I mean.... I wear constructing/shooting range earmuffs sometimes and I found that helps to concentrate, and also wearing them when sleeping produces a noticeably deeper rest. Great for noisy hotels. Not so sure about this system, though, unless maybe I had to nap on the street in a warzone or something.
Sometimes I’d wear earbuds underneath the earmuffs. Other times I’d just prefer as close to silence as possible.
I tried noise canceling headphones and couldn’t tell if they really helped. This was a while ago, like 2009, but I bought some decently high end Sony and I felt like they made my ears ring later on. It seemed better to wear earmuffs vs. some special high tech method. Plus one thing I was mitigating was the meows of a huge cat I had who meowed REALLY loudly, and that’s the sort of thing noise canceling doesn’t reduce.
Actually now that I think of it my ringing seems to have gotten louder after I started using them. I wonder if that noise cancelling is doing something to the brain or hears.
I experienced discomfort, like mild pain too. I thought maybe it was because the addition of extra sound to cancel out sound increased the total volume in a way that was inaudible, but I don’t really know the physics behind how the cancellation works. This article says it is an effect caused by pressure similar to how your ears pop at different altitudes.