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How Do You Drown Out the Office Noise?
An anonymous reader asks: "We've recently had yet another office re-organization, which is not so bad in itself, but the noise level has increased significantly due to the type of furniture as well as job functions of those whom I share the office with. The first thing I think I'm going to do is to get a pair of noise canceling headphones, but before I spend hundreds of dollars I'd like to hear some opinions or alternatives. Two of the ones that look neat are the Extreme Isolation Headphones and Plane Quiet Headphones. What have others done to cope with noise level?"
I have a pair of Sennheiser HD 280 Pro headphones.
They do not have any specific noice-cancelling technology per se,
but they are the "closed" variety of headphones with circumaural
pads (surround the ear instead of rest upon it). For me, they
block out the world quite nicely. Oh and they also sound great too.
I got 'em online for under $90 back in summer.
Before that I had a set of Sony headphones of the same style (closed,
circumaural) but they cost more, wore out faster, and didn't block
out the noise as good as these Sennheiser's do.
I test drove the E5c and the E3c, and I purchased the E3c. Brilliant noise isolation, and fantastic sound. Shure even allows you to "test drive" them with no obligation to purchase.
Blocklevel: Practical Information Architecture
Have you tried any non-noise canceling headphones? The HVAC system in my office is quite loud, but, using some cheap Sony headphones, I have never needed to turn my music up to painful levels to drown background sounds out.
If you feel you need such expensive headphones I think you should consider looking at what is locally available - making returns much easier.
I dub thee... Sir Phobos, Knight of Mars, Beater of Ass.
"Led Zeppelin"
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
... has been headphones, earphones, louder music!
/.ers fail to tell you is that prolonged loud music will make you deaf or will impair your hearing in the medium or long term.
What
In noisy environments you have a few choices:
- Get earplugs or over the ears headphones (no music, or if you inisist not loud music all the time).
- Hint to your employer that if you go deaf due to the noise they may have a legal case on their hands (not joking, if the noise is real bad your employer may be in hot water, pointing this out to them may get tehm into action, i.e. changing furniture or the office arrangements in order to reduce noise).
- Talk to your colleagues! You could come up with ways to make your environment less noisy (no talking in the corridors, no music, no conference calls in the phone's loudspeakers, all mobile phones put into vibrating mode or off, etc.).
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
If I were you, I'd get a mirror to go on my monitor - frankly, I'd be freaked out if people could enter my room/cube without my noticing.
Telecommute. It saves fuel as well.
The Plane Quiet Headphones appear to be the same product as the Kensington Noise Cancelling Headphones, with different colours and rebadging.
I've read some very negative reviews of the latter.
RTFM; please, I beg you.