Are noise cancelling headphones good for your ears?

There are two brands that offer the best of the best active noise cancelling technology in their headphones. They are Bose and Sony.

These are the two popular choices as you can often see them hugging the heads of travellers and office workers who just want the people on the train to zip it.

But are noise cancelling headphones good for your ears?

Well, the answer is yes and it does not take a rocket scientist to tell you why.

You see, we increase the volume of our headphones or earbuds because we want to drown out loud noises. As the surrounding disturbances gets loud, we tend to combat it with even louder music, hurting our ear drums in the process.

With active noise cancelling technology built into your headphones, there’s no need to combat external noises. So if you don’t have to drown out external disturbances, then there’s no need to increase the volume of your music.

But that does not mean that you should wear it 24/7.

In an interview with the Washington Post last October, Brian Fligor, an audiologist and chief development officer of Lantos Technologies shared that we should try to observe the 80-90 rule.

“If you listen at 80 per cent of the maximum volume, do so for no more than 90 minutes per day.”

Which brand do we recommend?

Bose and Sony both offer top-of-the-line noise cancelling headphones. Their most popular products are the Bose QuietComfort 35 wireless headphones II and Sony WH-1000XM3 Wireless Noise Cancelling Headphones, which we reviewed late October 2018.

One thing to note is that they don’t come cheap.

The Bose QuietComfort 35 costs SGD529 while the Sony WH-1000XM3 is priced at SGD549.

If you are an aesthetic person or superficial person like I am, you will probably prefer the QuietComfort 35 as the ear cups are much smaller. But if you want technology like Quick Attention and better battery life, you should go with the Sony WH-1000XM3.