Noise cancelling in the office

Not sure if this should possibly be in a different category, feel free to move it if appropriate…

As I travel to work by air I use a pair of noise cancelling headphones. Ancient Sennheiser PXC 250 on ear ones. They’re wired, no microphone, have a separate battery compartment and whilst not the latest word i noise cancelling do a sufficiently good job to make them worthwhile.

In one of my current engagements I often find myself in an office doing a skype/wedex/other conference. The customer has thoughtfully provided a Jabra headset. It’s usb over ear (single ear) with inline volume controls. Problem is that the uncovered ear is picking up the office background, various conversations in various languages. I find that hard to totally ignore.

So, the thinking is, if I were to purchase some new, over ear, bluetooth, integral microphone, on cup control, noise cancelling headphones, how would they work in the office environment (probably using a wired connection to PC). This would enable me to travel with just one headset instead of two.

Anyone ever used a product such as Sony WH-1000XM3 in an office environment?

I guess the main question is how well do the microphones (built into the earcups) work in such an application Vs the little boom microphone on the likes of the Jabra headset?

Willy.

I haven’t used them in an office environment, but I have listened to them in a (very) busy shop environment and their noise cancelling capabilities were outstanding. My Bose Comfort headphones are also pretty good for steady background noise, but the Sony headphones were even better (and quite significantly so) at cutting out noisy background speech.

Yes I use them, more for music but saying that my Jabra BT headset microphone is dreadful, on occasion I have used the XM3 but the NC is so damn good you end up shouting without realising

The noise cancelling performance of both the Sony and Bose over ear headphones is incredible - like the big door slamming closed on Pink Floyd’s Welcome to the Machine!

Unable to comment on the microphone performance but the isolation from background office noise is virtually complete with both sets.

Peter

I use the Bose quietcomfort 35 and am more or less happy with them. Making calls / videoconferencing is ok but as good as they are with cancelling background noise, voices from collegues standing close by are actually more clear as the background noise dissapears from other parts in the room.

TBH, I’m a bit dissapointed that there are (still) no cans available that are actively targeted at voice cancellation as that would be ideal for my work which is almost always in open rooms.

I use Sony WH-1000X in the office for noise cancelling against the usual office back ground noise. I find they work well dealing with most of the back ground noise. Unfortunately due to a Microsoft compatibility issue i am not able to use the microphone on the headset to take or make calls.

I would add Sennheiser’s PXC 550 to the shortlist. I occasionally use them for receiving calls on a commuter train into Central London (or out), and I think they do a great job. They should be easy to demo in John Lewis – that is where I got mine.

P.S. Apologies for assuming your are based in the UK – terribly UK-centric… :wink:

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