Open headphone users -- how do you manage?

So beyond the noises I create myself, through movement, digestion, respiration, circulation, and nervous system electricity (also see this: http://www.head-fi.org/t/582983/inexpensive-mod-gives-nice-quality-increase-for-at-home-critical-listening), here is a partial list of the noises that invade the air in my house:

• chirping birds (actually quite annoying)
• hooting owls (got a couple of them that love to hunt the rodents in the field)
• howling coyotes (mostly at night)
• barking dogs
• mooing cows (a bunch of them live in the field)
• the dog (in the house)
• the fridge (compressor noise and weird clicks and knocks)
• girlfriend or brother noise
• lawnmowers
• cars, pickups, semis, Harleys, and bulldozers going by outside
• prop planes, passenger jets, bombers, and jet fighters flying overhead
• home construction sounds
• road work
• the climate control clicking on
• the climate control sustained operation
• the computer whirring
• the phone (20+ calls a day from bill collectors and other such looking for various previous owners of my phone number)
• wind
• rain
• gutters
• the house creaking
• kids playing outside and in my yard (Grrrr!!)
• and last but not least, the TRAIN that runs every 20 minutes and is required by Federal law to annoy as many people as possible with the whistle that can be heard for many miles (some idiot walking near the tracks actually got disintegrated by the train a couple years back so they really emphasize it here too)

I'm probably forgetting something. Granted, it's not all of this at once, or at the same time of day, or all the time. And I don't share any walls so I'm not having to hear footsteps or bass from the neighbors (as when I lived in an apartment). But as you can see, it's far from a quiet environment. And it seems to me the number one thing you need to have to appreciate open headphones is silence. Obviously I can't really use these at work (where I'm thinking of IEMs or NCs to get more isolation than 840s or M50s provide).

I listen quietly and do not enjoy loud music. So I have HE-500s on the way, which are supposed to be very open headphones. It was one thing when I had the AD700 here, as they weren't that expensive. But with these I'm wondering if I'll ever be able to enjoy them given they're even less isolating and it was a costly investment.

So has this become an issue with anyone? Anyone decide even at home that open headphones didn't really have a place given how noisy real life is? Or, anyone found coping / compensation methods? Thanks.

Originally Posted by Kevin Brown 

I listen to Grado's at work, and have never had anyone complain, and I am certainly not bothered by all the noise around me.

 

And I listen to PX-100's at lunchtime, and same-o no complaints by anyone around me or any inability on my part to focus on the music I'm listening.

 

Both are open headphones.

 

So I don't listen loud enough to bother the people around me, but I listen loud enough that the outside world doesn't intrude too much either.

 

Almost sounds like to me, that you are overthinking this.    Get the HE-500s, and try them out.  If they work for you, then they work for you.  If they don't, then they don't, and go from there.

My office is bustling, with lots of security door noise, deliveries, machines running, phones ringing, and people using their outside voices, and open headphones are mostly useless here. The M50Ss barely cut it (considering ANC7B or IEMs). But yah, I'm glad there's a trial offer. I can decide if the fact that they're open and subject to a lot more ambient noise intrusion is outweighed by their sound. I wonder if I should have gone for the KODA^2.

Originally Posted by Ra97oR 
My place maybe isn't as loud as yours, but doors and double glazed windows works wonder for my open headphones.

I've got double-pane glass, Icynene foam insulation, the thicker drywall, triple honeycomb-cell window coverings, etc. Storm windows are almost unheard of here and not cheap to install given the way houses are made here.

Originally Posted by Elysian 

Haven't figured out a solution.  Consequently, I do most of my listening late at night.

I hear you. That still invites a variety of animal sounds, barking neighborhood dogs, military planes, and the ever-present honk of the train whistle. Not that closed headphones block all of this either...

Originally Posted by zazex 

Whatever the benefits of open headphones,

in your place

you need closed headphones.

Maybe so.

Originally Posted by Graphicism 

I simply cannot imagine where you live, I'm off in my own world when I wear any headphone, open or closed.

I live on a plot of land that borders a suburb to the front of the house and that borders a semi-wild farm-type area to the back. As far as I can tell the domesticated horses, cows, donkey, and camel live totally unattended out there along with large amounts of rabbits, vultures, owls, coyotes, skunks, raccoons, etc. I've had a coyote in my backyard on several occasions. They really love to howl at night.

Anyway, it seems to me that a requirement for clean, distortion-free music is silence or close to it. I don't know how you can open your ears to extract every detail of the music but close them to all the noise of modern life. A train whistle, a jet fighter, and a neighborhood full of barking dogs and screaming kids have got to be big-time overall THD%.  :o)

Originally Posted by liamstrain 

I guess a little ambient noise doesn't bother me that much... keeps things real (better than coughing/sneezing/whispering you get a live concert still). *shrug* Plus I need to be able to hear my phone at work anyway. 

 

So, I guess I manage well. 

I have my work phone set to silent ring, but the light flashes and it also triggers a desktop app that pops on one of my screens, so I never miss a call when I'm there. I don't answer them a lot of times, but I'm not exactly *missing* them...  :o)

Originally Posted by NamelessPFG 

Sometimes I have to put up with ambient noise in the house...but the problem with my particular life is that I'm often called upstairs on a whim, and the rest of the family might want to break my headphones if I can't hear them calling. That makes isolation a very, very bad thing in my case, even though I really want it sometimes.

 

Note that I've already received an "I'll break your headphones!" threat or two just from using very open headphones like AD700s and Stax Lambdas.

This made me chuckle, thanks!
 

KODA^2s, ATH-ANC7Bs, or ER-4Ss might be in my future. Sigh... thanks everyone.