This content originally appeared on Mashable for a US audience and has been adapted for the UK audience.
Listening to music is one of life’s great pleasures. But it's more than just a pleasure, it's a lifestyle — a way of life — intrinsic to leisure, work, travel, and your state of mind. It’s little wonder that everyone needs a great pair of headphones. Listening to music is a deeply personal experience.
But there's an issue: The modern world is a loud place. The incessant rumble of car engines, non-stop coworker nattering, or the earth-shaking din of that nearby building site can prevent you from fully immersing in your music, podcast, or call. If all that racket sounds familiar, it’s time to invest in some noise-cancelling headphones.
Buying headphones is never simple, with all the brand names, jargon, and ever-evolving tech. Here’s some need-to-know info about noise cancelling headphones.
What is noise cancellation?
Noise cancelling headphones do what they say on the box. They block, dampen, or outright kill external noise so you can fully immerse in your tunes and isolate yourself from the outside world. There are two main kinds on noise cancellation: passive and active noise cancellation.
Passive noise cancellation works via the design and build of your headphones. They block out noise through physical features, such as large over-ear cups which create a seal and stop environmental noise leaking in.
Active noise cancellation — usually referred to as ANC — uses a system of mini microphones that listen to what's happening in the world around you, then invert the noise and send it into the loudspeaker. The idea is that both the output and the input will cancel out, leaving you with near-silence. Or just the music you want to listen to.
Keep these in mind when considering your options.
What are the most important headphones features?
There are all kinds features to look out for when buying a set of noise cancelling headphones. These are the ones we think you should know about.
Adaptive noise cancellation — Noise cancellation that detects a change in the surrounding environment and automatically adapts to give you real-time ANC.
Codecs — A codec is a piece of software that compresses music to transmit digitally and decompresses again at the other end. For best quality wireless sounds, look out for headphones that support high bitrate codecs such as aptX.
Drivers — These are little cone-shaped gadgets in the ear cups that are responsible for your tunes. They convert electrical signals into sounds. They usually measure between 20mm and 50mm in headphones.
Transparency mode — This allows you to let ambient sound back in. This is handy for things such as having conversations or listening out for announcements. Some transparency modes are adjustable, so you can choose which external sounds to let in.
These features are a good place to start when shopping around for your next pair of headphones.
What are the best noise cancelling headphones?
There are lots of brands out there, from the household names — Sony, Bose, Apple — to lesser-known brands that offer surprising quality and features for lower prices. If you’re looking for a headphones bargain, such as a pair of headphones for under £100, it’s worth looking at all the alternatives.
For noise canceling, the best known brands tend to deliver the very best in ANC technology — as you’ll see from the selection below. Now that you know how it works, here are some of the best noise cancelling headphones out there.
These are the best noise-cancelling headphones in 2023.