Comments on: Bose noise-cancelling headphones

By: sports earbuds

sports earbuds — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 06:46:00 +0000

The pair of headphones are really wonderful and the price is also affordable. Thanks for sharing the information. It will help me a lot in solving the problem.

By: Vinay S

Vinay S — Sat, 30 May 2009 18:31:02 +0000

Bose headphones are very effective noice canceller. And you are right that an experience is only as good as the weakest link in the chain that gets it to you.

- Freedom Business System

By: Nicole Fougere

Nicole Fougere — Fri, 29 May 2009 03:48:15 +0000

They really are awesome.
The only improvement that could be made is to their durability; the foam tends to soften quite quickly and the plastic goes a little brittle. Hence, the piece of tape I have holding one of my earphones in place!
But if you treat them well they should last you a few years..

By: Ken Allan

Ken Allan — Thu, 28 May 2009 21:14:21 +0000

Tēnā koe e George! Kia ora e Michael!

The cans are certainly a wonderful accoutrement to have on a long flight – it generally takes me 2 to 3 hours before my ears really start to ache and I could only avert this by using uncomfortable ear-plugs.

But the term ‘noise cancelling’ is closer to what actually happens, for, as you say Michael, the sound is reintroduced in inverted form (180 degrees out of phase) so that it really does cancel out the noise coming directly through to the ears.

I am confident that the technology will improve. At the top frequency end of the sound spectrum the problem is simply because of the greater difficulty in getting synchronous cancelling with high frequency. It gets more difficult as frequency increases. It’s a lot to do with the design of the cavity inside each can rather than a required sound phase adjustment. The likelihood is that it will vary from person to person depending on the shape of individual ear cavity.

Catchya later

By: Michael Hanley

Michael Hanley — Thu, 28 May 2009 09:50:27 +0000

Hi George,
As a long-time sufferer from the loud ambient environment in aircraft cabins on the Dublin-Dulles route, noise cancelling headphones have been part of my carry-on luggage for a number of years now. While I wish I was able to take advantage of their capacity to enjoy the on-board entertainment, I usually end up having to work an a presentation on the plane. My (Sony) headphones allow me to concentrate more effectively on the task at hand.

I think that the name “Noise Cancelling” is a bit of a misnomer though: the headphone ‘cans’ each contain a small microphone that picks up consistent ambient acoustic noise (i.e. jet engines) and, through some electronic jiggery-pokery, inverts the signal and attenuates it.

This works great for low-frequency noise, but is less effective at removing higher pitches, such as the human voice and the general hurly burly of in-flight dinner service, for example. However, as anyone who has ever worked in an open-plan office knows, people are pretty good at “tuning out” this kind of noise anyway.

Now if only someone would invent a mask with virtual, 3-D, or heads-up display so that I could cancel out the visuals in an aeroplane cabin and concentrate on building that demo…

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