System Administrator Tool chest..

[Bob Sutterfield]

I bought a pair of relatively cheap ($35) Panasonic noise-canceling
headphones.  They don't do much good in an open office but they're wonderful
in a data center with its steady noise.  Don't even need to have them
plugged into a music source, just turn on the cancellation circuit (2xAAA
power lasts all night) and the fan noise drops into the background.  Even
without music that's a great stress reducer.

My Panasonics have a muff style but they still sit on the ear.  There are
some newer earbud-style noise-canceling sets.  And the fancy Bose (and
others) completely enclose the ear.  What to choose?  Anything that
completely encloses the ear will be more efficient and effective than a
design that fits on or in the ear, because the muffling will passively
eliminate a big part of the sound.  And it keeps your ears warmer too :-)