I find that even noise cancelling headphones don't help drown out nearby conversations - I listen to Apple's Chill radio and use Noizio when I really need to focus.
Noise cancelling headphones don't really drown out conversations. You should get in-ear headphones.
Bose QC25 and QC35 really do though at mid level volume. You see people opening their mouths but you hear no voices.
Agreed. When I have my QC35 on, people always have to tap me on the shoulder when they want to speak to me.
Yes! :) To the point that it sometimes freaks me out because it's totally unexpected since you hear zero noise of someone approaching haha.
You might also consider just using brown noise. I find it very useful.
I throw rain on. If someone's straight yelling it won't help. For just general background convo noise, it works well
Noone knows whether you're playing music or not, they'll assume you are. I don't think that's the stigma with headphones though more like gives off the impression you don't want to be bothered for things like helping new engineers.