I'm gonna second what steve1011 says. If it's just dampening down noise you're after good earplugs are probably better than the best noise canceling headphones.

I wore industrial grade earmuffs and earplugs most all day long when I did metal work. That's not the same as wearing them in an office environment all day but I didn't find earmuffs terribly uncomfortable and I just looked at few newer models that look pretty close in design and weight as the Bose headset for about $30.

Both plugs and muffs have pros and cons. Plugs are less conspicuous, and muffs are easier to get on and off.

My own experience is that they work about the same (if both are high quality) and I generally wore both when doing metal work because the loud hammering and grinding I did was especially damaging to our hearing and there was a very noticeable difference than when using only one of those.

The earplugs I used were made out of "memory foam" (like the bed mattresses use). There are other types I tried but they were not near as good.

I made my own "noise cancelling" headphones by buying a set of ex army ear protectors and wiring in the drivers from an old pair of Sony headphones. They are very effective. Once in work I watched everybody in the office stand up and put on their coats, then start to wave at me. I was very confused until I took off the headphones and realised the fire alarm was going off

Noise-canceling headphones aren't as effective as passive noise blockers. If you don't want to wear earplugs all day, use the earmuffs meant for heavy machinery or shooting:

https://www.amazon.com/Ear-Defense-3000-Muffs-Earplugs/dp/B0...

They even sell some as pretty decent headphones:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004U4A5RU

Re: comfort, you will have to try a few pairs to see which ones are best for you; most seem to be designed more for safety and maintaining a seal than for wearing all day without fatigue.

My office has white noise generators to drown out the open office layout conversations. So I wear noise cancelling headphones, to cancel the white noise generators. It's insane, but keeps my sanity. Otherwise, it's like you're on an airplane all day.

So I recently got the Bose QC30 and while they will help with average traffic noise, the active noise canceling doesn't work super well for higher pitched or more abrupt sounds like the cuckoo clock.

I've been playing brown noise or something similar through them on top of the active noise cancellation. I use my own command-line program [1] or Noisli in Chrome for this.

Yes, it feels kind of wasteful to buy premium headphones for the express purpose of not listening to music, but this is the best solution I've come up for working in an open office.

I'd be interested to hear how others handle this problem, as I've always been very sensitive to noise and can program way more effectively when background noise is minimal and consistent, like a fan.

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

> Has anyone tried earmuffs worn at gun ranges instead and if so are they uncomfortable if worn for prolonged periods ?

I use such a pair at work: https://www.amazon.com/3M-Peltor-Over-Earmuffs-X5A/dp/B01MG1...

They are pretty uncomfortable at first, but I've gotten used to them. They are like focus pills for me -- I put them on, then take them off and suddenly realize two hours have passed.

I am interested in these "ex arm ear protectors" that roryisok mentions.

What you're looking for is the radio headsets that airport ground support crews use. More than 20dB attenuation, headphones built in, designed to be worn an entire shift. If someone can deal with multiple Rolls Royce turbofans nearby while wearing these, you can too. Be careful to buy one with two drivers (some ground crews use the single headphone driver model to have an ear free to hear other sounds), and get a proper adapter to plug them into your audio source. Active noise cancelation only works in the 900Hz and lower range on consumer bose headphones. You can try the Bose pilot headsets if you want, but they are much pricier. You can get a good used ground crew set for about $100.

Earplugs are way better for noise isolation (i.e. blocking out noise)

There are a number of different types out there, including ones that can be custom-molded to your ear canals for maximum comfort and sound reduction.

For the price of a new pair of Bose headphones, you could buy hundreds of pairs of ear plugs or even a handful of custom molded musicians earplugs.

I am very distracted by sounds. The best I've found so far is a combination of: 1- 3Ms "peltor X5a" headphones (there might be better ones now, but a quick amazon search shows some results, they are ~$25). 2- noise-blocking earbuds underneath them (searching amazon will probably turn them up, maybe ~$15?). I think the ones I got were like foam ear plugs, but with a tube down the middle for the sound. 3- some white-noise app (like maybe "chroma doze" from the f-droid store, or "relax and sleep" from the play store; those are the ones I've used).

No connection to the above but as a pleased consumer. I don't know if the above will suit audiophile purists--I love good music but more for the "intelligent conversation & expression" aspect than the purity of reproduction, so YMMV.

(I look forward to reading others' comments here...but it's been a day already so I'm posting first in case it's useful to anyone.)

This combo works for me much better than the friendly Bose noise-cancelling headphones I bought ~2000 (which, or others like them, also might be much better now). But I read that the noise-cancelling concept is weak for ambient (eg office) noise, because it is not constant enough for the cancellation mechanism to pick it up and block it all fast enough. So it is more like for airplane engine noise which is more constant.

I haven't seen these mentioned yet - In Ear Monitors (IEMs)

They are a combination of earplug and speaker, giving you the benefits of both. Good IEMs [0] will attenuate the surrounding sound by up to 25db (for comparison good earmuffs/earplugs are in the 30-35db range, closed back/over ear headphones with a good seal are in the 5-10db range), and provide high quality music when you want it.

The down side is that, like earplugs, they can be a bit uncomfortable to use until you're used to them. I tend to listen to either music or just pink/brown noise [1] through them, and I can't hear a thing going on in the office - even when they're doing construction.

If you really want to go all out, you can combine earmuffs with music - there are ranges from some inexpensive 3m ones (some of which include a radio, others a 3.5mm jack), up to those used by pilots and ground crew. They're also in the 25db reduction range; I have an old pair of David Clarks which are insane (though heavy, they're made to wear all day).

[0] Shure and Westone make some great IEMs; make sure to pick up some memory foam tips.

[1] I usually use the heavy rain sounds in the "White Noise" app, but there are free generation websites out there too.

Check out extreme isolation headphones: http://www.extremeheadphones.com/

My co-worker has them and likes them. They're basically earmuffs + audio

i just bought bose Q35. though audio quality is avergae but noise cancellation is awesome. it is pretty steep price(349$) but it is worth increase in productivity for me as there is no other solution available in market better than this( i tried sony and momentum before but it doesnt fit my needs well)

I bought noise isolating headphones today to deal with office noise. I heard very good stuff about Audio Technica ATH-M50X and they are really good indeed. I can definitely recommend those.

Just beware that using any kind of headphones on a daily basis will severely damage your hearing no matter what.

Ask for another desk, one with a farther flight from the cuckoo's nest.