Bluetooth headphones have become popular and the main selling point nowadays is the noise cancellation feature. With noise cancellation, you can listen to the content without any disturbance. It gives an immersive audio experience. You can give full attention to the content and understand it better. It lets you forget the surroundings. Let’s understand how Bluetooth headphone noise cancellation works.
How Bluetooth headphone noise cancellation works?
In noise cancellation, there are two types. Passive noise cancellation and active noise cancellation. In general noise cancellation refers to the Active type. But let’s understand both types.
Passive noise cancellation (PNC)
- This type of cancellation relies on optimising the hardware to hinder the noise.
- Hardware optimization like using ear muffs that have heavy padding.
- This heavy padding provides an almost complete seal from environmental noise.
- The high frequency erratic noise can be successfully filtered out with the help of this passive cancellation.
- Usually headphones come with the default passive noise cancellation. Manufacturers nowadays are providing the passive type out of the box.
Active Noise Cancellation (ANC)
As the name suggests, Active noise cancellation (ANC) requires special hardware to pick up noise and filter it out. This type of cancellation is best suitable to filter out constant low frequency noises that cannot be filtered by a passive method.
How does the ANC work?
- As we had mentioned, a headphone with ANC has multiple mics to pickup noise.
- The noise will be recognised and their wave pattern will be recorded.
- Then a counter wave to the noise will be generated to cancel them out.
- Now you will hear only the content without the external noises.
- A headphone should be equipped with both active and passive cancellation. Because ANC may sometimes allow high frequency loud noises and works better with constant frequency noises.
- When you use both methods you can perfectly get all your noises cancelled out.
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Does noise cancelling work without Bluetooth?
Bluetooth doesn’t have any contribution to the noise cancellation process. It connects your headphone to the respective device.
The noise cancellation is done by the headphone hardware and Bluetooth doesn’t play any role. The noise is picked up by the microphones of the headset. Bluetooth helps in keeping the headphone connected to the device.
It is better to use the latest version of Bluetooth because you can have very low latency. Bluetooth only sorts out the latency issue. It doesn’t control the noise cancellation process.
With low latency, you will not feel any lag in the audio output. The connectivity with the device will be perfect and give a seamless listening experience.
Does noise cancelling cancel all noise?
Mostly yes. When both the noise cancelling methods are optimized and used, it can cancel out most of the noise.
Using the right piece of tech in the hardware helps in filtering the heavy loud noises. Optimizing the ear muffs and trying to achieve a perfect seal will help you to clear most of the noises.
On the other hand, using ANC will filter all the low frequency waves and give you clear output. Therefore, using both methods will clear most of the noise waves. Maybe a few loud noises will not be filtered to provide absolute silence.
Is noise cancelling reducing the volume of the headphone?
No, noise canceling doesn’t reduce the volume. Rather it counteracts the noise profile by creating an exact opposite waveform.
The loudness of the content from your device is adjusted by the volume control. ANC or PNC don’t interact with the volume control. Rather it picks up the external noise inputs and cancels them out. Or in the case of PNC, it blocks the external sounds by sealing the ear.
Therefore, no connection is there between volume control and noise cancellation.
Why do gamers always prefer noise cancelling headphones?
There are many features that make this headphone a desirable product for gamers. Let’s discuss them one by one.
Sound Quality
Noise canceling headphones provide the best sound quality of any other product. It reproduces the input sound perfectly along with its noise cancellation process, it gives immense sound quality. The bass and other aspects of the sound are perfectly balanced with such headphones.
Active noise cancellation
The active noise cancellation helps the gamers to concentrate better in their game and listen to the details carefully. The ANC gives better sound output. Another feature in Active noise cancellation (ANC) is that you can adjust the level of transparency with the noise cancellation. You can choose to cancel all the noise or you may allow some external sounds. This is very helpful for gamers.
Low latency
Most of the noise cancelling headphones are pricey due to this feature. But this feature is very important for gamers. Low latency means the device has seamless connectivity to the headphone. This gives the sound output in sync with the gameplay. Since games have high frame rates and fast screenplay, low latency is much needed and it is imminent with Bluetooth noise cancelling headphones.
How to maintain Noise Cancellation Headphones
Most Noise Cancellation Headphones are designed for frequent use. This means that they are not as strong as studio headphones. They require more maintenance to prolong their life. Here are some tips on how you can maintain your Noise Cancelling Headphones properly.
- Clean your headphones often with a soft cloth or brush.
- Use compressed air to remove dust.
- Don’t put anything on or in your headphones that might damage their internal components.
- Keep them away from heat sources like radiators, heaters etc.
- Place your headphones in a case when not in use.
- Be gentle when adjusting earcup position or rotating earcups.
- Keep your headphones away from household cleaners and chemicals (Make sure they don’t come into contact with water or other liquids).
Conclusion
The working of Bluetooth noise cancelling headphones is quite interesting and a rather simple technique. It just optimizes the hardware and uses microphones to capture noise fit cancelling it out. This feature makes the headphones a desirable one for many. But due to this advanced tech, it is most expensive.
