3 ms·

I feel like overuse of ANC is going to come with some sort of physical or physiological drawback soon or too late.

ffsm8 2y ago
Highly doubtful, it's just a microphones and the speakers that emit inverted sound waves. This is one of the safest technologies I can imagine. It's more likely that the radio waves from wireless communication (phones, Bluetooth headphones etc) will have negative impact, but even that's unlikely at this point, considering how widespread their use is and no statistically significant link exists.
- seoulmetro 2y ago
  Sure but it's combined noise on top of existing sound waves that gets me. They don't cancel out midair, they cancel out in your brain right? And yeah, I also don't trust all these radio waves we have going everywhere and wonder if big events with hundreds of thousands of phones are doing at least some damage. Things seem unlikely til we realise. Like plague spreading through bad smells. We were close but dismissive. Anyway I hope I'm not right, but it still plays in my mind.
  - ffsm8 2y ago
    > don't cancel out midair, they cancel out in your brain right? No, they cancel out in front of your ears. If you imagine a bowl of water which has waves on it with a small buoy, then the noise cancelling is another wave emitter placed in front of the buoy that cancells out the Waves that are about to hit the buoy. It's a very physical technology. The amazing/magical part of it is that the microphones pick up the Waves quickly enough for the headphones to emit the inverted wave.
    - seoulmetro 2y ago
      Okay I just assumed it was both waves coming to shore and they fell in such a way that lessened both of them. But if they're colliding outside the ear then I feel a bit better now. I should watch a "how it works" video on this.
maxglute 2y ago
I thought so, but I live in pretty quiet neighbourhood with ~8 hours of ANC which enables quietter playback volume, versus growing up in a very loud metropolis where bustle was non stop and blasting headphones in before ANC days. TBH at this point, I wouldn't even object to losing my hearing to have forever ANC (hearing loss) and turning up the hearing aid. E: no offense to those with hearing loss in this thread
- doctor_eval 2y ago
  Yeah I recently lost a chunk of hearing and all I can say is, you will miss it. Much better to wear headphones than to need hearing aids (also: some forms of hearing loss aren’t helped by hearing aids. Mine, for example).
flakeoil 2y ago
Physically/physiological I doubt there are any issues, but maybe psychologically or sociologically.

Highly doubtful, it's just a microphones and the speakers that emit inverted sound waves. This is one of the safest technologies I can imagine. It's more likely that the radio waves from wireless communication (phones, Bluetooth headphones etc) will have negative impact, but even that's unlikely at this point, considering how widespread their use is and no statistically significant link exists.

seoulmetro 2y ago
Sure but it's combined noise on top of existing sound waves that gets me. They don't cancel out midair, they cancel out in your brain right? And yeah, I also don't trust all these radio waves we have going everywhere and wonder if big events with hundreds of thousands of phones are doing at least some damage. Things seem unlikely til we realise. Like plague spreading through bad smells. We were close but dismissive. Anyway I hope I'm not right, but it still plays in my mind.
- ffsm8 2y ago
  > don't cancel out midair, they cancel out in your brain right? No, they cancel out in front of your ears. If you imagine a bowl of water which has waves on it with a small buoy, then the noise cancelling is another wave emitter placed in front of the buoy that cancells out the Waves that are about to hit the buoy. It's a very physical technology. The amazing/magical part of it is that the microphones pick up the Waves quickly enough for the headphones to emit the inverted wave.
  - seoulmetro 2y ago
    Okay I just assumed it was both waves coming to shore and they fell in such a way that lessened both of them. But if they're colliding outside the ear then I feel a bit better now. I should watch a "how it works" video on this.

maxglute 2y ago

I thought so, but I live in pretty quiet neighbourhood with ~8 hours of ANC which enables quietter playback volume, versus growing up in a very loud metropolis where bustle was non stop and blasting headphones in before ANC days. TBH at this point, I wouldn't even object to losing my hearing to have forever ANC (hearing loss) and turning up the hearing aid. E: no offense to those with hearing loss in this thread

doctor_eval 2y ago
Yeah I recently lost a chunk of hearing and all I can say is, you will miss it. Much better to wear headphones than to need hearing aids (also: some forms of hearing loss aren’t helped by hearing aids. Mine, for example).

flakeoil 2y ago

Physically/physiological I doubt there are any issues, but maybe psychologically or sociologically.