Headphones for Protection, Not Cranking It Up
The 3M Tekk WorkTunes headphones protect eardrums from high volume noise while playing music.
Anyone who has read the warnings that come with new headphones knows that cranking music at full volume can permanently harm hearing. The 3M TEKK Protection WorkTunes headphones, however, are meant to protect your hearing, and not just from loud music.
The black and safety-yellow ear cups are the giveaway that these workplace “earmuffs†are designed to protect hearing, reducing the high volume of chain saws, vacuum cleaners and other noisy power tools.
Unlike common ear protectors, the $60 WorkTunes headset can also play music inside the ear cups while keeping excessive noise out.
The headphones have a built-in AM/FM radio and they can connect to a music player using a wire with a 3.5mm jack. They use two AA batteries.
Without any music playing, the headphones have serious 24-decibel noise reduction. The loudest trucks sounded like a whisper when I tested them while standing by a road. And when the music was playing, I couldn’t hear the trucks at all. The fit was very snug, but not uncomfortable.
The radio has a robotic voice that says which frequency you are on, so you don’t need to see a dial and can scan for stations without taking the headphones off. There is also a button that switches to your favorite stations.
When a jack is plugged in, the headphones automatically switch to play from the attached device.
The sound quality is not exactly hi-fi, but it’s not bad. I also found that even the highest volume setting wasn’t that loud. No point in saving your ears from leaf blowers only to damage them with the White Stripes.
