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Question about Active Noise Cancellation alternatives (fedia.io)

submitted 5 months ago by [email protected] to c/technology

31 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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.

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[–] czardestructo 12 points 5 months ago (3 children)

So I work for Bose. ANR ear buds are notably better than ANR headphones because they totally block your ear and adjust the ANR based on a microphone literally inside your ear. It records what is heard in your ear and cancels it, our latest buds are uncomfortably good at this. I find the absolute quiet a bit unsettling.

But to your question, you just want quiet while you sleep? What about good old foam ear plugs? They work fairly well when put in far enough.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

thanks, i use earplugs all the way up in there, and they block pretty much everything except movement, which isn't sound per se, but it is vibration, and that seems to be silenced by my QCII headphones which I've been wearing to bed for a while now, they block pretty much everything and I'm not woken up by my upstairs neighbors walking abound on their floor/my ceiling like i am when i've got ear plug in. iv'e tried the bose qcii earbuds and the sony 1000xm4, and in my experience neither of them hold a candle to my bose qcii over the ear headphones in carpetting of sound. i figured if there was a general "sound cancelling" frequency someone somewhere at sometime might have recorded it as a mp3 or flac and i could try to play it from any old earbuds whilst i slept, but it seems that's not technically how noise cancellation functions, but i do appreciate your response, being an expert, thanks again

[–] czardestructo 3 points 5 months ago

Im wondering if the passive attenuation of your headphones is doing more work than the ANR system is? Regardless sound is perception and that's all that matters. I think using any ear bud, headphone or even a speaker with Brown Noise playing loudly is likely the only sure way to completely block out your perception of all noise. Or just take some gummies and turn your brain off :)

[–] solrize 1 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

the absolute quiet

WANT. I didn't know that existed now. Best I've been able to do is foamies, that are better than nothing, but still let in a lot of sound. I will go look for new Bose IEM's. Thanks.

Added: Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds, I think. I'll see what I can find out. 6 hour runtime is a bit unfortunate though, not enough to get through a work day.

Btw, a lot of the blurb about these is about music playback quality and I don't want that at all. No music, just quiet. If they are 10db quieter at speech frequencies than typical 32db NRR foamies then that is probably worth the $250 to me. The amount of productivity I lose to office chatter distraction exceeds that in like no time.

Is there a reasonable way to replace the batteries once they crap out? Frankly I'd be fine with a wired version.

[–] czardestructo 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Sent you a DM, I can help guide you to a product and give you a discount if you really want something.

[–] solrize 1 points 5 months ago

Thanks! Responded by PM.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Latest that are out or still in the lab?

[–] czardestructo 1 points 5 months ago

The latest out in the world, the Quiet comfort ultras. Once you find the correct sized stability band and ear tip sizes you have two exceptional gaskets to block out the world. They work amazingly well.