Skip to main content

What is Active Noise Cancellation? How ANC headphone works?

What is Active Noise Cancellation? How ANC headphone works?


Hello guys and welcome back, today we're going to discuss the Active Noise Cancellation technology which is used in high-end headphones and earphones. In fact, the same technology is also used in smartphones because of this technology we're able to hear the crystal clear voice of the person during calls and enjoy our favorite music even in a crowded place. Many people are often get baffled whenever the term noise cancellation comes up. This particular term 'Noise Cancellation' embodies some different ideas/technologies to eliminate unwanted noise thus making your listening experience much smoother. Many people are often get baffled whenever the term noise cancellation comes up. 

Today we're going to look at what active noise cancellation means? and exactly how active noise cancellation works?

But before we go ahead don't forget to follow us on Twitter so you're the first to know whenever a new article drops. 

WHAT IS ACTIVE NOISE CANCELLATION?

In simple words, active noise cancellation is a technology that eliminates a particular amount of unwanted background sound. This particular noise-canceling technology, it doesn't cancel out the surrounding noise by simply blocking it. Instead, it produces an anti-noise wave of its own to neutralize the unwanted noise by using a microphone on the headset. 

HOW DOES ANC TECHNOLOGY WORK?

As its name suggests this technology is designed to reduce unwanted background noise so effectively that you can have a great listening experience even in noisy environments like while walking in the busy street or traveling into the train or even in an airplane.


Every headphone or earphone provides some sort of 'passive noise cancellation' and this noise cancellation method that a headphone blocks out the noise based on the physical design of the ear cup, so the shape of the headphone and fitting of the headphone onto the ear determines how much noise the headphone can block, so this passive noise cancellation technology cannot block the background noise completely and to completely block this unwanted background noise, more sophisticated engineering is required, so this is the place where active noise cancellation takes place. 


In this active noise cancellation technology, one & two miniature microphones are placed on to the outer body of the headphone/earphone which picks up the ambient noise from surroundings and the electronic circuitry inside the headphone produces a noise-canceling wave which is 180 degrees out of phase with the ambient noise, so this wave acts like an anti-noise wave that cancels out the noise before it reaches to the earpiece without diminishing the audio you are hearing. It's exactly like adding two same numbers, one positive and one negative, ultimately giving ZERO the result. [+2 (+) -2 = 0]


Active noise-canceling headphones are widely used in the aviation industry. In fact with the help of  ANC technology pilots in the cockpit can talk to each other, despite the heavy noise of the engine. Even in our smartphones, a secondary microphone usually placed at the top side of the phone is used for this purpose. 


TYPES OF ANC TECHNOLOGY 

Three types of ANC techniques are widely used for noise suppression:

1) Feed-Forward  ANC

2) Feedback  ANC

3) Hybrid ANC

Feed-forward ANC

In a feedforward setup, the microphone is placed outside the ear cup. The mic hears the noise before the person.

The mic monitors external noise, the Active Noise Cancellation circuit inverts it into “anti-noise,” then mixes it with audio playback to create a noise cancellation.

As the mic picks up the noise early on,  it has more time to respond and generate the anti-noise. And it is good for high-frequency noise reduction. 

But, during the generation of the anti-noise signal, the path traveled by the actual noise signal also needs to be considered. If the actual noise is coming from some weird angle then the path traveled by the noise will be slightly different and it will reach the user's eardrum a little delayed. 

And anti-noise will not be able to cancel it completely. In some cases, if the path difference is more than that instead of canceling it, it will actually amplify the noise. 

Feedback ANC

In this technique,  as the mic is fitted inside the ear cup and in front of the speaker, it gets to hear the resulting signal in exactly the same way the user does. And because of that, it can adopt the variation in the noise easily.

Because the round-trip time, which includes monitoring, comparing, and creating anti-noise, is longer than that for feed-forward anti-noise, feedback type ANC is only effective for canceling low-frequency noise.

Hybrid ANC

It combines both feed-forward and feedback systems. And in this technique, the microphones are placed insides as well as outside the ear cup. And the user should receive the best noise cancellation. Also using this method, the frequency range for the noise cancellation can be enhanced. The Hybrid ANC headphones are the most expensive among the different types of ANC.

Active Noise Cancellation vs. Passive Noise Cancellation

The main difference between active noise cancellation and passive noise cancellation is that active noise cancellation technology it's trying to eliminate unwanted background noise, whereas passive noise cancellation technology it's trying to just block the ambient noise.

Active noise cancellation does this with the help of an extra microphone placed on the ear cup and electronic circuitry while on the other hand in passive noise cancellation it's trying to block out the ambient noise by the design and the fitting of the headphone.   

Click here to buy some of the best ANC headphones/earphones in the market & Checkout these also 

CONCLUSION

So this is all about what is active noise cancellation? and how do ANC headphones works? If you like what you just read then share it with your family and friends. Also if you have any questions regarding this then let me know in the comment section down below. See you next time with another interesting article till then bye. 



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

RAM or Processor: What makes a smartphone fast ?

  Hello friends and welcome again to your own tech guide: Techanalysia. So today we are to going to see that, what makes a smartphone fast? Is it RAM or Processor? One can't choose between RAM and Processor while determining a device's performance. RAM or Processor: What makes a smartphone fast? The answer to the above question is, both. RAM and Processor are both responsible for the smooth and lag-free performance of your smartphone. Let's take a look at how these two play an important role in a smartphone. First thing first, the type of rams used in smartphones are DDR RAMs.  In particular, the RAM used in smartphones is technically called LPDDR RAM. This term stands for 'Lower Power Double Data Rate RAM. These LPDDR RAMs are the version of DDR RAMS specially designed for smartphones.  These RAMs are optimized for low power consumption because these RAMs are used inside smartphones which are having a small battery compared to PC/ Laptop in which DDR RAMs are employe

How to Restore Deleted Files from Google Drive

  How to Restore Deleted Files from Google Drive   As we all know Google Drive keeps our files (images, videos, documents) in a cloud and you and we as a user can our files at any point in time. But if you deleted any file from Google Drive by mistake, then don’t need to worry. You can recover your file with a few simple steps. And remember you can only recover your deleted file from Google Drive from the 30 days of deletion. Because after deletion of a file from Google Drive it will stay in the Trash/Bin folder for 30 days. After 30 days the file will be permanently deleted and you’ll not be able to recover it again.   And if by any chance you have deleted a file that someone shared with you, then in this case you can’t restore that particular file. You can simply ask the owner of the file to recover it from the Trash/Bin.   And it doesn’t matter if you are recovering your deleted file from your smartphone (Android & iOS) app or from your desktop browser. The steps to

Qualcomm Snapdragon 480: Qualcomm's first budget 5G chipset launched

  Hello friends and welcome again to your tech guide Techanalsysia. Today I am here with some latest news from Qualcomm itself. Yesterday on 4 January 2021 Qualcomm unveils its new budget-friendly 5G chipset named Snapdragon 480. This will be the first 5G SoC in the budget-friendly 4 series of Snapdragon processors by Qualcomm. It will bring 5G capabilities to the budget segment smartphones also and I am hoping that the smartphone manufacturers like Oppo, Vivo, Realme, Nokia, Xiaomi, Motorola will soon start to produce budget 5G phones by the end of Q1 of 2021. This will ensure that there will be plenty of budget-friendly 5G smartphones by the end of this year. Qualcomm Snapdragon 480: Features The Snapdragon 480 5G chipset will be an octa-core SoC based on an 8-nanometer   fabrication process node. It will be equipped with the new integrated X51 5G modem RF system and can deliver good 5G speed on both the mmWave and Sub 6 gigahertz networks and will be capable of giving you a DL sp