Can someone explain how ANC technology works? Like if I am on the battlefield and I hear machine gun fire all day, I understand the AirPods Pro will use ANC to send opposite waves to my ears. But even though it might be "faking" silence with opposite waves, aren't my ears still listening to the loud gunfire? I guess what I am asking is, besides the fact that it "appears" to sound quieter, are our ears really still picking up the loud noises from the outside? I want to know if ANC actually protects my eardrums with lower volume and silence, or if it is just "faking it".
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If I listen to machine gun fire all day, I will go deaf. But not if I use AirPods Pro?
- Thread starter Kendo
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What I am about to say is based on GCSE physics. It may be entirely incorrect, but it's my understanding from the low-level physics education I haven.
Destructive interference cancels out the wave response meaning the audio sensors in your ears won't experience any amplitude in the wave signal. Pressure will still exist, but there is no peak in the wave, meaning that pressure aside you should be fine. But there's a limit to how much noise they can handle, so explosions and gunfire may still be too much.
Destructive interference cancels out the wave response meaning the audio sensors in your ears won't experience any amplitude in the wave signal. Pressure will still exist, but there is no peak in the wave, meaning that pressure aside you should be fine. But there's a limit to how much noise they can handle, so explosions and gunfire may still be too much.
Casperes1996 explanation seems reasonable. Also, AirPods Pro don't seal even remotely tightly enough to effectively protect your hearing from firearms. They're more to protect you from the annoying qualities of droning sounds like airplane engines or HVAC in office buildings. Noise cancellation is to protect your sanity, not your hearing.
Hmm, so basically the only physical protection is from the sealed silicon? I was just using firearms as an exaggerated example, but essentially the ANC technology won't actually reduce the hearing, it just makes me able to distinguish my music from outside noise. While the silicon seal is what will muffle the sounds protecting my hearing?
It is a bit more: ANC creates a "desctructive interference", the opposite of the noise, it "hears" from the outside. Imagine a speaker, emitting sound: the membrane moves forward and backwards and creates the sound, it vibrates in and out (in simple words)
So: the external noise vibrates "out" - ANC in the headphones hears that, vibrates "in" and sucks away the wave. If it works 100%, nothing touches your ear. Therefore the isolation is important. In reality, you never reach 100%, your skull is also part of your hearing system, so there is always some leftover that you will hear anyway.
So: the external noise vibrates "out" - ANC in the headphones hears that, vibrates "in" and sucks away the wave. If it works 100%, nothing touches your ear. Therefore the isolation is important. In reality, you never reach 100%, your skull is also part of your hearing system, so there is always some leftover that you will hear anyway.
... I just want to add that I feel proud that I deduced my way to the same conclusion with my low end GCSE physics understanding earlier in this thread
. Thanks for being a second verification to my claims.You were much more scientific, than my waves, that get "sucked away"... I just want to add that I feel proud that I deduced my way to the same conclusion with my low end GCSE physics understanding earlier in this thread
It is indeed somewhat difficult to understand or even to explain.
So do you mean that if it worked 100% and someone is shooting a gun right next to my ear, it wouldn't damage my ears because the opposite membrane cancels the vibration?
Well, theoretically, if it was possible to instantaneously generate opposing sound waves for the gun fire, then yes. But that's not what ANC does. ANC doesn't really work against sudden random sounds like gun fire. It's meant to cancel out steady background sounds, like fans, trains, airplane engine, etc.