Firsthand followup report and call for suggestions...
Oh goodness; early results from my testing of the Audio Technica ATH-ANC23 active noise-cancelling earbuds that arrived in today's mail are not encouraging for my use.
I realize this is a product category that depends greatly on achieving a good seal between the earbud cushion and the ear canal, and this is something I just can't seem to accomplish, despite having no problem with conventional audio earbuds, which seem to attenuate more ambient noise than these. I tried the three sizes of included rubber tips as well as the fourth included option, a pair of conforming "Comply" dense foam tips. I got the best isolation with those, but even normal conversation came through unmuffled, so I have to conclude at this point we (the earbuds and I) are not a good "fit".
Apart from the poor fit, they also fail to work as I had hoped;perhaps my expectations were a bit off.
Standing next to each of my noisy bathroom exhaust fans and next to my running refrigerator, turning the AudioTechnica's control switch on and off did reduce the background noise to a small degree -- while boosting the noise from my MP3 player, which I prefer to listen to quietly and -- ah! -- there's the rub. It seems the effectiveness of the Audio-Technica depends not just on good sealing (for noise isolation, which I was never able to achieve to my satisfaction), but *also* on the volume of the intended audio source, as the amount of background noise attenuation is directly dependent on the volume. When I listen at low volume, the noise cancellation just isn't as effective.
Thinking about it, this might be a common problem with noise cancellation, as you'd almost have to have a source volume close to that of the ambient noise you'd like to mask; otherwise, the out-of-phase signals wouldn't be loud enough to do much to attenuate ambient noise. It is a pity there aren't two volume controls, one for preferred source audio (i.e. MP3 player or in-flight movie) and a second one for the out-of-phase signal to cancel the ambient noise.
For those who have noise-cancelling earbuds or headsets, do they work like this? It sounds much different than Waser's experience with his Sennheisers.
I'd hoped to use these to listen quietly to the in-flight movies on a series of long international flights for a tour, but instead it seems I would be trading one noise for another and listening to the in-flight movie much louder than intended or preferred. Ah, me; I'll be putting these up on eBay and swallowing the loss if I can't find way to make them work for me. After using them just a short while, my ears feel as fatigued as if they had been exposed to the sounds of a long flight.
Others who tried mine had the same experience. I followed the troubleshooting guide in the instructions: Checked the fit of the earpieces, cycled the power switch, and changed to several fresh batteries. The core problem seems to go back to a poor fit at the earbuds with inadequate sound isolation as a result.
Thanks for any suggestions you might have to get these to work for me; they seemed just the thing for flights as well as noisy hotel room air-conditioners, loud rumbling trains, camping near the all-night-running generators of motorhomes and carvans in commercial campgrounds and the myriad Civilized Night Noises one endures until they can get out properly on the road for a tour.
Best,
Dan.
