Noise
Cancellation Headphones - New Technology
Emerges
It can really be a pain when you are trying to
listen to music on headphones and you can hear constant
background noise. If you commute to work, this takes many
forms, the noise of traffic, the noise of the train, the noise
of passengers near you yelling into their cell phones at
6:00AM, you get the idea. At home, this noise can be lawn
mowers, crying babies, yelling children, air conditioners, fans, someone else watching
television, etc. The sources of noise are pretty much
endless. Welcome to the modern world. To address our ever
increasingly noisy world, noise cancellation headphones
were invented. Now all we have to do is flick a switch on
the headphones and suddenly all goes quiet. Now we can
listen to our favorite music unaffected by extraneous
noises.
That is the theory, the real world does not always follow
suit. There are good noise cancellation headphones and bad
ones. The bad ones sound terrible and only mute the outside
noise a little and eat up batteries. To be successful at
canceling noise, everything must be in order. The lower the
quality on any one component, the less effective the noise
reduction will be. So how do they work? Basically the headset
has a small circuit inside it that samples the outside noise.
It then creates the exact opposite noise and plays it through
the headphones along with the music. The noise from the outside
plus the sound injected from the noise canceling circuit will
cancel each other out at your ear resulting in music without
the noise. How successful this is in practice varies wildly
with different headsets. Another point worth mentioning is that
high price doesn't always mean better performance. Some very
high priced headphones out there are simply terrible at noise
reduction. You really have to put a set on and try them out
before buying. This task is best done in a store, not trying
out and sending back every headset in a catalog online.
Last, but certainly not least, when evaluating noise
cancellation headphones, make note of the estimated battery
life. If you aren't getting at least 20 hours or so on a single
set of batteries, you are going to need a lot of batteries. If
the best set of headphones is a battery cruncher, though, I
guess it's time to get rechargeable batteries.
Best Value: Goldring NS-100
Approaching the PXC450s for isolation and performance but
half the cost! They don't get too sweaty during a long
listening session. When using they are impressively
musical, you will get a sweet but powerful sound. They
are termed 'an absolute steal at the price'.
Best for Style: Beats by Dr Dre
The Beats - developed by Monster with the aid of NWA's most
famous graduate - not cheap. But these
Apple-Store-exclusive headphones are excellent. They are
beautifully finished and very comfortable. Their
noise-cancellation circuitry is formidably effective, although
they do allow more sound out to the outside world than some
rivals. Most cruically, though, they sound absolutely
thrilling, with a punchy, deep sound, ample attach and plenty
of detail.
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