cubicle evolution?

This new cubicle replacement from Herman Miller, those who cursed us with cubes in the first place, seems to address several of my big complaints about cubes:
* no door
* your back is to the portal
* you are cut off from co-workers, but easily accessed by passer's by
* sunlight is blocked by the partitions

Of course they have signed onto the awful My Xxx meme with its My Studio name. Pretty stupid name when it seems oriented to teamwork...

My Studio Environments by Herman Miller

office acoustics

I'm campaigning to avoid getting cubes in our little 750 sq ft office with 5 people. I hate cubicles. I think they dampen the regular noise, and then you can really hear the phone conversations and irregular bodily functions of your co-workers.

Seems that there a million outfits that want to come in, do an analysis, then sell you a high dollar installation with emitters in your ceiling.

The only two off the shelf systems I could find:

$350 for a 500 sq ft space:
Speech Privacy Systems - Personal Sound Masking Solutions

$50 each (what they use in school counseling offices)
Marpac 980 Sound Screen

$400 solution from Merman Miller called babble, though it sounds like it might bug your office mates:(be sure to listen to the NPR piece which has sound clips)
http://www.dexigner.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=2179
http://www.sonaretechnologies.com/Sonare3/products/Privacy.jsp
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4702851

If I were to have one installed by an acoustical contractor, this one looks pretty dang cool:
http://www.softdb.com/smartSMS-II-MainDescription.html