a cliplocated approx. 1 foot below earbuds. I do know simply from listening that when engine is idling and I have these on under my helmet if they are switched on there is a significant decrease in engine noise and an increase in overall clarity. They do subdue outside noise.

Sure, but to eliminate the biggest helmet noise source, which is caused by wind hitting the helmet structure at speed, you'd need a noise sensor up on the ear bud inside the helmet, Otherwise the noise it would be eliminating is just noise coming from outside the helmet which isn't all that bad to begin with

Skull Candy 50/50 with Comply tips.... pretty sweet for the money...
i do aspire for better, but the bank says no...

Skull Candy's with Comply wax filter tips. Almost 100,000 miles and nothing to complain about. Outstanding noise reduction for the price.

What do you mean by wax filter tips? I've looked at the Comply web site and do not see anything like that.

 

[wingshot]

Sorry FredW, wrong terminology. The Comply terminology is Wax-Guard. See - https://www.complyfoam.com/isolation-plus-tx-series/

 

[HotRodZilla]

Like a couple others, I have been a BIG fan of the Skull Candy buds. They have been very comfortable, reliable, reasonably priced, and easy to locate. One day I got an email from Amazon for Sony MDREX10LP buds for a smoking price. So I ordered two sets, just as backup for my Skull Candys.

Before I left for my last Colorado trip, I misplaced my Skull Candys while I was packing. That has NEVER happened before. I got mad and decided to just open the new Sonys. 5 minutes later, the Skull Candys popped up. Stupid right?? Well, I was still pissed, so I put the Skull Candys in my bag and decided to just go with the Sony buds. Holy shit!! They are amazing comfortable and have better sound. I'm glad I got two sets, as I will most likely stick with these.

They are shorter than the SKs, so they don't get any pressure from my helmet, and the sound is excellent. The outside noise dampening is about the same, but the music quality is definately better.

Try them...Amazon still has them.

 

[Shagomatic]

I have a pair of these Westone CR1 headphone.... I love them so very much. Comfortable, quiet, and secure. My wife and I use them with our Starcom Advance and it is like sitting on the couch together.

It is a bit of a pain to get them because you need to have ear molds made.

https://www.westone.com/music/index.php/products/custom-fit/cr1.html

Shag

 

[GinaMcD]

...Comply wax filter tips. Almost 100,000 miles and nothing to complain about. Outstanding noise reduction for the price.

Thanks for the info on the Comply earbud tips! I'd never heard of them before, but checked them out after seeing your post and found they have a model that will fit the Etymotic HF5's. Both my husband and I had Etymotic er6i's that we'd been using for many years, but both pairs died towards the end of last year's riding season. The new HF5's we bought are great from a sound quality standpoint, but not quite as comfy in the helmet as the er6i's were. Noise elimination on both was okay, but not wonderful.

So I checked the diameter of the Etymotic earbud tips we've been using and found they corresponded with the small sized Comply's, and ordered a three pack to try We got to use them last Sunday for the first time and they were so amazingly comfortable that it didn't even feel like I had anything in my ears. And they eliminated so much of the higher pitched wind noise that I could suddenly hear the deeper tones of my bike's engine. In fact, I kept thinking something was wrong with my bike until I was able to listen to it without the earbuds in when we stopped for gas! So while not "noise canceling" they do cancel out a whole lot more noise than the stock Etymotic tips. They cost a bit more, but so far I'd say they are well worth it. Thanks again!