TranquilTurbulence@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
The noise cancelling headphones are listening to noise coming from the outside and cancels them out. When the source of the sound is in your mouth (see also: bone conduction), the headphones can’t hear or cancel that sound. In a situation like that, noise cancelling fails and you hear the inverted noise that is supposed to cancel the usual background noise.
deranger@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
AirPods Pro & Max have internal noise cancellation. It doesn’t work perfectly of course, but it’s noticeable when toggling between transparency and NC in a quiet room where I can hear my heartbeat in my ears, when I’m chewing something crunchy, or when I’m using my electric toothbrush.
support.apple.com/en-us/108918
TranquilTurbulence@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
Theoretically, that could help a little bit, but it won’t change the fact that the ear canal is only the gateway to the organ where hearing actually takes place. Due to bone conduction, the crunchy noises can take a shortcut and bypass the outer ear completely.
deranger@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
It still works pretty well, not as effective as regular external NC of course, but the difference between transparency and isolation modes when chewing crunchy foods or using my electric toothbrush is very noticeable. It’s cancelling the bone conduction sounds, just not as effectively especially in the lower frequency range. Now I’m going to have to do a bit of an experiment with bone conduction headphones from a friend and ANC mode to see how well it’s working.
TranquilTurbulence@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
Sounds really cool. Let me know how that works out.