Ask HN: Do you use earplugs and/or headphones to better concentrate? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Do you use earplugs and/or headphones to better concentrate?

37 pointswhitepoplar43 comments

If so, which ones work best?

I recommend the Bose QC headphones. I currently use the QC35 wireless ones but have also used the QC15 and QC25 before that. Open office plans are terrible for my concentration and wearing noise canceling headphones makes a huge difference.

I usually listen to lyric-less music such as Focus@Will, Spotify playlists, or use a white noise generator.

Came here to say this. I'm not normally a fan of Bose but I wear my QC35 maybe 12 hours a day and have for almost a year.

Excellent build quality, sound, battery life, and above all noise cancelling. I've owned maybe 30 sets of headphones over the years and never had anything like them.

Little known fact is that they make aviation headsets and the QC35 looks by all accounts to be a consumer version of that. Might explain the chasm between their quality vs competitors.

I was debating to buy the QC35 but was disappointed that the battery on these is not replaceable. Designed for obsolescence (why did they design it that way?). So I decided to go for the older QC25 version since that has the same noise-cancelling and is using AAA batteries instead. I don't really need the Bluetooth wireless aspect of it (though the QC25 can be converted to Bluetooth with a mod). Just a tip.

How do they feel on your ears? Not sure if you can relate to this but all headphones I've tried so far end up hurting my ears after a few minutes to a couple of hours of wear. My ears are small-to-average, but stick out slightly and many headphones create uncomfortable pressure there. Is there some space between the actual ear and the ear-cup with these?

The Bose QC series come with a very good "over the ear" variants that don't rest directly on the ear, but instead around it. That comfort issue was bigger to me, personally, than any noise cancelling options. I actually opted against a noise cancelling model because I found the over-the-ear configuration alone cuts down enough noise that I'm happy, and the cost and weight savings was a useful bonus.

I spent hours in a Best Buy trying to find headphones I would be comfortable wearing for hours and the over-the-ear Bose models won out by far as the most comfortable I could find.

Thank you, this is encouraging. I've just ordered the QC35; now hoping for some peace in the open plan office.

Update: Just got these. Where have they been all my working life? These make the open plan office considerably more tolerable.

You should try Brain.fm. I use it with my noise canceling headphones and the experience has been great so far.

I have a similar lightweight script I wrote [1] to generate white noise (actually brown noise) to concentrate when the office is busy.

There are a few other similar alternatives at the bottom of the readme, which I'll copy here for convenience:

- A Soft Murmur

- Brain.fm

- Coffitivity

- GitHub Audio

- Hipstersound

- Noisli

- Noizio

- SimplyNoise + SimplyRain

- Spotify playlists in the Focus section e.g., Ambient Chill, Deep Focus, or Music for Concentration

- Vicinity

- zenmix.io

[1]: https://github.com/tedmiston/zero-noise

http://somafm.com has some good instrumental channels, too. I also have a playlist of things I've curated from Magnatune over the years, there are some strong instrumental artists over there.

I recommend the same, though I use amazon music with taiko drumming. In the US, I used pandora.

When I was moved cross-country for my job, the tech guy gave me some nice noise cancelling head phones. I was moved from quiet remote work to an office filled with 50-100 people all in the same room, so it took some adjustment. Especially when you get people who feel the need that a conversation needs to be had right by your desk.. and somehow its an important conversation that you don't really care to hear about?

I need my music to focus and write code, but what bothers me is when the supervisor will start talking to me and I don't hear a word he says.

I've gone all day without headphones... no one said a word to me. Minute I put them on? Someone has something to say in the office. For the most part, however, they are always on and I'm always listening to music... classic rock or indie or techno usually.

One of my past offices made a headphone rule that if someone has headphones on, you only interrupt them through Slack vs walking up their desk besides the rare exception. Very helpful.

We use Slack as our main form of communication. I was moved across the country because of the excuse that our "communication was lacking", so while I haven't really told people to message me through Slack - because I don't want to tell my supervisor that he needs to message me in order to talk to me - but it is just common courtesy to message someone through a LIVE instant message and ask, "Hey, I noticed XxXx, can I come over to your desk so we can discuss it?"

Your office policy is one of common courtesy and I completely agree with it.

Earmuffs work well too. I use these: http://www.homedepot.com/catalog/productImages/1000/14/14841...

I get some pain after 30 minutes so I take them off for a bit and then wear them again.

Upvoting this because someone downvoted you without explanation. This is a trend I keep hearing about from other devs - all we really want out of headphones is isolation from office noise and conversation, not necessarily to listen to anything.

One of my offices had a rule where if you have your headphones on then the only way someone could bug you is via slack.

If headphones were off then it was open game to bug the person.

I liked that rule.

There's that one guy in the office who'll totally disregard the emailing, bug system, and chat system in the office because he just HAS to come to your desk and stop you in your tracks, instead.

I bet you have that person, too.

I would recommend against sound cancelling headphones. The thing is that they only block out constant background hum like a fan. They don't stop talking.

What does stop talking though is a set of headphones call the 'Oppo pm-3'. These ones are like earmuffs, they have foam padding built-in, and the sound quality is pretty decent too.

Unfortunately I only discovered these 3 weeks after I burnt out of my open plan job and quit.

Earplugs. I don't like thinking and listening at the same time, usually silence is what I need. I've also found that earplugs make my breathing more apparent, which tends to make me breathe more deeply and regularly, which feels good.

What're your preferred earplugs? I'd like to use them more often, but I've yet to find a pair that's comfortable enough to wear for long periods of time.

I use https://www.guardian.com.sg/antinois-ear-plugs-3pair/p/22916... which is silicone-based. Works really well.

I just use ordinary cheap earplugs from the drug store or whatever, but actually I don't use them that much, and there's probably some more comfy variant.

I use https://www.amazon.com/Shure-SE535-V-J-Isolating-Earphones-I... with https://www.amazon.com/Comply-Foam-Premium-Earphone-Tips/dp/...

Extremely comfortable. The sound quality is awesome, but they also do a pretty good job as earplugs. I've slept with them on when my neighbors were doing construction.

The 535s are overkill unless you have crazy great ears, media, dac, and amp. I rolled with a pair of 530s, eventually replaced with 535s via warranty. When I ran those through a washing machine they were replaced with 215s, and honestly I cant tell the difference. I strongly suspect even the 115s are sufficient for the majority of folks.

Absolutely correct. The awesome comply tips will work just as well with the more reasonably priced versions.

I use noise-cancelling headphones.

Depending on how much focus my current task requires, I'll listen to different genres. For intense concentration, I'll blast ocean waves. For medium-difficulty tasks, I listen to classical music or pop music in a language that I don't know (so that I'm not distracted by the lyrics). For easy tasks, anything goes :)

Even inexpensive earbuds can be very effective at blocking out noise, especially when combined with music. But they have to fit snugly and make a seal with your ear. The ones with silicone tips or those squishy foam tips are most effective.

Wearing earbuds all the time was causing me ear problems, though, so I switched to over-ear noise-canceling headphones. Because I wear glasses, I couldn't get the ones that basically form a seal over your ear.

The noise-cancellation, especially when combined with instrumental music or white noise, is very effective for stuff like construction and traffic and engine and air conditioner noise. But it makes human voices more instead of less distinct, so in the office I usually disable the noise cancellation and just play music.

I once used wired ($200?) Sony noise cancelling headphones to listen to music in the office (and on airline flights). They wore out a few years ago, and instead of replacing with another pair of big $ NC headphones, I bought "Sentey LS-4560 B-trek H9 Bluetooth Wireless Foldable Headphones with Carrying Case" for $40[1]. They obviously don't noise cancel, but since I listen to music anyway, and get great non-cancelling isolation from the new phones, I don't really miss the NC aspect; the only place where I believe NC is dramatically superior to these headphones is on airline flights. And I take so few of those these days, I can't justify the expense.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00PYW5X1A/

Doesn't matter what I use, it's what I play through them. If I don't want any music, I will play pink noise. If I want music, I'll play instrumental only music. Cheap $15/20 headphones does the work for me.

I think I'd go nuts in my open office without noise cancelling headphones.

I'd recommend the Bose QC line. Sennheiser wins in audio quality, but the noise cancelling on Bose can't be beat. Both the headphones and earbuds work great, so go with your preference.

I switched from Bose QC to Sony MDR-1000x when my 2nd Bose in a row died from manufacturing defects. The noise cancelling works much better IMO, and the right side is touch sensitive so you can pause NC to speak to people and adjust volume. Not going back to Bose anytime soon.

I have the MDR-1000x as well and can't recommend them enough. I was already quite happy with Bose's noise reduction, but the sound quality of the 1000x is so good it seems you're not making tradeoffs.

It also has a special noise cancelling optimisation function where it apparently adjusts to the shape of your head, whether you're wearing glasses, etc. I can't honestly say whether this actually works or it's mere placebo.

The only downside is that sometimes I try to pause a song and it forwards to the next one instead, so I'm either an idiot or the touch sensitive controls could be improved.

I might be an odd one. I lease an office and am working by myself there. So I really miss noise. I can't work without turning on some podcast or a twitch channel in the background.

You're fortunate to be in control of your environment. My poor opinion of open plan offices is that I am not in control (psychologically safe) making it difficult to concentrate when needed.

In the same boat but I get enough ambient sound from the offices around me that it's not too bad. I still occasionally throw the headphones on when I want to REALLY crank the tunes or listen to a podcast, but I've found that just having Spotify/Pandora coming through some small Bose speakers at about 1/8th volume is way better than life used to be in an open floor plan with some very expensive Sennheisers.

I got some Sennheiser gaming headphones that were supposed to have noise cancellation, but I'm not happy with them. I can still hear outside noise enough that it makes me think they're not working.

Buddy showed me his Parrot Zik headphones, and they were pretty good. I'm open to suggestions if anyone has any. I want to be able to have clear sound for conference calls, as well as excellent noise cancellation.

I do, it's pretty much a necessity in an open office where I'm surrounded by several people talking loudly into several different conference calls on speakerphone.

Right now I use Beyerdynamic DT770s because I heard they were very comfortable (I wear glasses, and I hate in ear phones). The ear cups are fantastic but the headband digs into my scalp. So I'm on the search as well.

If they're totally fine apart from the headband, you should find the padding of the headband is removable. You might find eg. Canford do a variation on the part, or you could use some alternative of your choosing.

I use the 3M OPTIME 105 ear muffs. The are around $17-$22 online. I sometimes also put a pair of headphones in then put these over top.

Last week, there were some people grinding concrete right outside my office window. I ended up using the bright orange foam ear plugs then putting on the OPTIME 105 ear muffs. I could barely hear a thing.

I use earplugs in our workspace--find myself using them for sleeping, on the train commute, airplanes. Much nicer for concentration. I don't know why these aren't handed out at the door of open workspaces.

I actually sometimes use headphones and a white noise generator simultaneously. Simplynoise.com on the brown noise setting is my favorite, helps block out office conversational chatter etc.

Bang Olufsen H9, worth it.

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