Headphone for noisy office environment

Hi all,

I need your help with my first quality headphone purchase. Budget is about $200 but I can go over $300 if needed. It is going to be used in my office and the source will be my laptop headphone jack. I sometimes need a lot of concentration in my job but I have a bunch of sales people working around me. The environment can be very noisy sometimes and one of the guy is soooooo loud when he talks. So, I have to go with a closed-back or noise-cancelling headphone.

Btw, I am kind of an audiophile guy. Sound quality is important to me. I’m looking for a good all-around headphone because I listen to all kind of music etc classical, jazz, female vocal, rock, pop, country except rap, hip-hop, and heavy metal.

It will be an online purchase because I can’t find a place to demo the headphones in this price range yet. I’ve only demo Bose QC3 which I think it is only good, a lot improvement from my current cheap Sony.

I’ve read a lot of in this and other forum and reviews online. Now, it is even harder to decide with all the new information collected. So, please help me.

Below are my candidates for now:
• Audio Technica ATC-ANC7 (non-noise-canceling headphone sound better)
• Audio Technica ATH-A700 or ATH-A900 (look big from pic)
• Denon AH-D2000 (base problem)
• Sennheiser HD280 Pro (not comfortable for long period, plastic broken problem)

Thank.

Ya, I heard they are better for noise isolation but are they comfortable to wear for extended hours. My ears started to have some pain after wearing ear-buds for about 30mins. That's why IEMs are not on my list.

Thanks.