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Passive noise reduction, active noise cancellation, sound isolation…
The world of headphones has become quite advanced in giving you your own private sound bubble.
Here’s how these different technologies work.
Supra-aural
These are your run-of-the-mill headphones that are padded and sit on your ear.
It’s like having a small speaker right next to you, and they’re not too large.
(Photo:Sennheiser PX100-II)
Earbuds
These are the normal earphones that come with your iPod.
They’re like tiny speakers that sit right next to your ear canal and are very portable.
The sound quality is usually lower and they may not fit correctly because they’re pretty generic.
They create a seal effectively cutting off outside noise.
They’re big and bulky, but usually give a much better sound quality because of that.
They’re very popular for bands and musicians, and they widely vary in terms of quality and price.
They require frequent cleaning, as it’s possible for you to imagine.
These types of headphones include some hardware that has its own battery, microphone, and audio processor.
They’re often tucked into the headphones themselves, though sometimes they appear as an in-line dongle.
The primary issue here is that it doesn’t work for everything, with things like speech remaining unchanged.
It works best for consistent sounds in specific registers, like the background noise in airplanes.
Most don’t work for the upper register at all, hence the speech problem.
SysAdminGeek writer,Aviad, says that they aren’t sufficient to produce silence on their own.
This ideally works much better than trying to filter out sound, but in practice, there are problems.
(Photo: ACS Custom ear molds bycamflan)
Active vs.
Passive
Which method works better?
Well, that depends on what your needs are.
On the other hand, if you want something compact, canalphones are probably for you.
If you consider yourself an audiophile, find what the pros use.
