
This Is Your Brain on Silence - prostoalex
http://nautil.us/issue/38/noise/this-is-your-brain-on-silence-rp
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stagas
If you find comfort in silence, like I do, I highly recommend the Bose QC25
headphones. There are no words to express the unique feeling of blocking the
environmental noise, which is mostly a high volume, low-end, obnoxious hum,
especially in a city, in the bus or in a plane. Mostly all sound disappears
and the relaxing effect is immediate.

Perhaps I'm too sensitive to sound because I'd been doing audio engineering so
I've trained myself to hear details in depth, but they've changed my life in a
way I could not imagine. I now consider them essential to my well-being and
take them everywhere. I call the little power switch, the 'shut up' switch.
Put them on - _click_ \- and the world shuts up.

Moreover, the audio quality is /amazing/. You can be city center and listen to
low volume classical, crisp and clear. You literally put your ears in a
/studio/ while the rest of you is somewhere else. Just magic. They use a
battery(but it lasts for weeks on occasional use) and the cord is detachable,
so you can use them just to block sound and walk around. Be careful though not
to be stepped over by a car because you don't hear them coming. There's a tiny
mid-high window still passing through so you can still speak and hear what
people say, even clearer than before, since the rest of the environmental
noise doesn't mask their voice, which is mostly in those frequencies. Highly
recommended.

~~~
loco5niner
I have tried both the QC20's and QC25 and they are both wonderful...
Unfortunately, in my open office, voices are the one thing I want to block
out.

~~~
stagas
A little trick I've found for this is to listen to the same few(3-4) sets or
plays of 30-40 minute each (i.e Bach cantatas). Your brain gets familiar to
the progression so it tunes out so they're not distracting as new music(radio
etc) and at 30% volume is enough to block out voices and not make your head
dizzy. Also you can take little breaks after each one ends, so you're
essentially doing Pomodoros[0].

[0]:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomodoro_Technique](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomodoro_Technique)

