On headphones



  • It has recently become imperative that I buy headphones in order to block out the constant office noise. I'm looking for quality; something that'll block out sound as much as possible, but without actually moving into active noise cancelling. Does anyone have any suggestions?


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    @DOA said:

    I'm looking for quality; something that'll block out sound as much as possible, but without actually moving into active noise cancelling. Does anyone have any suggestions?
    While most wouldn't come under 'quality,' I find that most of the 'in-ear' 'phones I've had recently are fairly good at reducing how much office noise I get distracted by.

    Something akin to (but I'm not specifically reccomending):

    on the cheaper end of the scale.

     

    I'm sure there are more expensive versions if you're after 'quality' however.

    I'd avoid the 'foam' type earplugs however - they don't last long, and the foam tends to crack after a very short time (i.e. within weeks - they're the type you have to roll between your fingers before inserting - much like foam ear plugs.)


  • ♿ (Parody)

    I picked up these (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826265044) last week to do the StackOverflow podcast, and have been using them as a headset every since. Does a great job. Plus it comes with a Mic, which means you can pretend to be an airline pilot or something if you get bored.

     



  •  I was thinking more along the lines of the ones that cover your entire ear. In-ear ones tend to become a pain in the... ear after a few hours. Besides the on-ear ones are more visible and thus convey much easier the fact that I want to be left the hell alone.



  • @DOA said:

     I was thinking more along the lines of the ones that cover your entire ear. In-ear ones tend to become a pain in the... ear after a few hours. Besides the on-ear ones are more visible and thus convey much easier the fact that I want to be left the hell alone.

     

    just drive to Best Buy and buy a pair that looks good.  Spend no less than $50 or they won't be comfortable to wear all day.


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    @DOA said:

     I was thinking more along the lines of the ones that cover your entire ear. In-ear ones tend to become a pain in the... ear after a few hours.


    Those types? I find it's the opposite with me - I can't stand the cans because they do cover my ears, and don't have a problem with the in-ear ones, even after a couple of hours.

    @DOA said:

    Besides the on-ear ones are more visible and thus convey much easier the fact that I want to be left the hell alone.
    Where? Work? I find that being unresponsive to people works just as well for me - either that, or they can actually see the leads going to my ears.



  • @DOA said:

    the on-ear ones are more visible and thus convey much easier the fact that I want to be left the hell alone.
     

    Do you wear them all the time? Then perhaps you should consider work from home permanently. I'd love to sit around with my sound on all day, but I have to, like, communicate with my coworkers.

    I find it's the opposite with me - I can't stand the cans because they do cover my ears, and don't have a problem with the in-ear ones, even after a couple of hours.

    Interesting because it's the exact opposite for me. Plugs hurt my ears.

    Cups have better sound anyway.



  • @dhromed said:

    Cups have better sound anyway.

     

    Some of the nice plugs sound extremely good.



  • @DOA said:

    It has recently become imperative that I buy headphones in order to block out the constant office noise. I'm looking for quality; something that'll block out sound as much as possible, but without actually moving into active noise cancelling. Does anyone have any suggestions?

     

    Sennheiser HD-202

    http://www.sennheiserusa.com/newsite/productdetail.asp?transid=005176

    Cheap, big, ugly, and semi-pro. Lotsa DJs use that because of its equilibrium between power, quality, price, and isolation. A fine choice.

    http://www.amazon.com/Sennheiser-HD-202-Headphones/dp/B000065BP9

     

    WARNING:

    as you can read in http://www.amazon.com/Sennheiser-HD-202-Headphones/product-reviews/B000065BP9/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1,

    @Jeremy Chartrand said:

    Not for people with big heads
    The sound quality is excellent for the price, however if you have a big head, you might want to look elsewhere, because the headphonse put a lot of pressure on your head.

    I've got an above average-sized head (7 3/4 male hat size, for reference) and get headaches/pains from the pressure put on my head by the headphones. They just cannot be expanded far enough to prevent this. The headphones should be great for average-sized heads though.

    So, to all you big heads out there, think it twice.



  • @dhromed said:

    @DOA said:

    the on-ear ones are more visible and thus convey much easier the fact that I want to be left the hell alone.
     

    Do you wear them all the time? Then perhaps you should consider work from home permanently. I'd love to sit around with my sound on all day, but I have to, like, communicate with my coworkers.

    Meh, that's why god invented skype & instant messaging.

    But having earphones is great for those defcon 1 situations where you just need to focus on what you are doing and co-workers can go fuck themselves. Personally i like in-ear or plugs better then headsets, i personally find that they block out sound better, and also, let out sound less. My personal preference in music for those defcon 1 situations is mostly techno, which i want to listen with the volume cranked all the way up. It is one thing to not want to be bothered by coworkers, but also not bothering them in return with the not-all-that-faint sound of your earphones thumping is something to consider.




  •  Just get married.  You'll quickly learn to tune out the constant nagging, and as a side benefit, you won't hear the office noise either.


  • :belt_onion:

    @Salami said:

     Just get married.  You'll quickly learn to tune out the constant nagging, and as a side benefit, you won't hear the office noise either.

    Been there, done that?


  • @Salami said:

     Just get married.  You'll quickly learn to tune out the constant nagging, and as a side benefit, you won't hear the office noise either.

    This is like curing a papercut on your finger by sawing off your hand.


  •  Yeah.  I can work through pretty much anything.




  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    @djork said:

    The best $17 you could ever spend.
    And finding the way of only spending $17 is left as an exercise for the student?

    Yes, I realise the [buy now] button, below the "Add $$$ for shipping!!! " and "for 4 equal payments!!!"  does it, but the presentation of that site is a bit crap.

     I'd also like to take to task:

    <FONT color=#ad0101>No Sales Tax.</FONT> (Except NJ)
    ... Are they going to pay tax on shipments outside the far western hemisphere?

    I got hit with that when I ordered a couple of keyboards from a now defunct (sadly) company a few years back.



  • @PJH said:

    @djork said:

    The best $17 you could ever spend.
    And finding the way of only spending $17 is left as an exercise for the student?

    Yes, I realise the [buy now] button, below the "Add $$$ for shipping!!! " and "for 4 equal payments!!!"  does it, but the presentation of that site is a bit crap.

     I'd also like to take to task:

    <font color="#ad0101">No Sales Tax.</font> (Except NJ)
    ... Are they going to pay tax on shipments outside the far western hemisphere?

    Also, "a coustomer" claims that this people send things faster than light.

    OTOH, i'm from South America, and i can tell the Sennheiser i recomended before does cost that same money on stores here and on e-bay (that's not usually the case here with imported stuff). Maybe the Behringers are also that easy to get outside US.

     



  • Well, I haven't tried many kinds of headphones, but the Koss UR20 seem pretty good for me. They completely cover my ears, are pretty flexible, and look pretty good IMHO (this is a full-size scaled-down 800x972 image, use your browser's View Image option to see it larger):

    KOSS UR20

    Price: $10 to $30 USD (very roughly)

    Pros:

    • Sound isolation is great, even though there's no active/powered sound isolation system
    • My (rather old) PC's onboard soundcard amp drives it quite well
    • The single cable (which comes out the left) is rather long - 10 feet (3 meters)
    • Supplied with the right amount of bass boost, whether from an old SB16 (:D!!1) or similar soundcard, a hardware amp with bass boost, or from the audio source itself, headaches can be come by rather easily - I see this as a pro personally, but not one I take advantage of every day. :P
    • The headband is "twisty"; you can easily rotate the phones such that you can "monitor" an audio stream without putting them on. This does put pressure on the plastic connecting the sides to the headband; note Con 2A.

    Cons:

    • The cable feels a little "heavy"; you may notice it resting on your shoulder or leaning against your arm, especially if you move around alot. I've driven myself a little crazy positioning this cable such that it doesn't touch me on a couple of occasions. The cable does have "memory" however, and will retain a position it's left in for long enough, so this will likely go away, especially if you anchor the cable out of the way somehow (eg run it under a keyboard that's to your left, for example)
    • After a fair bit of use...
      • The plastic connecting the sides to the headband can snap off - the sides normally slide up and down, but the slide mechanism on each side at its weakest point consists of two ~7mm "tabs" of rather brittle plastic, and one of these small "tabs" can break off causing the cup on that side to tilt making for a rather uncomfortable fit. With a previous pair of these phones this phenomenon happened on both sides and the end result was lots of sticky tape... and they fit again! I do have a new pair however, due to the next issue...
      • The cup foam material isn't replaceable; underneath the plastic padding on the outside there's a soft material that tends to love collecting dust and dirt. The outside padding progressively tears off (queue "GAH SPIDE--ooh." * 239) exposing this material underneath, and there isn't much you can do. This happened to me after quite a few months of use every single day however.

    Cons 2A and 2B can be resolved easily with a lifetime warranty; any good audio shop will should be able to provide one of these.

     

    -dav7


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