I recently took a small flight from Chicago to Syracuse and paid an extra $20 to sit first class. The NIOSH SLM app clocked the ambiance at a whopping 89 dBA. Eek. Not worth the additional $20.

I had on hand the following: Beyerdynamic Lagoon ANC ($219) headphones, Airpods Pro ($197), and Sensaphonics 2MAX custom in-ear monitors ($1,050). The following is a subjective report with takeaways at the bottom if you’re pressed for time.

Beyerdynamic Lagoon ANC

Physical comfort? 10 out of 10. However, the Lagoons were the least impressive in terms of active noise cancellation (ANC) and passive attenuation. It reduced a decent amount of high-frequency noise due to passive attenuation, and some lows. A good amount of first-class cabin rumble still assaulted my tympanic membranes, however.

Additionally, when I moved my jaw or head even a micro amount, the seal would break and the ambient sound leaked in. Obviously, the fit is personal and this might not happen with larger-headed people (not a joke) as there will be a tighter seal. These headphones feature sound personalization, so for those who benefit from this feature, it’s still a decent option. Plus, who doesn’t want cool-looking LEDs emanating from their headphones?

Airpods Pro

Like many other audio professionals, I turned my nose away at Apple’s ear-damaging AirPods earbuds for many, many years. But like other audio professionals, I now must admit that the Airpods Pro are pretty darn good for many reasons, including their ANC. After this flight, I concur. (Actually, I already concurred while using these on the infamous 6 train from NYC’s subway). To my ears, it seemed like it reduced the cabin rumble (lows) very well. It did very little to mitigate the highs, perhaps due to the earbud style and not having much passive attenuation. In fact, it even seemed like the highs were louder, making me wonder if I was hearing the circuit noise. Does anyone know if this is possible? I thought circuit noise from ANC was a thing of the past… The downside is that after about an hour of wear, my tragus starts to feel tender. Again, the physical fit is personal, so this could easily just be my tragus. (Note that Sensaphonics now makes custom ear tips for the Airpod Pros).

Sensaphonics 2MAX Custom In-Ear Monitors (IEMs)

In a way, it’s not fair to employ these earphones, as a typical person will not use custom IEMs for airplanes. However, since I tell patients all the time that the isolation from silicone IEMs are unbeatable compared to other custom IEMs, I wanted to include them in this little test to hear how they stack up to ANC devices. They undoubtedly attenuated more mids and highs than the Lagoon or Airpods Pro, and it seemed like the same amount of lows as the Airpods Pro. Sensaphonics ran an independent isolation study on their silicone IEMs with results showing 29–45 dB (average 34 dB) of attenuation. Imagine this IEM with ANC! My mind is spinning…
In terms of physical comfort, though these are soft silicone, they reach the second bend of my ear canal and I do feel them after hours of use.

Double-Up?

For fun, I placed the Lagoons over the 2MAX and that was the best combination in terms of airplane cabin noise attenuation. But not the most comfortable.

My recommendation for navigating airplanes and ears

Airpods Pro are one of the most well-rounded devices available today, and their ANC is decent enough to confidently keep ears safe during flights. If your airplane only has an ⅛ inch jack for wired headphones, however, these won’t help. So you’ll want to advise your patient to have an additional device on hand if they would like to consume media and the flight doesn’t have an option to watch with their personal phone/tablet/laptop.

It is pretty much agreed upon in the headphone world that the Sony XM5 and Bose QC 45 HPs are the best at ANC. They are $400 and $300 respectively, however, so if this is not an option, the Monoprice BT600 ANC is impressive and $100, or advise your patient to find an ANC headphone that has a good seal so they also benefit from passive attenuation.

Being audiologists, we all know the company Etymotic and its founder Mead Killion. Etymotic is now owned by Lucid Audio and has dramatically changed and sadly eliminated most of its quirky, nerdy, wonderful products. Fortunately, they still manufacture earphones with a triple-flange ear tip that, for many ears, isolate as much as a custom silicone IEM with passive attenuation only. The MK5 is only $50.

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