

Ask HN: Can noise cancelling headphones decrease costs and improve productivity? - skowmunk

Can giving noise cancelling headphones like Bose's Quite Comfort 15 to employees (those who would like to use them) improve productivity (letting them concentrate or overcome noise distractions better), while allowing the use of 'open hall' environment that can keep costs low?<p>(open hall vs individual offices, which are supposed to help in concentrating better)<p>Would it be justified investment for a low cost operation (thats what my outfit is now and they cost $300 a pop)?<p>(I swear, I am not plugging in for Bose :). I did buy one recently though and it helped me quite a bit. That's what gave me this thought)
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mgkimsal
I've not found noise cancelling headphones on their own helped all that much.
For me, there's still a set of frequencies that seem to penetrate past the
noise cancelling tech - outside street traffic, some walking on floors, low
frequencies, certain speech. Noise cancelling headphones _while using
whitenoise_ works better (though still traffic and such get through, just not
as distracting). That said, for me, whitenoise on its own with cheap
headphones was much better than fancy noise cancelling ones. My wife had a
pair of the high end bose noice cancellers last year - they didn't work for me
for work purposes, and they were too bulky for her to sleep with.

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skowmunk
Hey mgkimsal, thanks for the opinion.

Is there any particular sort of whitenoise that you found better?

Where do you get your whitenoise, CD, download, etc?

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mgkimsal
I can't remember where I got it. I probably just googled for whitenoise, then
looped a resulting mp3. I've tried some of the generator apps - some aren't
bad - but I just have another app in the background running which I don't want
all the time. A single looped mp3 I can play on any device. I've also got a
sound machine I use for sleep - it's got a 'waterfall' sound I use as
whitenoise to go to sleep.

<http://indieconf.com/whitenoise15.mp3> is what I use most days.

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hga
I've had a pair of Bose noise canceling headphones since 2004 and while they
help, they're no substitute for the real thing. Hmmm, I haven't used them in a
year or two and while checking them (looking for the model) I noticed the
rubberized surface material enclosing your ears is now disintegrating :-(.

Most people listen to music, but I've read that studies show that increases
programmer's error rates. I certainly know that for myself there's certain
sorts of simpler work that go well with music I know well whereas harder work
requires no distractions.

How difficult is the work your people are doing?

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skowmunk
The work so far has been mainly testing, about to get programmers and its
going to be quite busy. One of the issues is this office is in India in part
of a city with high noise pollution, high enough that it comes into the
office.

The other issue is that the staff expansion plans would soon make the current
office a tad small, in which case I would have to incur expenses for moving to
a bigger office. So, it is also about stretching out the usability of the
current office with a one time expense.

Abt the Bose, the new ones (QC 15) are quite good in noise canceling (the
construction does look quite cheap). Tried the QC 3, 2 years ago, didn't find
them helpful enough, so I returned them. But the new ones are so good that I
am keeping them, and this is from a guy who hardly ever buys $300 gadgets. You
might want to check out the 15s

I use them more for noise cancellation than for music, hmm.. for a simulated
private office environment :)

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Mz
_this office is in India in part of a city with high noise pollution, high
enough that it comes into the office._

When I lived in a small apartment in the San Francisco Bay Area, I bought a
bunch (~9) of bargain-bin flat king-sized sheets (the flat sheets only, not
the fitted ones) and copper piping cut at the store to fit the lengths I
needed and closet supports. Some sheets come with a fold at one end that will
work to slide a pipe through. Others, you can have it customized for very
little money at a tailor shop. Alternately, you can buy clips to hang the
sheets as curtains without any modification. I found that having them
tailored, so I could wash them frequently, worked best for me. For one
especially long wall, I bought a hook for a middle support. Some of these
curtains were used to separate rooms (the living room from the dining room,
the dining room from the kitchen) but others were hung flat against a wall
solely for decoration and sound-proofing (between the master bedroom and kid's
bedroom). I think I spent roughly $100.00 for the whole thing, plus a few
bucks more later when I took them to a tailor to modify them because I was
sick of dealing with the clips.

If you do this to divide spaces, you do need to consider that air flow may be
an issue. But if hung flat against an exterior wall just to block out noise
(and assuming the wall itself has no air vents), this shouldn't be an issue.

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skowmunk
awesome idea, may be I can hose in the air with an air compressor and that
should help overcome air flow issues too.

nah, I will just reverse the vacuum cleaner, air compressor's too expensive
and that's better utilization rate for the vacuum cleaner too.

 _hung flat against an exterior walll just to block out noise_

Plain brilliance at work!

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Mz
Just a thought: when I say "flat" against a wall, I don't literally mean the
curtains should lay flat. Leave an inch or so from the wall if you can and let
them have folds, like normal curtains. It can look very elegant. I just bought
solid color sheets (no patterns).

Good luck.

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skowmunk
right, moreover the folds can give additional sound damping too. and I
wouldn't have to spend that princely amount on those noise canceling
headphones.

you are an angel.

Do you think that 1 inch space in between the curtains and the wall can
provide some extra thermal insulation too? and save me a bit more money on the
aircon expenses?

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sabj
I think that decent, comfortable headphones - for a third of that cost - could
do a lot of the same job without the added expense.

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Mz
I work in a cube farm. Most folks use earphones and listen to music to help
block out distractions. I can't do that (it promotes ear infections and I am
very prone to them). Recently, the place was rearranged to put more space
between some people which has cut way down on idle chit-chat. The place is a
great deal quieter now. Where I work, actual work doesn't seem to be that
noisy. It's the socializing, involving loud laughter and such, that tends to
be noisy.

