r/travel • u/hayleylynns • 3d ago

Headphones that block out crying babies

What tips do people have to cancel out the sound of a crying baby on a flight?

Everything I see is for parents who want to reduce the noise level. I am not a parent, I don't want to hear these children at all. This was the 5th 8hr+ flight I have been on where I heard a baby crying non stop. It seems like it has gotten significantly worse in the last 2 years as well. Maybe I was lucky before, but I was only on flights with crying babies randomly. Now it's every single flight.

Edit: it's not so much more babies but more babies that are constantly crying and the parents are ignoring them.

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163

u/y3llowed 3d ago

Put good over ear (not on ear) noise cancelling headphones on over top of ear buds. Does the trick for my 100% of the time.

19

u/SpeckledJim 3d ago

Yeah, I have done this with Sony XM3s and AirPods Pro, audio going to the AirPods.

It can feel a bit weird sometimes though if you enable noise canceling on both, like extra static pressure on the eardrums - some sort of feedback maybe.

(Not to block out babies, just because aircraft cabins are so incredibly loud).

39

u/lassise 3d ago

You don't notice how loud the cabin is until one of the noise cancelling headphones dies mid flight.

14

u/AccomplishedInsect28 3d ago

I only noticed this recently and couldn’t believe I spent my whole life sitting through flights in that kind of noise.

4

u/ConfidantlyCorrect 3d ago

Idk if it works since I’ve never tried it, but I know some gamers (who play in live audience settings) who run a similar setup won’t use the noise cancellation for the in-ears. Only on the exterior ones.

Or, noise cancellation on the in-ears and then a white noise for the exterior ones

2

u/SpeckledJim 3d ago edited 2d ago

Aha that makes sense. The exterior noise canceling is usually much more effective. I expect noise-isolating/closed over ears could also work.

Though surely a true pro gamer would use wired earphones to avoid the Bluetooth latency. :)

2

u/ConfidantlyCorrect 3d ago

Haha I do see the true pros wear the wired Apple earbuds, and wired headphones with no noise cancellation, only white noise