The Missing Sound Your ANC Headphones Need

Pink noise

Pink noise spreads equal energy across each octave, so bass and treble share the load instead of spiking like white noise.

It is more pleasant to the ear and better for masking unwanted sounds, which is why it's often used in sound therapy and focus aids.

In fact, it is so effective at sound masking that you can try it yourself - play any song on your laptop, then play pink noise on the same device, and after a while the pink noise will completely mask the song.

I've even built an analog-inspired pink noise box for you to play with it: Focus Noise Box.

Ambient noise

First, here is our reference line: background noise. This is what the room would look like if it were truly silent. Keep this picture in mind as we start adding layers back in.

Now, let's play with some ambient noise you typically hear in public places. To put it simply - there are three bands of interest: low rumble (trains, HVAC), mid chatter (people talking), and high beeps (notifications, alarms).

Play with the toggles to see how each band contributes to the overall noise profile.

Active Noise Cancellation (ANC)

ANC uses microphones to record the outside world, flips the waveform, and plays that inverse back through your headphones.

Slide and see how ANC "flattens" the ambient noise spectrum.

As you slide the ANC intensity slider to 100%, you'll see ~70% of relatively perceived noise from human chatter is still remaining. ANC does excellent job with lows, decent mids, and struggles with highs. Yes, conversation is muted a lot, but still, it can be just loud enough to let your brain spend energy on trying to decipher the words.

How do you improve that? You can put on some music to silence that, but this is not the best solution if you need to focus.

Bring the pink noise

We already know the pink noise blankets everything evenly. We know ANC creates an opposite sound wave to silence noise. So why not combine them?

Watch how little pink noise it takes once ANC clears the lows. With the ANC, even a low volume pink noise is enough to smoothen out the remaining noise peaks.

While the overall noise is higher, your ears do not perceive it as more intrusive. The difference between the base and the ambient noise spike is what matters.

Try it yourself

I liked the idea and built a vintage-inspired "noise box" to play different kind of noises!

Focus Noise Box.

Put on your ANC headphones, add a bit of pink noise, and watch the distraction fade!