By Enti Bracamonte
Posted: March 31, 2022
Which are the best headphones for conference interpreters?
It really doesn’t surprise me, at all, that more interpreters aren’t asking themselves this very fundamental question; after all, most interpreters have very little control over the type of equipment they get to use. With any luck, the interpreter headphones will bear the brand of a decent manufacturer of simultaneous interpretation equipment and not the flashy logo of some hyped-up brand of Hi-Fi headphones that promises deep bass, extended frequency range, and an immersive experience thanks to its active noise cancelling technology… [keep inserting marketing stuff ad nauseam here…]
There is a reason manufacturers of proper simultaneous interpretation equipment don’t offer deep bass or an extended frequency response for their headphones. Unless you are interpreting for someone with a voice far deeper than that of Barry White or James Earl Jones, there is just no information for you down there in that “deep bass” region.
As simultaneous interpreters, it is the human voice we seek to hear, and anything outside of that range is just a distraction competing for our attention. If your headphones are boosting the low rumble of the air-conditioning system and the clinking noises of the kitchenware, in the luxurious ballroom of a convention center, you are seriously—and needlessly—straining your ears and, very likely, also, missing out on what really counts. Boosting the highs and the lows, in effect, means that the human voice now lies recessed and further away from our ears.
Imagine yourself using Hi-Fi headphones while attempting to interpret during a video segment in which the human voice is overlaid with loud, compressed music (as it usually is the case). To no avail, whatsoever, your first impulse will be to turn the volume up in order to untangle the voice from the kick drums and the cymbals. Now, the mark of a professional has never been to just throw your hands up and exclaim, “it’s impossible!”, so, instead, with sheer stoicism, you will bear the brunt of the baseline and the crashing of the cymbals, for as long as that video plays, while trying to convey every drop of meaning you can manage to extrapolate from that maelstrom of frequencies. The price you will inevitably pay, for keeping this up, is premature loss of hearing at some point.
————————
Recap: If you choose to use Hi-Fi headphones for interpretation work you will be, needlessly, punishing your ears because the voice you want to hear will always be in the background and the bass and the cymbals and the earthquakes and the kitchenware will always be in the foreground. You cannot expect to keep this up for very long without consequences.
———————-
Wearing headphones all day, every day of the week, is an occupational hazard we all have to brave in our line of work, and there are no two ways about it; adding, on top, the wrong type of headphones for the job is a sure path to an early visit with the audiologist.
This is a topic that should be, at least, minimally addressed in every simultaneous interpretation forum and, yet, no one seems to be talking about it—at least, not in the international interpretation conferences I have attended so far.
Luckily, there are clear, common sense ways to do what we must, safely—some of which you are probably already applying, whether you are aware of it or not:
We all know that taking breaks every 30 minutes keeps our mind rested and fresh as the day progresses, but what you may not be aware of is that this also limits our exposure to high sound pressure levels (SPL) from our headphones. Never agree to work continuously for more than one full hour, especially, if you know the gear you are using is not adequate for the task.
Consider the following information:
At 100dB hearing loss will likely occur after 15 minutes of exposure
At 97dB hearing loss will likely occur after 30 minutes of exposure
At 94 dB hearing loss will likely occur after 60 minutes of exposure
You are probably thinking now that a 100dB burst of audio is actually painful, so you would just remove your headphones right away and no harm done, right? Maybe. But the concern for us is not just the occasional, short-lived 100dB burst of audio; our concern is also chronic (frequent) exposure to much lower, but sustained, unhealthy levels of volume—how many of us keep an SPL meter in our booths? We have got to use a common sense approach to tackle the occupational hazards of our job.
Wearing the right type of headsets while we work is another easy way to not only protect our hearing, but also to improve our performance, and—best of all—interpreter headsets are cheap!
Understandably, interpreters that work in wealthier economies need not worry too much about headphone choice, because the right equipment is always provided by “the house,” and “the house” will usually just follow the advice of the simultaneous interpretation equipment manufacturer. Those of us, however, that work in poorer economies, would do well in paying attention to the equipment we are provided, since “the house”—more likely than not—will tend to procure whatever equipment is readily available locally, even against the advice of the OEM.
Although availability and price are, commonly, the principal reasons we are sometimes stuck with gear that’s detrimental to our hearing and performance, I will be first to recognize that, sometimes, that decision is actually made with the best of intentions at heart, often driven by people’s assumptions on what they think we need:
“I want my interpreters to have the best equipment that money can buy!… Let’s get them some Grado cans!…”
O.K, that seems a little overenthusiastic, but I suppose it can happen. I know I have been offered Bose noise cancelling headphones a few times in my career—it was a good thing they asked!
Now, I am not badmouthing any of the headphone brands that exist out there—not even the really bad ones—I am sure they all sound terrific with music or movies and, after all, that still remains a matter of personal preference; all I am saying here is that Hi-Fi headphones are not the right tool for our job.
“Still,” you say, “there is a vast array of headphone types out there; surely, there must be some that we can use for our work.” Maybe, but all of the above will still apply to most, if not all.
But other perils also underlie the neglected world of interpreter headphone choice that I would like to shed some light on, in this article, should they, on their own, be less appealing to the readership and simply fall out of mind and out of the conversation all together:
The long hours we spend at the microphone, day in, day out, as part of or work, necessarily signify that our ears remain enclosed within our headphones for unnatural periods on end, which can led to ear infection and fungus due to moisture and heat build-up. And I am assuming, here, that you—as I do—are wearing your own headphones, when you are working, and not somebody else’s; the possibility of ear infection and fungus becomes a probability, otherwise.
From the standpoint of health alone, then, big, heavy headphones that fully envelop our ears are, therefore, a terrible idea; but comfort, a primary factor that should also be driving your selection, should take care of that—I cannot imagine an interpreter finding it enjoyable to get back into that booth longing to put back on some heavy, sweat-drenched headphones for yet another session of heat therapy for the ears.
On the opposite end of the hardware spectrum, though tiny and light, earbuds and earphones—believe it or not—are really not much different from their cousins, the big, heavy headphones, in that prolonged use can also lead to fungus and ear infection due to the build-up of moisture and heat within our ears. But the one trait that makes these little rascals, quite possibly, the worst kind of earpiece an interpreter can use is that they are also pain-inducing, since they sit right at—or in—the ear canal, which is soft and tender and not meant to be in contact with foreign objects for extended periods.
And if the promise of earache, still, does not deter you from wanting to use earbuds or earphones for your interpretation work, please allow me to explain the other way in which earbuds and earphones can actually hinder your performance: Passive Noise Cancellation.
Earbuds and earphones block your ear canal completely, thereby impeding your ability to hear yourself speak. If you cannot hear yourself speak, you can’t be sure of your pronunciation, your intonation, or of how loudly you are speaking, which can also strain your vocal cords, by the way. In other words, you are flying blind. No feature is more useless and detrimental to an interpreter working in the quiet confines of a booth, than noise cancellation technology, whether passive or active.
“But news anchors and musicians wear in-ear phones all the time,” you argue while menacingly shaking your index finger at me… Not all the time and, certainly, not for as long as you do. The kind of in-ear phones those professionals use is custom made exactly for their ears and for their needs. Rather, my aim, here, is to discuss the kind of off-the-shelf solutions that most interpreters might find—much to their detriment—easily available to them. But if you are willing to pay for someone to pour casting material into your ear and develop a perfectly matched earphone with just the frequencies you need that is fantastic!—maybe.
So, which ones, then, are the best headphones a simultaneous interpreter can use for his every day work? I gave that away in the first paragraph of this article.