Noise Canceling Headphone Reviews

About Noise Canceling Headphones

Noise canceling headphones are designed to decrease the external noise which enters your ears while you listen to music with a headphone.

How does noise enter?

The noise enters in two ways; active noise entry and passive noise entry.

Passive noise control: If the noise is physically blocked from reaching your ears, then it is called passive noise reduction. Passive noise reduction involves physically blocking noise from reaching your ears. Traditionally, passive noise reduction can be achieved by complete blocking of ear so that no external sound can enter. There are also ear canal phones. They sit tightly in your ear canal so that no external sound can enter while you are listening to music.

Active noise control: Active noise reduction involves blocking noise by using technology. This is done by using large and circumaural earpiece, a design which is specifically meant to reduce the sound. Actually the process involves canceling out the effect of the sound once it enters into your headphone, by reversing the signal. There are certain limitations of active sound cancellation. While sounds of higher frequency can easily be controlled by active sound control mechanism, the sound of higher frequency cannot be reduced by this method.

There is also a short period of time (a fraction of a second) when the sound is heard and the headphone senses it and reverses the audio message from outside. During this short span of time, the listener can hear the sound. Since the active sound control involves artificial noise controlling agents, there is some degradation in the quality of the sound.

Advantages of noise canceling headphones: Noise canceling headphones does not require you to be completely aloof from the outside world. While listening to music you can still hear the outside world, talk in phone and speak with others. Moreover, there is no hassle in removing the headphone from the plug point. The noise canceling headphones are luxurious devices which ensure disturbance free sound track. It allows the hearer to listen to the music without increasing the volume, since disturbing sounds are not entering his/ her ears.

The noise canceling headphones are apt for listening to music in train and subways; since the ambient noise is controlled, the hearer gets a clear and distinctive sound.

Some of the reputed noises canceling headphone models are the following:

- Logitech Noise Canceling Headphones
- Sony MDR-NC6
- iSymphony NC1 Stereo Noise Canceling Headphones
- Sony MDR-NC40
- PHILIPS SHN5500
- SONY MDR-NC11A
- PHILIPS HN110