I’ve got a audio/tech question, maybe someone here might have some insight into.
I’m in need of noise cancellation for various and sundry reasons. i own a pair of BOSE ANC headphones which are tits, but have been looking for a pair of GOOD ANC earbuds that don’t cost $300 bucks, and had an idea that all ANC appears to be, when you break it down, is sound that the earphones/earbuds produce which bounce around in the ear canal and hit the ear drum in certain ways as to “cancel” out various types of background noise.
Again the ANC on my BOSE are amazing. Does anyone know, or have even heard of (no pun intended) anyone who has produced “noise cancelling” sound files?
It seems as if noise cancelling hardware like earphones are producing sounds that cancel out noise, mp3/flac files of “noise cancelling” sound could be on offer somewhere.
Dunno, figured i’d ask. Hope this is the right place to do that, and I’m not breaking any rules, I didn’t know where else to post this.
The A in ANC stands for Active. It is actively listening to ambient noise in your environment to cancel it out with a waveform tailored to do so in real time. If the noise in your environment is very static (like a hum or whirring) it might be possible to embed a cancelling sound in the audio file. But it’s likely it still won’t line up properly to really cancel it. It’s more likely to cause a worse sound because of being out of phase (like two leaf blowers going at the same time).
I hope that makes sense.
There have been a lot of ANC responses focusing on the A (active) part. There are two parts to nose cancellation: active and passive. I agree ANC are sweet and all… The other comments have that covered.
If you’re interested in exploring a potentially low cost alternative to expensive ANR headphones or earbuds… Know that there are two parts to noise cancelling: active and passive. Passive nose cancelling is how much the headphones or earbuds reduce the outside noise before the active part needs to step in.
SO, an option I haven’t seen discussed yet would be to get some standard low cost earbuds and get some over-ear ear muffs to put around them.
Edit: literacy is for everyone… I didn’t see the bit about using this for sleep. Over ear muffs plus earbuds wouldn’t be very comfortable. Another option might be just finding some noise sounds you prefer over the nose you like. There are different standard noises… White noise, pink noise, brown noise… These might help make the frequency of unwanted sound your looking to block. This is a link related to noise colors after a quick search: https://www.hatch.co/blog/exploring-color-noises-for-better-sleep-with-hatch
The sound produced by ANC is the exact 180 degree inverse (or as near as possible) of the incoming bad noise.
It’s produced in realtime by dedicated signal processors and requires mic arrays feeding in the sound. The quicker your processing pipeline the better the match is and the more powerful the effect is.
There’s no prerecorded sound that would work.
appreciate the response
Yup not possible. Sound is waves. Think of a sine wave that goes up and down. Noise canceling works by canceling the peaks and valleys of a sound wave with inverted valleys and peaks. If the peak is +1 for example, a sound wave with a valley of -1 played at the same time would cancel it out. This is simplistic terms of course.
The sound of your environment is constantly changing. If you wanted a static audio file to cancel out noise you would have to play some customized white noise. Not the effect you’re looking for.
Just extra context. You’ll need ANC buds. Heard Sony is good. Good luck!
I’ve always wondered, does the ear experience additional, unheard “loudness” when using ANC?
Yes. On older generation/cheaper ANC this is perceived as increased “pressure”. It doesn’t seem louder but the physical sensation of loudness is there.
That actually explains the sensation I have with headphones provided by my work, I want to like them but the sensation is kind of unpleasant
