Why Noise Cancelling Headphones Don’t Work
Dec 14, 2007
Popular headphone brands like Sony and Bose heavily advertise their noise cancelling headphones. At EarphoneSolutions.com, we investigated their claims to discover whether they’re bona fide or exaggerated. Here are our findings:
Claim: Noise cancelling headphones are more effective than sound isolating earphones.
We Say: Don’t listen to the marketing claims of huge companies. We tested popular noise cancelling headphone brands against our sound isolating Shure earphones.
We outfitted ten participants with noise cancelling headphones and Shure sound isolating headphones. We tested them on three separate occasions to eliminate the possibility of any outside variables having an effect. We tested the amount of noise reduction provided by each product, and found that Shure blocks 3.5 times more noise than Bose, 6.3 more than Sennheiser headphones, and a whopping 7.5 more times than Sony earphones!
Think the difference between noise cancelling headphones and sound isolating earphones is all in the name? Think again. Here are the details on each kind of headphone:
- Sound Isolating Earphones – A plastic, foam, or rubber sleeve is fitted around the earphone and slides comfortably inside your ear. The small, flexible sleeve prohibits outside background noise from interrupting your music. Unlike their noise cancelling counterparts, they don’t require any extra circuitry or batteries.
- Noise Cancelling Headphones – These headphones utilize a small microphone inside the earcup that samples outside noise, and a circuit provides a “mirror-image” of the noise that works to cancel it out. Additional batteries are required for these headphones.
The Verdict
Our findings show that sound isolating headphones are overwhelmingly superior to noise cancelling headphones. We want you to experience only the best sounding music, and we recommend Shure Sound Isolating Earphones for you.
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