this post was submitted on 23 May 2024
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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.
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.
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 :)
Latest that are out or still in the lab?
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.
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.
Sent you a DM, I can help guide you to a product and give you a discount if you really want something.
Thanks! Responded by PM.
Overwhelming the noise is another option, a white noise soundtrack might be a decent bet. Otherwise you're going to want to go with ear plugs.
You could try playing white noise through normal earbuds, it might block some of the noise. It wouldn't be as effective as noise cancelling, but it's worth trying