Noise Canceling Headphone

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Intro: Noise Canceling Headphone

every time when i ride my bike, wind and air keeps making noise in my headphone...
this is a simple (30 minute) way to stop it with tools you probably have in your house!

first of all, this is my first instructable, so any critisism is good, as long as its helpfull for me :)
second, im not responible for any damage you, your property, or anyone (including aliens and your imaginary friends) else suffers from this instructable.
third, START!

materials:
duck-tape (or something similar)
headphone of your choice (i used my lowrider skullcandy for this, the headgear already broke, so i replaced that already)

tools:
small screwdriver
sharp knife (mostly the point) or scissors

STEP 1: DEMOLISH!!!

no, dont take your hammer, you dont need it! (remember the tools!)
first, take off the speaker section from that headband (vague huh?)
then, locate all the screws and unscrew it. gently pull it apart, this shouldnt be to hard (unless theres a click connection, put your smalles flathead under it and take it apart then)

STEP 2: Tape It Up

now, take your tape, and tear a small piece off, cut it to a rough size and place it for comparison.
make small triangles for where the screws are, and a small line for the cord.
also, make use small pieces of tape to make the tape a litle bit over the edge (not far enough that you can see it on the outside) so that the earpieces can help hold it all together.

STEP 3: Reassembling Time!

now, put it all together. i think you can do this alone ;)
if you cant, just make a reply, il edit, but that isnt needed i think >.<

STEP 4: All Done!

well, that's about it! look at the first two pics, thats all difference youl see.
unless you destroyed something...
test it, and if needed add extra layers if it doesnt work good enough!

please leave any comments, thoughts, pictures or even videos if you have them!
hmm, im getting alot of replys, everyone has thoughts!

5 Comments

It is soooo hard to find an Instructable that ACTUALLY involves "noise cancellation", because these "noise isolation" projects have zero electronic reduction in noise.

I've spent 15 minutes reading through the same old thing, "noise isolation", and still haven't found one actual "noise cancellation" project.

How come misrepresentation is allowed in Instructables? It really harms the community. The wasted time in trying to find actually what is being sought.

Frustrated

Would I have to disassemble all the way to access that area behind the speakers?
Pretty creative instructable, but if you really want to get into noise free headphones, the best way to start would be covering the inside of the cup (the "back", not the part with the driver a.k.a. "speaker") with sticky tack stuff, making a layer of some sheet modeling foam from the walmart kids craft section over that, then a layer of 25 cent walmart felt from the same section over that, so it's earpad, driver (speaker), felt, foam, tack, cup (back of headphones). You can change this "recipe" to suit your headphones but this is the best starting point and actually improves the sound quality of lots of headphones. some other things to try are pulled apart cotton balls, porous fabric or paper tape over the holes in the back of the driver (found in the pharmacy section) and sealing any holes, moving parts (headband gimbal, a.k.a. that loop thing that the cup spins on), or the join between the driver part (baffle) and cup of the headphones with the sticky tack.
This isn't really a "noise cancelling headphone" but it does illustrate how to reduce outside noises in an existing set of headphones.

Another tip to add into this process is to take some low density foam (soft and squishy, pillow foam is the first thing to come to mind.) and fill the cup behind the speaker. This would further reduce outside noise levels from wind. (I had to do this to my motorcycle helmet because the wind noise was so bad.)
i like that idea, might do that if i find some scraps of it :P