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Comment by raindropm | Hacker News Reader

That aside, I found that construction earmuff is quite good for blocking sound and gain focus — with just about 5% price of top noise canceling headphone in the market. It took a bit getting used to though(and took quite some times to 'stretch' the earmuff in order to make it not clamp too tight to your head, but it works quite well and very cheap alternative.

It looks derpy though so I can't wear it in the office — where I want to use it the most. :(

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You can sometimes pair a decent in-ear pair of headphones with shooting / construction earmuffs, depending on the clearances. That’s the best of both worlds IMO. Also, don’t worry about looking derpy; I give you blanket permission to not care :-)

A great alternative to your setup is a set of plugfones [0].

They're an earbud that's an earplug first and a speaker second, which means they have an NRR rating and are generally pretty good earplugs.

[0] https://www.plugfones.com/

I've tried these for motorcycling and have found that the foam style is enormous and won't fit in my normal-sized ears :(

(They also have a baffled style that won't stay put while I put on my helmet but of course that won't affect you in an office)

You mean having construction muffs over earphones? Professional gamers have been doing that for years in 1v1 matches.

It looks derpy though so I can't wear it in the office

You'll be fine. A guy in our office wears some, it's no big deal.

Heh, most people think mine are headphones. The derp factor only occurs once they figure out that they're not. :)

You can get earmuffs that are also headphones. I know Sennheiser collaborated with Peltor on some, a couple of years ago.

Wearing it in the office - if you can get away with it - would also be a good way to make a point that the office environment is too damn loud to think.

Don't ruin your hearing.

You can't listen to music in headphones all day without damaging your hearing.

The open pit coding fad is causing an epidemic of hearing damage.

the problem with these is that the tension on the spring (necessarily) is very high and they're painful to wear after a couple of hours.

I stretch it out quite a lot since I bought it. It's much better than the one that not stretched, though I admittedly have to take it off after a couple of hours like you said. My work focus is lost by then anyway, so it's a good time for a little break.

I found the tradeoff for the silence you got and its uncomfortable-ness is okay for its small pricetag though. :)

This sounds great - can you wear glasses with it?

I can, but it's certainly better not wearing glasses, because at the end of the day, it's an earmuff that designed to clamp your head quite tightly.

Also, the cushion on these earmuffs isn't the most comfortable cushion in the world, compared to high-end headphone. Well, it's built for construction worker after all...

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