Eli5: while using my riding mower I tend to listen to podcasts or YouTube videos. For some reason, the bass tends to disappear amidst the engine noise. Deep voices become nasally, and medium and high voices become squeaky. Why does that happen?

Question

Eli5: while using my riding mower I tend to listen to podcasts or YouTube videos. For some reason, the bass tends to disappear amidst the engine noise. Deep voices become nasally, and medium and high voices become squeaky. Why does that happen?

In: 5

Answer 1

Regular earbuds or ones with noise canceling and all that jazz?

A riding lawnmower makes noise, and the noise it makes is more on the bass end than the treble end. As such, bass from your music get’s combined from bass from your lawn mower, and lawnmower is pretty loud so it can drown it out.

Also, if it’s just plastic earbuds and not in-ears (silicone tips), you don’t have much isolation, which is what you want for hearing protection (over-ear & closed-back headphones are going to be best; like the Sony or Bose headphones if you want wireless and active noise canceling).