3 ms·

Noise cancelling only really works for constant sounds (like airplane engines), not for background music/chatter.

by Uvix 3y ago

bigfudge 3y ago
The Sony ones worked quite well for that when I tried them. Was genuinely impressed
LegitShady 3y ago
You're right that it works best for that, but headsets with good noise cancelling tend to have good isolation and the noise cancelling does do some work to suppress other sounds.
Aachen 3y ago
Why is that btw? When I first heard of noise cancelling a few years ago, I figured electrons travel faster than sound waves (by a few orders of magnitude), so they'd just have a mic on the outside and speakers on the inside, amplifier in between and connect plus and minus the wrong way around to create an inverse signal. No chips with delay needed, just an analog signal going directly from mic to speaker. Shouldn't that cancel literally all sound? Apparently they, instead, all use some software solution that mainly works for constant noises. I don't understand why
- LegitShady 3y ago
  the sound travels through the air, hits the microphone, gets transmitted to a cpu that creates an inverse signal, and is then transmitted to your ears. No matter what the cancellation signal is always later than received sound. The received sound arrives first. noises that don't change much have the most similarity between the sound from a couple milliseconds ago to the sound now, and so are most effective. But I will say my sony wf-1000xm3 do seem to do a pretty decent job muffling most noises.
GuB-42 3y ago
The way I experience it, noise cancelling works best on low frequencies of whatever you are listening. It complements passive noise isolation, which work best for high frequencies. Voice is usually in the middle, and it tends to be less attenuated, often that's a feature: you don't want do hear background noise, but you want to hear when people talk to you. Noise cancelling headphones are never just about cancellation, they are always a combination of both cancellation and isolation working together, and it involves a lot of tradeoffs.

Noise cancelling only really works for constant sounds (like airplane engines), not for background music/chatter.

by Uvix 3y ago

Noise cancelling only really works for constant sounds (like airplane engines), not for background music/chatter.

bigfudge 3y ago

The Sony ones worked quite well for that when I tried them. Was genuinely impressed

LegitShady 3y ago

You're right that it works best for that, but headsets with good noise cancelling tend to have good isolation and the noise cancelling does do some work to suppress other sounds.

Aachen 3y ago

Why is that btw? When I first heard of noise cancelling a few years ago, I figured electrons travel faster than sound waves (by a few orders of magnitude), so they'd just have a mic on the outside and speakers on the inside, amplifier in between and connect plus and minus the wrong way around to create an inverse signal. No chips with delay needed, just an analog signal going directly from mic to speaker. Shouldn't that cancel literally all sound? Apparently they, instead, all use some software solution that mainly works for constant noises. I don't understand why

LegitShady 3y ago
the sound travels through the air, hits the microphone, gets transmitted to a cpu that creates an inverse signal, and is then transmitted to your ears. No matter what the cancellation signal is always later than received sound. The received sound arrives first. noises that don't change much have the most similarity between the sound from a couple milliseconds ago to the sound now, and so are most effective. But I will say my sony wf-1000xm3 do seem to do a pretty decent job muffling most noises.

GuB-42 3y ago

The way I experience it, noise cancelling works best on low frequencies of whatever you are listening. It complements passive noise isolation, which work best for high frequencies. Voice is usually in the middle, and it tends to be less attenuated, often that's a feature: you don't want do hear background noise, but you want to hear when people talk to you. Noise cancelling headphones are never just about cancellation, they are always a combination of both cancellation and isolation working together, and it involves a lot of tradeoffs.