Slater
Headphoneus Supremus
Update:
I am driving on the highway right now. I happened to have the TN with me, so I tested them on the highway with both windows down and a speed of ~80mph. Music was set very low, about 2 on a 10 scale. I wanted to hear the road and wind noise over the music (to give the ANC a difficult task), vs trying to drown out the noise with the music.
The TN’s ANC cut the deafening wind noise by about 80%, and sounded like a light breeze in the background. As far as the music, I couldn’t even tell that the ANC was active. Very impressive.
Also, the highway wind noise is very similar to the type of noise you hear in an airplane cabin.
So this goes to show that ANC performance varies with the type of noise (and I suspect Bose and Sony performance would vary also). It didn’t work that powerful with a vacuum cleaner, but worked awesome with the wind noise.
Update #2: As promised, I performed some more ANC testing. For a lawn mower (24” push style, not a large riding mower), ANC cut the noise by about 80%! I am definitely going to mow the lawn with ANC on from now on (vs no ANC like I’ve been doing). For an 18v power drill, it made about a 5-10% difference. In that case, I wouldn’t even bother using ANC because the battery life would be reduced for no real ANC benefit. For an angle grinder (which has failing bearings, making it 3xs louder than a normal angle grinder), it cut the tool noise by about 50%. For a leaf blower, it reduced the noise by about 25%.
So Bluedio’s ANC (in the TN at least) seems to work more effectively on lower frequency noises (wind, lawn mower, etc), and less effectively as you get higher frequency (drill, vacuum cleaner). This makes sense, because microphones have more trouble accurately picking up high frequencies. My guess is Bluedio can further improve ANC performance by installing microphones with a wider dynamic range.
Also, I want to clarify “wind” noise. The kind of wind noise ANC cuts down on is indirect wind noise. So in a car with the windows down, a convertible, in a plane, etc. this would be the wind itself making audible noise, but not blowing directly on you. If you were to stick your head all the way out the window on the highway, that would be direct wind noise, which ANC can’t overcome. In fact, while bicycling (15-25mph), ANC makes wind noise about 25% LOUDER! So when you are in direct wind, you want ANC disabled.
I am driving on the highway right now. I happened to have the TN with me, so I tested them on the highway with both windows down and a speed of ~80mph. Music was set very low, about 2 on a 10 scale. I wanted to hear the road and wind noise over the music (to give the ANC a difficult task), vs trying to drown out the noise with the music.
The TN’s ANC cut the deafening wind noise by about 80%, and sounded like a light breeze in the background. As far as the music, I couldn’t even tell that the ANC was active. Very impressive.
Also, the highway wind noise is very similar to the type of noise you hear in an airplane cabin.
So this goes to show that ANC performance varies with the type of noise (and I suspect Bose and Sony performance would vary also). It didn’t work that powerful with a vacuum cleaner, but worked awesome with the wind noise.
Update #2: As promised, I performed some more ANC testing. For a lawn mower (24” push style, not a large riding mower), ANC cut the noise by about 80%! I am definitely going to mow the lawn with ANC on from now on (vs no ANC like I’ve been doing). For an 18v power drill, it made about a 5-10% difference. In that case, I wouldn’t even bother using ANC because the battery life would be reduced for no real ANC benefit. For an angle grinder (which has failing bearings, making it 3xs louder than a normal angle grinder), it cut the tool noise by about 50%. For a leaf blower, it reduced the noise by about 25%.
So Bluedio’s ANC (in the TN at least) seems to work more effectively on lower frequency noises (wind, lawn mower, etc), and less effectively as you get higher frequency (drill, vacuum cleaner). This makes sense, because microphones have more trouble accurately picking up high frequencies. My guess is Bluedio can further improve ANC performance by installing microphones with a wider dynamic range.
Also, I want to clarify “wind” noise. The kind of wind noise ANC cuts down on is indirect wind noise. So in a car with the windows down, a convertible, in a plane, etc. this would be the wind itself making audible noise, but not blowing directly on you. If you were to stick your head all the way out the window on the highway, that would be direct wind noise, which ANC can’t overcome. In fact, while bicycling (15-25mph), ANC makes wind noise about 25% LOUDER! So when you are in direct wind, you want ANC disabled.
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