Headphones Megathread

rubadub

thehamo wrote: »

And it aint the same as listening to music while driving! Different ball game

lots of people have the radio so loud that it would be effectively allowing the same amount of outside noise in as earphones at a low volume.

Lots of people drive with earphones in listening to music, or on the phone. The nodding heads and lack of mouth movement would often indicate which are listening to music.

Pedestrians get off scot free as per usual. If motorists and cyclists are being hit it should be also illegal while they are using/crossing the road. I see loads of wandering oblivious zombies about.

Trojan

Listening to headphones isn't the same as listening to music from an in-car system: the cyclist can hear far more than a driver with the sound up.

A bike rider with ear-bud earphones playing music at a reasonable volume hears much more outside noise than a car driver, even when that driver has no music playing.

A bike rider with in-ear earphones playing music at a reasonable volume hears about the same outside noise as a car driver with no music playing, but more than a car driver playing music.

Source.

This is just one example, there've been loads of tests done to show this.

rubadub

Test location: St Kilda Road, Melbourne

Time: Thursday 2–4pm

Car: Nissan X-Trail 2005

Music: “Lust for life” Iggy Pop

All measurements were made in dBA.

I used to have an old cassette walkman that had a microphone on it which would play outside sounds into your ears.

Lumen

Cars have mirrors, bikes generally don't.

When cycling on urban roads we compensate for the lack of mirrors by hearing tyre and engine noise from cars approaching from the rear.

With much of that blocked by earphones, we need to look around more often or just give up caring about what's going on behind.

Personally I can't be arsed swivelling my neck every few seconds so I do without listening to stuff, but each to their own.

I do use earphones and loud music when cycling along busy dual carriageways where vehicle noise is constant and useless.

uphillonly

Even though I've been riding & commuting with headphones for 20+ years I can't deny it reduces alertness.

Depends on danger/risk of situation:
Climbing hills - headphones in.
Descending - headphones out.
Narrow country lane - one or both headphones out.
Busy commute - one headphone out, although it really spoils lots of Beatles songs with different instruments on each channel.:cool:

tomasrojo

uphillonly wrote: »

Busy commute - one headphone out, although it really spoils lots of Beatles songs with different instruments on each channel.:cool:

I heartily recommend the mono mixes, available since 2009, I think. They're the mixes most people heard when the records were first released, and by and large they're superior to the really quite weird (to modern ears) stereo mixes. They're also mixed differently; they're not just fold-in mono, where they just run two channels into one. Sergeant Pepper is markedly better in mono, I think. Quite a few details that are inaudible in the stereo mixes are more prominent in the mono version, and the rock instrumentation is further forward in the mix.

They only go up to the White Album, as stereo took over pretty much completely after that, and even the Beatles albums have a more modern distribution of sounds between the two ears after that.

m5ex9oqjawdg2i

pelevin wrote: »

Tobh I think that's fair enough. I also think people should be able to endure the solitude of their own heads without having to be distracted by some kind of outside stimulation every waking moment, even out cycling. And if they manage to get over the awfulness of their own silence, they might discover it's not so awful after all.

Or, you know, people could decide for themselves if they wish to cycle in "silence" or to music

Drive and cycle, as most here probably, and I hear more on my bike with headphones. I can't hear jack sh!t outside my car with music on and windows up.

mal1

Will never understand why some cyclists are annoyed by other cyclists wearing earphones. What annoys me is a cyclist's bad behaviour, not what they put in their ears or head or what they cycle. Someone moving position without checking over their shoulder annoys me, it annoys me because it endangers me and them. Doesn't matter what's in their ears.

Wanderer78

good idea. stopped using them years ago. too dangerous

JamJamJamJam

The more electric cars there are on the roads, the more irrelevant hearing will become anyway. The things jump out of nowhere!

Borderfox

Must be the type of cycling helmet I have but nothing but deafening wind noise when cycling, are the aero helmets like the evade and the synthe any better?

Sh1tbag OToole

Great idea, nearly got myself killed one day cycling while listening to tunes.

07Lapierre

Sh1tbag OToole wrote: »

Great idea, nearly got myself killed one day cycling while listening to tunes.

For the benefit of those of us who use headphones while cycling, please explain the circumstances? I'd love to know how you were "nearly killed".

Deedsie

Hopefully they will bring something like this in "hear" eventually. Stupid thing to do, cycling is dangerous enough but for people to be adding extra distractions themselves is very strange. Fair play France.

Dades

I nearly saw my first road death on the Cherrywood flyover of the N11 last night.

I was parked to turn left and watched two cyclists (in high levels of kit - no headphones!) broke the lights which were green for cars crossing the bridge. One slowly ventured across, the second cycled straight out and only that the car coming from the right wasn't speeding, and swerved and honked this guy into skidding to a stop, would have sideswiped this guy into the afterlife.

Your own thoughts and your own stupidity can be as much of a distraction as Simon & Garfunkel.

laraghrider

Is the thought behind this that the earphones/music is a distraction while cycling or that it blocks out one of your senses in reducing your ability to hear?

If it's the latter I'm genuinely curious if they are banning deaf people from cycling?

tigerboon

Seen a pair of sunglasses in the paper recently where the sound is transmitted through vibrations to the bone on top of your ear thus removing the need for the buds. Your ears are free to hear all around and you can still listen to tunes. Forget the brand but the price was about €120 which seemed reasonable.

tomasrojo

Deedsie wrote: »

cycling is dangerous enough

I don't find this to be the case. I wouldn't cycle if I found this to be the case. I have never found any stats that reasonably interpreted support this case.

tomasrojo

tigerboon wrote: »

Seen a pair of sunglasses in the paper recently where the sound is transmitted through vibrations to the bone on top of your ear thus removing the need for the buds. Your ears are free to hear all around and you can still listen to tunes. Forget the brand but the price was about €120 which seemed reasonable.

I can see an uptick in French sales next year.

Alanstrainor

I would wonder if this is a knee jerk reaction to people using closed back headphones while cycling. I see it most days on my commute. Now that is dangerous... I wouldn't be the biggest fan of having earphones in at all either tbh.

uphillonly

tomasrojo wrote: »

I heartily recommend the mono mixes, available since 2009, I think. They're the mixes most people heard when the records were first released, and by and large they're superior to the really quite weird (to modern ears) stereo mixes. They're also mixed differently; they're not just fold-in mono, where they just run two channels into one. Sergeant Pepper is markedly better in mono, I think. Quite a few details that are inaudible in the stereo mixes are more prominent in the mono version, and the rock instrumentation is further forward in the mix.

They only go up to the White Album, as stereo took over pretty much completely after that, and even the Beatles albums have a more modern distribution of sounds between the two ears after that.

Thanks Tomasrojo.

Beatles mono vs Stereo. Need to investigate. Deserves a whole thread in itself.

Back on topic. I'm reading an excellent book at the moment - Organized Mind by neuroscientist Daniel Levitin. Plenty of studies show that humans cannot really multitask, we just switch between tasks very quickly which reduces our effectiveness at doing either task.

If cycling listening to music/podcasts etc your cycling is done without having to think about it. The moment something on the road grabs your attention and you have to think about the cycling you stop activley listening to the music. I'm often rewinding podcasts for this exact reason.

An interesting example of our need to focus - if you ask someone a tough question requiring a lot of thought whilst walking they will typically stop walking to think about it and answer.

the.red.baron

Lumen wrote: »

Cars have mirrors, bikes generally don't.

When cycling on urban roads we compensate for the lack of mirrors by hearing tyre and engine noise from cars approaching from the rear.

With much of that blocked by earphones, we need to look around more often or just give up caring about what's going on behind.

Personally I can't be arsed swivelling my neck every few seconds so I do without listening to stuff, but each to their own.

I do use earphones and loud music when cycling along busy dual carriageways where vehicle noise is constant and useless.

Does your Daredevilesque hearing allow you to know if the car approaching is going to try and knock you down or what?

Deedsie

tomasrojo wrote: »

I don't find this to be the case. I wouldn't cycle if I found this to be the case. I have never found any stats that reasonably interpreted support this case.

Because there is very little research done on cycling in Ireland. I'm cycling in Dublin for two years I was in one accident myself and I probably have seen 5 or 6 other fairly serious ones. Of course cycling is a potentially dangerous activity. We share roads with much larger faster vehicles with bad drivers, dodgy road surfaces, trucks that can't see us in certain positions, kamikaze pedestrians and lunatic cyclists. It's potentially deadly. Why someone would exacerbate the potential to endanger themselves by adding a further distraction baffles me.

There shouldn't need to be a law brought in, people should just use their common sense and realise it's probably not the best idea.

07Lapierre

the.red.baron wrote: »

Does your Daredevilesque hearing allow you to know if the car approaching is going to try and knock you down or what?

Does a car about to run you over sound different to a car that is just going to pass you by?

I'm assuming we talking about cars approaching from behind you right?

the.red.baron

Dades wrote: »

I nearly saw my first road death on the Cherrywood flyover of the N11 last night.

I was parked to turn left and watched two cyclists (in high levels of kit - no headphones!) broke the lights which were green for cars crossing the bridge. One slowly ventured across, the second cycled straight out and only that the car coming from the right wasn't speeding, and swerved and honked this guy into skidding to a stop, would have sideswiped this guy into the afterlife.

Your own thoughts and your own stupidity can be as much of a distraction as Simon & Garfunkel.

Clearly they were too distracted listening to all the sounds nature has to throw at them to concentrate on the road ahead.

Happens to the best of us.

the.red.baron

07Lapierre wrote: »

Does a car about to run you over sound different to a car that is just going to pass you by?

I'm assuming we talking about cars approaching from behind you right?

If the movies are anything to go by, they will be gunning their engine in a threatening fashion.

I might be able to hear this above ACDC - Big Balls on loop

Amiright?

:pac:

07Lapierre

the.red.baron wrote: »

If the movies are anything to go by, they will be gunning their engine in a threatening fashion.

I might be able to hear this above ACDC - Big Balls on loop

Amiright?

:pac:

What if the murderer is driving a Nissan leaf?

Dades

Deedsie wrote: »

We share roads with much larger faster vehicles with bad drivers, dodgy road surfaces, trucks that can't see us in certain positions, kamikaze pedestrians and lunatic cyclists. It's potentially deadly. Why someone would exacerbate the potential to endanger themselves by adding a further distraction baffles me.

Not every cycle is in these conditions. Otherwise none of us feel the urge to head to the hills come the weekend.

When you formally legislate against such things you are doomed to lump every form of bike ride into the same category as city center madness.

endacl

07Lapierre wrote: »

What if the murderer is driving a Nissan leaf?

Be grand. It'd hop off you.

Deedsie

Dades wrote: »

Not every cycle is in these conditions. Otherwise none of us feel the urge to head to the hills come the weekend.

When you formally legislate against such things you are doomed to lump every form of bike ride into the same category as city center madness.

It's just deflection really... I have cycled city centre and country roads. Neither location would I recommend someone to use headphones. It's personal choice, but it's insane to me to be blocking out one of your senses when cycling. I'd want all my faculties about me.

Hopefully nothing will ever happen to any cyclist who chooses to wear headphones but I'd feel like a hypocrite berating a motorist for not showing due care to me and then turn around and turn on a set of headphones while I'm cycling. Bottom line it is irresponsible