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Nice video about ANC headphones
- Thread starter Jeromeof
- Start date
- Joined
- Mar 1, 2020
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I recoil anytime I see headphones on a KU100.
This is not a dummyhead to be used with microphones...
This is not a dummyhead to be used with microphones...
solderdude
Grand Contributor
The 'simple' test (noise reduction only) the QC45 seemed to work best.
How they also do music does not seem to have been an aspect in this test.
It was nice dreaming about what could be possible in the future (needs Ai).
The test was a bit limited and self noise (which is the most annoying to me) does not seem to have been tested, or was not reported.
Also ... in the explanation part about the mic inside they said the correction was 'calculated' but this is not the case.
There is a feedback mic which compares the incoming sound with the registered sound from the mic (so external sound + intended sound) and it feeds the 'mic' sound - intended sound (the music) to the speakers directly.
It works similar to the feedback in an amplifier but where the mic is the feedback part. So the music - picked up sound = signal to the speaker.
It is real-time so also 'corrects' the deviations caused by the speaker.
That is ... only up to a certain frequency (usually up to 500Hz-2kHz). The reason for the max. correctable frequency range is the driver-mic distance + speed of sound. It works well for lower frequencies but for higher ones the time delay (due to the acoustic wavelength) is what limits the system so they 'roll-off' the correction.
The higher frequencies will have to rely on passive attenuation.
Of course, most NC headphones these days do convert the incoming analog sound (when using a cable) and use DSP to do the 'feedback' which is technically a calculation.
The BT connection is already digital. The advantage is that it is even easy to take the speed of sound (distance driver-mic) into account and make it work higher up into the frequency range.
They can even use mics on the outside to (partially) mix outside noises but attenuated and stuff like that.
Nice to 'hear' them working. In practice I found the QC35 and WH1000 to work quite well and have low 'back ground hiss'. The Airpods Max also worked quite well to drown out noises. (QC45 and 700 I only heard briefly and seemed to work fine.
The cheaper NC headphones often do not sound great, have audible background hiss with ANC on (annoying as it is a sharp hiss) so if I would ever need one I would audition it, listen for self noise, check the sound quality, comfort and battery life.
How they also do music does not seem to have been an aspect in this test.
It was nice dreaming about what could be possible in the future (needs Ai).
The test was a bit limited and self noise (which is the most annoying to me) does not seem to have been tested, or was not reported.
Also ... in the explanation part about the mic inside they said the correction was 'calculated' but this is not the case.
There is a feedback mic which compares the incoming sound with the registered sound from the mic (so external sound + intended sound) and it feeds the 'mic' sound - intended sound (the music) to the speakers directly.
It works similar to the feedback in an amplifier but where the mic is the feedback part. So the music - picked up sound = signal to the speaker.
It is real-time so also 'corrects' the deviations caused by the speaker.
That is ... only up to a certain frequency (usually up to 500Hz-2kHz). The reason for the max. correctable frequency range is the driver-mic distance + speed of sound. It works well for lower frequencies but for higher ones the time delay (due to the acoustic wavelength) is what limits the system so they 'roll-off' the correction.
The higher frequencies will have to rely on passive attenuation.
Of course, most NC headphones these days do convert the incoming analog sound (when using a cable) and use DSP to do the 'feedback' which is technically a calculation.
The BT connection is already digital. The advantage is that it is even easy to take the speed of sound (distance driver-mic) into account and make it work higher up into the frequency range.
They can even use mics on the outside to (partially) mix outside noises but attenuated and stuff like that.
Nice to 'hear' them working. In practice I found the QC35 and WH1000 to work quite well and have low 'back ground hiss'. The Airpods Max also worked quite well to drown out noises. (QC45 and 700 I only heard briefly and seemed to work fine.
The cheaper NC headphones often do not sound great, have audible background hiss with ANC on (annoying as it is a sharp hiss) so if I would ever need one I would audition it, listen for self noise, check the sound quality, comfort and battery life.
Last edited:
OP
- Thread Starter
- #4
A friend of mine was telling me yesterday about his experience with the latest IOS 17 beta and his AirPods Max, the adaptive ANC was driving him mad or at least he wanted a simple way to disable it - he commutes on a train and up to now the ANC has been great but it was now with people talking to each other next to him he was hearing their conversation. I imagine even with the smartest AI - it can be hard to tell the difference between someone talking next to you but to someone else and someone talking directly too you.
As for cheap NC headphones I do have the Soundcore Q30 - and it fine as something I can eq in their App to something reasonable and throw into my bag and not care about - but I did separately eq down high frequencies as I can hear bad distortion with ANC enabled when playing high frequencies, soundcore own EQ did not disable it.
dasdoing
Major Contributor
Doppler Labs Here One was an intresting concept. never got my hands on them though. You could basically EQ your environment to taste, or at least that was the idea
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