If you have been bothered by outside noise while listening to your audio player, then you may want to try noise cancelling headphones. Environmental noise can be very annoying when you are trying to listen to your favourite song on a bus or a train. At home there can be the sound of kids or even the neighbour mowing his lawn! You shouldn’t have to have the volume at such a level where it will drown out the noise as this may also hurt your ears.

Noise Cancellation Headphones will cancel out most of those annoying those background sounds

Noise cancellation is a honestly recent invention made to shut out background noise while allowing you to listen to music at low volume with no distractions. You can now find the silent you’ve been looking for.

There are generally two types of noise cancelling headphones. One is Active and the other is Passive.
Pretty much any type of headphones offer some type noise reduction. The materials they are made of help to block out some of the outside noise.

The best type of headphones for passive noise reduction are the circum-aural variety as they are constructed to maximize noise filtering. They are made up of layers of high density foam (or another similar material) which makes them heavier than normal headphones. But they can reduce noise by around 15 to 20 decibels.

A better option for noise cancelling would be the Active variety. They work by cancelling out lower frequency sound waves.  A small microphone placed inside the ear cup listens to sounds from the outside world and a circuit inside the headphones makes a sound wave which is 180 degrees out of phase with the incoming noise. This ‘anti sound’ is fed into the headphone speakers with the normal audio. The anti-sound erases the noise but does not affect the normal audio sound waves. The power required to do this requires the use of a rechargeable battery inside the noise cancelling headphones.

Active noise cancelling headphones can block out around 70 percent of ambient noise.

Make sure you read reviews when looking to buy noise cancelling headphones. brands have very small battery life and don’t  really reduce very much unwanted noise at all. Higher priced models don’t necessarily mean you get better quality noise cancellation properties either.

Some people say that noise cancelling headphones compromise sound quality by muffling the sounds. They can also take a while to get used to as the user can experience a change in air pressure although the air is supposed to be vented through ports in the ear cups.

After trying active noise cancelling audiophile headphones the right audiophile will never go back to standard audio headphones. They can even help alleviate fatigue when travelling which can occur when you are exposed to low frequency noise for an extended period.

You can even use them when you are not listening to music. Just place them on and enjoying the peace and silent.

A small bit of silent can be music to anyone’s ears!