Question about using noise-cancelling headphones to stop sensory overload in loud grocery stores

After 3 straight meltdowns at the Walmart on Broadway I finally tried looping my earbuds under a pair of over-ear headphones and now I can actually get through a whole shopping trip without wanting to bolt, has anyone else hacked together a double-layer setup like this?

2 comments

2 Comments

leo_carr131mo ago

My first real breakthrough came from an ER doctor buddy who swears by this weird trick with foam earplugs under his welding earmuffs (the 3M ones with the high NRR rating). So I tried something similar using those squishy silicone EarPeace plugs under my Audio-Technica ATH-M50x cans (which already have decent passive isolation by themselves). The key difference for me was that I had to crank the music volume on my phone to about 75% but keep the headphone volume knob at like 30% to avoid that muddy phase cancellation @pat_park was talking about. It's not perfect for acoustic music but for bass-heavy stuff or podcasts the double layer actually cuts out the fluorescent light hum and cart wheels way better than either setup alone. One thing nobody mentions is that you have to take the whole rig off every 20-30 minutes or your ears start hurting from the trapped sweat and pressure, especially in summer.

pat_park1mo ago

...and does the sound quality get all weird and muddy with that double layer? I tried something similar with my Sony cans and cheap buds and got this awful hollow echo that made things worse somehow. Did you need to play with the volume levels to get it to actually work okay?