No — they are fundamentally different interventions addressing different problems. Sound masking raises the broadband ambient to reduce speech intelligibility across an open floor; it does not create enclosed private spaces or provide bidirectional speech containment. Soundproofing (specifically, acoustic pod enclosure) provides physical containment of sound — inward isolation protecting the occupant from open-floor ambient, and outward isolation containing the occupant’s sound within the enclosure. Most offices benefit from both: passive treatment and sound masking to manage open-floor reverberation and intelligibility; acoustic pods for the tasks requiring complete speech privacy and ISE elimination.