Then they create a new wave that is 180 degrees out of phase with the waves associated with the noise. Noise-canceling circuitry - Electronics, also placed in the ear cup, sense the input from the microphone and generate a "fingerprint" of the noise, noting the frequency and amplitude of the incoming wave.Microphone - A microphone placed inside the ear cup "listens" to external sounds that cannot be blocked passively.The result: the listener can focus on the sounds he wants to hear. In essence, the two waves cancel each other out, a phenomenon known as destructive interference. Notice that the two waves - the one coming from the noise-canceling headphone and the one associated with the ambient noise - have the same amplitude and frequency, but their crests and troughs (compressions and rarefactions) are arranged so that the crests (compressions) of one wave line up with the troughs (rarefactions) of the other wave and vice versa. If you look at the illustration below, you can see how this works. How do noise-canceling headphones accomplish this? They actually create their own sound waves that mimic the incoming noise in every respect except one: the headphone's sound waves are 180 degrees out of phase with the intruding waves. They also add an extra level of noise reduction by actively erasing lower-frequency sound waves. That's where active noise-canceling headphones come in.Īctive noise-canceling headphones can do everything that passive ones can do - their very structure creates a barrier that blocks high-frequency sound waves. But considering jet engines create 75 to 80 dB of noise inside the aircraft cabin, passive models have some serious limitations. The tradeoff of all that extra weight is a reduction in noise of about 15 to 20 decibels (dB). That means they are packed with layers of high-density foam or other sound-absorbing material, which makes them heavier than normal headphones. The best passive noise-canceling headphones, however, are circum-aural types that are specially constructed to maximize noise-filtering properties. That's because the materials of the headphones themselves block out some sound waves, especially those at higher frequencies. Technically speaking, any type of headphone can provide some passive noise reduction. Noise-canceling headphones come in either active or passive types. Fortunately, noise-canceling headphones can provide a more enjoyable listening experience. If you have ever tried to listen to a CD or MP3 player on a plane, then you know the problem well: The roar of the engines makes it difficult to hear what's being piped through the speakers - even when those speakers are situated in or on your ear. Unfortunately for music lovers, many types of ambient sounds can interfere with or even block the sounds coming through their headphones.