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A Better Way to Cancel Noise

nautil.us

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Re: A Better Way to Cancel Noise

#11

Post by anmorgan »

tamersalama wrote: post #8

I hate white noise and It bugs me a lot in current office settings (theory is that my brain is trying to make sense of what's thrown at it). Isn't anti-noise signal, in itself, a noise? Whether or not it perfectly matches the noise signal or lags behind. Wouldn't that be more patterns that the brain would try to make sense of.

It would not be more signal.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wave_interference

The goal of noise canceling is to fully use destructive wave interference to create a 0 amplitude "signal", which is no signal at all.

Re: A Better Way to Cancel Noise

#12

Post by jlebar »

raindropm wrote: post #7

That aside, I found that construction earmuff is quite good for blocking sound and gain focus — with just about 5% price of top noise canceling headphone in the market. It took a bit getting used to though(and took quite some times to 'stretch' the earmuff in order to make it not clamp too tight to your head, but it works quite well and very cheap alternative. It looks derpy though so I can't wear it in the office —…

Heh, most people think mine are headphones. The derp factor only occurs once they figure out that they're not. :)

Re: A Better Way to Cancel Noise

#13

Post by anonu »

I live in NYC and I'm a longtime user of the Bose QC20s. They are probably the best commercial noise cancellation devices. I even sleep with them. The article promises some significant leaps in the technology. No doubt as processing gets faster and smaller we'll have even smarter noise cancellation. Looking forward to that...

Re: A Better Way to Cancel Noise

#14

Post by peatmoss »

raindropm wrote: post #7

That aside, I found that construction earmuff is quite good for blocking sound and gain focus — with just about 5% price of top noise canceling headphone in the market. It took a bit getting used to though(and took quite some times to 'stretch' the earmuff in order to make it not clamp too tight to your head, but it works quite well and very cheap alternative. It looks derpy though so I can't wear it in the office —…

You can sometimes pair a decent in-ear pair of headphones with shooting / construction earmuffs, depending on the clearances. That’s the best of both worlds IMO. Also, don’t worry about looking derpy; I give you blanket permission to not care :-)

Re: A Better Way to Cancel Noise

#15

Post by steve19 »

anonu wrote: post #13

I live in NYC and I'm a longtime user of the Bose QC20s. They are probably the best commercial noise cancellation devices. I even sleep with them. The article promises some significant leaps in the technology. No doubt as processing gets faster and smaller we'll have even smarter noise cancellation. Looking forward to that...

I completely agree. My QC20s are probably hands down the best electronics purchase I have made. A gadget that has significantly increased my quality of life, and they last a long time.

Re: A Better Way to Cancel Noise

#17

Post by puranjay »

steve19 wrote: post #15
anonu wrote: post #13

I live in NYC and I'm a longtime user of the Bose QC20s. They are probably the best commercial noise cancellation devices. I even sleep with them. The article promises some significant leaps in the technology. No doubt as processing gets faster and smaller we'll have even smarter noise cancellation. Looking forward to that...

I completely agree. My QC20s are probably hands down the best electronics purchase I have made. A gadget that has significantly increased my quality of life, and they last a long time.

I was on the fence about them. I had the Sennheiser BTNC 4.5 shortlisted since they're cheaper. Is Bose's noise canceling significantly better than Sennheiser's?

Re: A Better Way to Cancel Noise

#19

Post by gnicholas »

tedunangst wrote: post #5

The description was rather vague, but seemingly equivalent to a pair of bose headphones with the microphone extended out a few feet in the direction of noise to allow more time to calculate the antiwave?

Yeah, except of course there are reflections from all over the place, so just extending it out in one direction wouldn't solve the problem. I think this is what the reference to IOT was all about — if you had a few sensors in the room, then you could do a better job of this.

I've wondered if a HomePod or two could do this — I understand they are currently able to discern a very quiet "hey Siri" (even when playing loud music), due to their spatial awareness. Of course, the HomePod would also need to know where the listener(s) is located in order to cancel the noise.

Re: A Better Way to Cancel Noise

#20

Post by nordsieck »

peatmoss wrote: post #14
raindropm wrote: post #7

That aside, I found that construction earmuff is quite good for blocking sound and gain focus — with just about 5% price of top noise canceling headphone in the market. It took a bit getting used to though(and took quite some times to 'stretch' the earmuff in order to make it not clamp too tight to your head, but it works quite well and very cheap alternative. It looks derpy though so I can't wear it in the office —…

You can sometimes pair a decent in-ear pair of headphones with shooting / construction earmuffs, depending on the clearances. That’s the best of both worlds IMO. Also, don’t worry about looking derpy; I give you blanket permission to not care :-)

A great alternative to your setup is a set of plugfones [0].

They're an earbud that's an earplug first and a speaker second, which means they have an NRR rating and are generally pretty good earplugs.

[0] https://www.plugfones.com/

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