HN Explorer

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

2 points by skowmunk ↗ HN
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?

(open hall vs individual offices, which are supposed to help in concentrating better)

Would it be justified investment for a low cost operation (thats what my outfit is now and they cost $300 a pop)?

(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)

11 comments

[ 4.4 ms ] story [ 29.3 ms ] thread
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.
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?

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.

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.
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.
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?

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 :)

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.

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!

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.

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?