Noise Cancelling

Noise cancelling headphones are becoming more and more popular for users who travel often or are sensitive to ambient noise. By reducing noise in the environment, sound cancelling headphones prevent outside noise, such as loud airplane engines, from reaching your ear. There are two types of noise reduction headphones, and it’s careful to note which type you’re purchasing.

Passive Noise Cancellation
Beware of headphone specs that claim “passive noise cancellation,” because passive simply blocks outside noise from reaching your ear. In other words, stuffing cotton balls in your ears could be considered “passive noise cancellation.” All headphones have passive noise cancellation to some degree because they are covering your ear. If you’re not terribly concerned with heavy noise reduction but still want to block some noise, go with in-ear headphones – they’re like ear plugs with speakers. On-ear headphones do the worst job blocking outside noise, and over-ear is only slightly better.

Active Noise Cancellation
If noise reduction is what you’re looking for, seek out active noise cancellation headphones. These headphones measure and analyze background noise, then emit “antinoise” of the opposite polarity through a small microphone near the ear to cancel the sound out. This makes it possible to listen to music at lower volumes without the sound being drowned out by ambient background noise.

Noise-cancelling was first developed by Bose in 1986, with Sony, Panasonic, and Sennheiser following later. A number of models are currently available, including Sony’s in-ear headphones, the first earbuds to feature active noise cancellation.

Who Should Use Them?
Noise cancelling headphones are best for frequent travelers, especially those who travel often by plane. Noise reduction headphones work best in environments where there is a consistent background noise, such as the low hum of an airplane engine. The noise reduction isn’t perfect, though – some ambient noise is still bound to slip through, and there is no headphone on the market that claims 100-percent sound cancellation.

Bose QuietComfort 15 Active Noise Cancelling Headphones Review

The QuietComfort 15s are the latest headphones in Bose's line-up of active cancelling headphones. It's quite an improvement over the QuietComfort 3s. They might be a bit expensive, and they might not have the best audio quality, but they have some of the best active cancellation we've tested so far.
	Added on 2010-02-11 11:01:00

Audio-Technica ATH-ANC7 Headphones Review

The ATH-ANC7s are a pair of active noise cancelling over-ears from Audio-Technica. The ATH-ANC7s have the ability to turn their active noise cancellation feature on and off, which immediately puts them leagues beyond many other active-cancellers. The headphones can also play back music once their batteries have died, or without a battery at all.
	Added on 2009-01-26 07:40:00

Denon AH-NC732 Headphones Review

The Denon AH-NC732 headphones are a set of noise-cancelling on-ears. With the active noise-cancelling features and a $300 price tag, the AH-NC732s are joining the crowd attempting to dethrone Bose from its pedastel amongst mainstream listeners. Like the Bose headphones, the AH-NC732s are comfortable, don't move around much when your head does, and come with some good cable and adapter options. Unlike the QuietComfort headphones, however, the AH-NC732s can switch their cancellation on or off, letting you conserve battery life when you don't need it. Also, audio quality gets a significant boost from shutting off the noise cancellation.

Added on
2008-11-04 09:25:00