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I am looking for heaphones/earplugs or any other device which will cancel out all the outside noise. I DO NOT want to listen to music/white noise/nature sounds or anything else. I want perfect silence in my ears.

I have tried the following :

  1. I have noise blocking headphones with a NRR rating of 33db
  2. I have foam earplugs (which expand in your ear) from Hearos
  3. I have Bose QC 25 noise cancelling headphones.

I usually wear my ear plugs and on top of that I wear my headphones and start active noise cancellation. That clears out most of the noise but I can still hear people talking in a muffled tone.

I want to eradicate all noise. I don't mind paying a large amount for the device (it might be a special medical device as well). I am planning to meet an audiobiologist as well, but first thought of asking for help on the internet. I have read several articles online for complete noise blocking but I could not find an answer to my question.

Please don't spam with answers that ask me to do the things that I have specifically mentioned that I won't do (e.g. listen to white, brown or pink noise, listen to music in a different language so that I don't understand the words, nature sounds, chatter blocker. I want nothing to be played. I want perfect silence.)

Thank you in advance.

EDIT:

If you do not have a device in mind, please tell me how I can find such a device. Where should I go? A specialist in this area would be an audiobiologist, is there any other type of doctor/specialist that I can consult.

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    Your question conjures visions of the "cone of silence" from the Get Smart series (youtube.com/watch?v=g1eUIK9CihA). There are earplugs that block a lot more than the basic foam plugs. Voices are difficult to totally block because that is the frequency range ears are optimized to hear.
    – fixer1234
    Apr 6, 2015 at 7:51
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    Please remove the "hold" on the question,. it is a useful question and it might help a lot of people. If not a specific product then tell me how to find such a product. I have searched the internet and there is nothing that comes close to an answer. It would help out a lot of developers in the open office seating arrangement to find an answer.
    – user590849
    Apr 6, 2015 at 20:45
  • It is a useful question, but this isn't a good place to ask it. Asking for product recommendations of any kind is off-topic. Also, you're trying to solve a problem with the human side of the equation. This site focuses on the silicon side. You couldn't even stretch it to say that it's about interfacing with the computer, because the next person would ask, "What's the best music to listen to while working on a computer". It's also too far outside the core expertise of the site, so it would attract speculative and opinion-based answers, which is off-topic.
    – fixer1234
    Apr 6, 2015 at 21:18
  • This is a good place to ask for it because this website is visited by a lot of programmers, people who would have faced this problem and are likely to have a solution. I don't mind the opinions because people can always say " this does not satisfy the blocking of all noise" in the comments and that answer will not be pursued further. This does focus on the silicon side of things in 2 ways - the answer will help people program better 2. It discusses the tech specs of different devices and tells people what things to look for (e.g. NRR) when trying to find a noise blocking device.
    – user590849
    Apr 7, 2015 at 22:56
  • If you could only unhold the question, see what happens and if then we see a lot of opinions/ un-necessary debates, maybe then we can put the question back on hold. Why assume that this will not bring the desired result if the problem is worth solving.
    – user590849
    Apr 7, 2015 at 22:57

1 Answer 1

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You can block noise only to a certain level. Your body (e.g. skull) will always transfer a minimal amount of noise to you ears. There are even noises transmitted through your nose and mouth, as both have small "channels" to you ear.

What works fine for me is the Howard Leight Sync which is a drummers headphone with optional music playback.

But remember, the better the noise blocking, the louder you hear your blood and pulse...

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  • I can try the headphones you are recommending, but they don't offer total noise cancelling. I am fine hearing my "blood and pulse.." I just don't want to hear anything from the outside. I am not accepting this answer as correct because it does not give me an answer to my question.
    – user590849
    Apr 6, 2015 at 8:16
  • I have up voted the answer for the effort though.
    – user590849
    Apr 6, 2015 at 8:16

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