Understanding Active Noise Cancellation

Nobody revels in spending time working in a chaotic and noisy ambiance. Most prefer to work and relax in silence.?

We see more and more headphones dishing out Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) as out-of-the-box features are now slowly becoming a norm. This wasn't the case if we roll back a few years.

ANC headphones were created for airplane pilots and are now integrated into your mobile phones.

What is Active Noise Cancellation?

Noise cancellation?simply means the complete removal of noise. Sound is a wave with alternating crests (compressions) and troughs (rarefactions). Now we realized that noise emissions can be reduced actively or passively.?

Passive noise isolation uses sound-absorbing materials like insulation and padding to reduce sound.?

Active noise cancellation uses digital signal processing to reduce sound.

How does ANC on headphones work?

The microphone actively "listens" to the sounds outside and inside of the headphone, the ANC chipset inside the headphones creates an inverted soundwave relative to the original sound from the outside. The two waves combine and cancel out each other creating an illusion of a noiseless background.

Much like +1 + (-1) = 0

Conclusion:

If you are someone who prefers to work in silence, or if you are an active spirit always on the move - traveling, if you don't mind losing a bit of extra battery juice ANC headphones are the best companions for you.