I Loathe Active Noise Cancelling Headphones
Sorry, what was that?
We’re heading into the holidays which means typically year end stuff is coming soon. But this week I wanted to go over why I both love and hate active noise cancelling (ANC) headphones.
Why I Love Them
This might sound overdramatic to some, but ANC headphones are an absolute game changer for me. I’m autistic, and while it’s not a necessity for everybody, it absolutely changed the game for me when I discovered them while growing up.
I think it’s the main reason I really got into audio. On the one hand, as a late-diagnosed autistic, I hadn’t really comprehended why I liked to wear headphones all the time. I just did. I wanted the peace and quiet. But on the other hand, it sort of forced me to care about how my headphones sound. And that’s something I noticed a lot more growing up.
I wasn’t really introduced to ANC headphones until my late teens or early 20s. However, by then I had already discovered an entire world of great sounding headphones that I would use on an everyday basis. Speakers weren’t really a thing because I didn’t want to bother anyone else in the household.
If I remember correctly, my first foray into ANC headphones were the Sony WH-1000XM2s. And I thought those were incredible at the time. I loved the noise cancelling despite the sound quality sounding like absolute dog water.
But back to my main point. I love that ANC headphones just make everything around me quiet. Some do it better than others, and some suppress certain frequencies better than others. Either way, ANC performance has improved substantially over the years and there’s something for everyone in that regard nowadays.
Likewise, transparency and/or passthrough mode has improved quite a bit as well. This is a feature that lets you keep your headphones on but hear the world around you. It’s not perfect—none of them are. But most are good enough now that I’m able to hear the world around me clearly. And a lot of them are adaptive, which means you can adjust how much of the real world you let in.
Of course, everyone hears differently so the variety definitely helps. Some people might experience extreme cabin pressure from overly strong ANC headphones, while others don’t mind it at all. Comfort is a huge thing, too. Thankfully, there’s variety there too. It’s no secret that most ANC headphones aim to be as comfortable as possible. But again, there’s variety here.
I’d go as far as to say that most headphones people find very uncomfortable, I find very comfortable. And vice versa. I’m not sure why that is, but that’s the trend I’ve seen over the years.
I also like that ANC headphones tend to be super lightweight. Yeah, it’s at the expense of super nice materials, but most people probably don’t care when their ANC headphones are being tossed into their bag anyway. Although I do have really nice cases for my headphones, I don’t always use them.
My last reason sort of hurts me as an audiophile, but it’s the truth: wireless. When I’m not in a critical listening environment, I’m perfectly happy with listening wirelessly. I’d take it a step further: if I’m not actively listening to music, I’m more than happy with true wireless earbuds. The noise cancelling performance has been great there, too.
Where They Could Do Better
I know, I know. ANC technology works by listening to your surroundings and pumping anti-noise inside the headphones. That will always have a certain amount of sound degradation built in. But I’m surprised we haven’t gotten over the hump where ANC headphones can sound better than $100 pairs of headphones without sacrificing ANC performance.
It’s the main reason why I’m still iffy about over-ear ANC headphones. I rotate through them quite often, and more often than I’d like to admit. My in-ear true wireless earbuds have remained consistent. I went from Apple AirPods to AirPods 2, AirPods Pro 1st gen, and now AirPods Pro 2nd gen. They’ve been great all around, with steady improvements along the way.
It seems to be the one big trade off. If you want great ANC, you sacrifice sound quality. Granted, is it in a way most consumers care about? No. But I do. Great ANC performing over-hear headphones seem to be a pandoras box. Sure, ANC performance is really good, but then you sacrifice sound quality, which is already taking a hit because it’s a pair of wireless headphones. Hence why I’ve mentioned that most ANC headphones don’t sound any better than most $100 wired headphones.
The other big issue that isn’t really talked about is replaceable batteries. Before ANC and digital headphones, people would hold on to their headphones for at least five years, if not decades. It’s rather unfortunate that most of the popular ANC headphones have a limited shelf life. They’ll all get thrown out by the 10-year mark. And that just sucks.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, I’m torn. On one hand, I absolutely love the technical progress. I love my AirPods Pro 2. But on the other hand, I’m still yearning for better sound quality and more repairable designs. I don’t want to have to keep cycling through ANC headphones until I find one that’s a great balance between sound and ANC performance. I don’t want to constantly replace them because the batteries no longer hold a charge.
But I think if you don’t care for sound quality at all and straight up want the best ANC you can buy, you have a lot of great options—both at low- and high price points. It’s when you have to move that slider that it becomes a problem. I could recommend a few of them here, but all the popular ones from Bose, Sony, and Apple are all solid options if you want premium, performant over-ear ANC headphones.
For me, I don’t think I’m quite there yet. I haven’t found a pair of over-ear ANC headphones that fulfill everything I need. For the moment, when I’m on the go with headphones, I just choose to hardly play music and just wear my AirPods Pro 2.
For me, as an autistic person, ANC headphones are an essential part of life. They help me not get overly stimulated while living my everyday life.
While I can see obvious improvements that can be made, that doesn’t necessarily mean that every manufacturer should do it. I think replaceable batteries are probably a wash since most people are more than happy to just replace their headphones as they age. The sound quality is good enough for most people. And for those who want better sound, we’ll just have to wait until the technology improves.