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Noise Cancelling Headphones – Overview
Whether managing a 12-hour flight with noisy co-passengers or enjoying your favorite music at any given place, a moment of silence is sometimes all you need.
This is where all those headphones with noise-canceling features come in handy. Although you may have to spend more on them, the investment is worth it.
Still, many people have questions and doubts about the use and performance of noise-canceling headphones.
We have handpicked a few of those questions and their most relevant answers to clarify the air.
Q1. Do noise-canceling headphones work without music?
A. Sure, headphones have an active noise cancellation feature that cancels all noise even when you are not listening to your favorite music.
Still, the same feature is unavailable with all headphones, so you must check for it before purchasing.
Q2. How do noise-canceling headphones work?
A. Once the mic of the noise-canceling headphone detects any unfavorable noise, it immediately emits a sound wave with similar amplitude.
Although the sound waves have the same amplitude, they have an inverted phase compared to the original sound.
Combining both sound waves eventually creates an interference process that cancels their respective impacts.
Q3. What about noise-canceling headphone pressure?
A. You may experience air pressure within your ears while using noise-canceling headphones.
This is due to your brain’s response when it cannot hear that low-frequency sound from nearby surroundings.
The same low-frequency sound creates a pressure difference between our inner and outer ears. Without it, we may feel like a vacuum has been created within the ear.
This experience is the same as when we are traveling via an airplane. Our ear feels the absence of that low-frequency sound and gets numb out of the pressure created within the process.
Q4. Do noise-canceling headphones have any negative impact on our brains?
A. Although listening to music on high volume for extended hours may cause some harm to your ear and nervous system, you cannot associate this with noise-canceling headphones.
This is why every headphone comes with a statutory warning in the same regard.
On the other hand, once you start using noise-canceling headphones, you may feel a bit of numbness in your ears due to the lack of frequency of sound.
Your brain may make you think that your eardrums are getting sucked off, even when there’s no such issue in reality.
Q5. How do Sony noise-canceling headphones work?
A. The mechanism behind the functioning of Sony noise-canceling headphones is similar to that of any other noise-canceling headphones around.
The headphones have a built-in noise-canceling circuit that detects outside noise with an inbuilt mic.
Again, it sends an equal yet opposite canceling signal to the headphones. Once your headphones produce this counter-signal, they cancel out any outside noise that enters your ears.
Q6. Is its noise-canceling technology safe for humans?
A. There is no such proven harm to your health or ears while using noise-canceling headphones. All you need to do is not listen to the music on higher volumes for long periods.
You may harm the eardrums while causing several other health issues.
Q7. How do you know if the noise-canceling feature is working in your headphones?
A. The best and easiest way to test this is to wear headphones in a noisy area.
Once you start using them, you may hear a ‘Humming’ sound that suppresses your surroundings’ outside noise.
The noise-canceling headphones only suppress the outside noise ( and not cancel) during usage.
This is where you can track their usability without putting much stress on the technology used during their functioning.
Q 8. Is it worth buying noise-canceling headphones?
A. These noise-canceling headphones are worth getting if you want to enjoy your music without any outside distractions.
Also, if you frequently travel by air, noise-canceling headphones can help you cope with the air pressure inside the plane.
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