Active noise canceling (ANC) has become a prominent need for today’s work force as people deal with the distractions of the office and home, while trying to stay productive. Anyone who travels on airplanes can relate, understanding the benefit that a pair of
noise canceling headphones can provide to that long transatlantic flight—making going to sleep easier or just watching that movie more enjoyable.
ANC is a technology that uses additional microphones (either inside or outside of the ear cup) to pick up background noise and invert it by 180 degrees. The inverted noise cancels out the unwanted background noise leaving just the original audio the user
wants to hear.
There are three different types of ANC available.
#1 FEEDBACK ANC (FOUND IN BLACKWIRE 7225, VOYAGER FOCUS UC, AND VOYAGER 8200 UC)
With feedback ANC microphones are placed inside the ear cup and monitor what the user hears.
• Monitors the sound the user hears and therefore can adapt and change to any
variations in this sound
• A mispositioned headset will change the sound the user hears—feedback ANC will
adapt for this
• Cannot deal with higher frequencies (above 800 Hz)
#2 FEED-FORWARD ANC
Feed-forward ANC is rarely used on its own in headsets as the ANC microphones are placed outside the ear cup and monitor the background noise making is sensitive to wind noise etc.
• Works with higher frequency noise (1–2 kHz)
• Does not compensate for differences in wearing position, which may allow additional
noise to leak into the ear
• Sidetone (during calls its your own voice you hear in the headset when you speak)
comfort is poor
#3 HYBRID ANC (FOUND IN BLACKWIRE 8225 AND VOYAGER FOCUS 2)
ANC microphones are placed both inside and outside the ear cup (requires 2x more microphones compared to feedback ANC) and monitors both what the user hears and the background noise.
• Best of both worlds—combines the benefits of feedback and feed-forward ANC
• Supports wider range of frequencies
• Sidetone is more natural and comfortable
