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?"

Comments

For me it's a non-issue:

[TeleoMan]

Since my constant flood of profanity drowns out most everything where I work.

I only wish I were joking.

Strategy: Escalation

[RedHat Rocky]

Begin the arms race, expand your noise-making capacity and take the fight to your cube mates.

Remember, in the cubes everyone can hear you scream.

Plain Old Full Ear Headphones

[Doug Dante]

Such as Sennheiser HD 202 Closed Headphones for about $20 will do fine.

Unless you work next to a drill press or milling machine, a good pair of cheap over the ear headphones will do you fine.

Just put them on with the music off, and you'll notice that they muffle the noise around you excellently.

BTW, I loved mine, perhaps too much. I think that my hearing has suffered somewhat from them. You may catch yourself listening at '10' to catch every detail, and that's not a good thing to do for several hours every day.

If you insist on getting noise cancelling headphones, you may want to wait for the Aiwa Noise-Canceling Headphones - HP CN6, which are only about $50.00.

Plane Quiet, Bah!

[klausner]

Your "Plane Quiet" headphones are nothing other than Sony MDR-NC6 models, which can be had for as little as $25 with a little shopping around.

Lot's of choices with a little looking.

noice cancelling headphone reviews

[gothzilla]

Epinions has reviews of the Bose headphones here:
http://www.epinions.com/elec_Audio-Headphones_Koss _HB_SPZ-Bose_Noise_Cancelling_Headphones/display_~ reviews

Here's some more headphones from Epinions:
Maxell:http://www.epinions.com/Maxell_H P_NC_1_Nois e_Cancellation_Headphones__Lightweight_Headphones_ HPNC1/display_~reviews
Coby:http://www.epinions.com/Coby_Digital_Noise_ Ca ncelling_Stereo_Headphones_Headphones/display_~rev iews

The Kenwood headphones have no reviews.

This search from Epinons lists a lot of different brands but the only reviews are above. Check it out if you want to see more brands.
http://www.epinions.com/search/?submitted_form=sea rchbar&search_string=noise+cancelling&tax_name=Hea dphones&dyn_nav=0&dyn_nav_id=&search_vertical=t130 375&searchbar_submit=Search

Knee jerk reaction.....

[jotaeleemeese]

... has been headphones, earphones, louder music!

What /.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.

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.).