When the first mp3 players and iPods appeared several years ago, people started to listen to music in public places or even at home. As a consequence, it became much easier to bring music everywhere with us, and since then the technology of audio devices has developed at a very fast speed. Nowadays there’s almost no place where you can’t bring music with you.
Undoubtedly, the arrival of smartphones and streaming music services has made us see more and more people everywhere listening to music with their headphones and earphones on. However, wherever we go, we are surrounded by the noise of the streets, the people, the cars all around us. If we do not have a headset that isolates us from that noise, our experience will not be as pleasant as we would like it to be. That’s why we need more noise cancellation in our life.
How noise cancellation works in headphones
The systems of noise cancellation or ANC (Active Noise Control) allow us to cancel all the unwanted noises. It will be easier for you to understand how these systems actually work if we first revise together the principles of the theory of sound waves and their interference. As you might have heard before, noise is transmitted in the form of waves. When we have waves of the same frequency in the same space, then this is when we can talk about °interference°.
These interferences can be constructive or destructive, depending on whether the resulting wave is of greater or lesser amplitude than the wave of interest. This one feature is used to create active noise cancellation. To do this, we must create a sound wave that interferes with the wave we want to cancel. Then, the combination of both is what makes noise cancellation happen.
So in headphones with noise cancellation, the waves of ambient noise join with the waves of the music we want to hear. The noise cancellation system integrated in the headphones stops the waves that collide with the sound waves coming from your surroundings. By cancelling those noises, it allows you to hear all the details of your favorite tunes.
The wave emitted by the noise cancellation system of your headphones must be the same but with an opposite direction to the ones originated from your ambient noise. In this way, the interference between them is destructive and cancels the arrival of noise to your headphones.
In practice, noise cancellation will not work 100% of the times. When we talk about ambient noise, the issue gets a little more complicated since we usually move and the ambient noise may be higher in a few moments than in others. What is sure is that the experience of listening to music with conventional headphones is very different from doing the same with noise-cancelling headphones.
Some drawbacks of headphones with noise cancellation
Based on what we have just said, the main advantage of using noise-cancelling headphones should be clearer to you now. However, keep in mind that noise-cancelling headphones still have some drawbacks.
The price of headphones with noise cancellation is one of their main disadvantages. Yes, we can always find something that suits our budget. However, it is evident that the fact of incorporating a noise cancellation system makes the price of this type of headphones more expensive.
Noise cancellation is widely found in gaming headphones. If you are into video games, this is an essential feature you should look for in your next set. That’s why we can recommend you the SOMiC G951S Purple Gaming Headset. This product from SOMIC has proven to give maximum comfort when you use it for gaming and listening to music.
