Digital Envisions

Passive noise canceling headphones basically mimic the effect that occurs when you clamp your hands over your ears, or pop in a set of ear plugs. In essence, headphones cancel noise passively will have lots of padding and are loaded with sound reducing material which blocks out sound naturally. Or, they do exactly what earplugs do-they fit in your ear canal and seal it off from external noise.

Any kind of headphones in reality can be said to have passive Noise cancellation, but particular headphones are made for it more than others.

Supra-aural Headphones

Supra-aural headphones, or headphones which sit ON the ear (instead of around or in your ear) are most often the least effective at sound cancellation. They’re generally small, light-weight, and low density, therefore there is not enough material to stop any external, ambient noise from getting into your ear. In addition, since they only rest on the ear, they can leave a whole lot of space for external noise to move around them into your ear canal.

Very infrequently will you ever see pro, top quality supra-aural headphones, mainly because they really just can’t give you the noise canceling benefits that circumaural or in-ear headphones are able to. Supra-aural headphones are light, simple and economical to make, so you will ordinarily notice them targeted towards buyers who really aren’t exceedingly concerned about headphone quality, but are just looking for base functionality.

For example, many desktop and / or video game headsets are usually supra-aural. Because they are light they are comfortable for the extended use which computer users and / or video gamers would want them for. Moreover, most of these consumers are likely to be not overly interested in the sound quality-they are frequently employed for vocal communication, where clarity is king and hardly anything else actually matters.

Circumaural Headphones

Circumaural (around ear) Headphones are generally significantly better at noise cancellation. They are much bigger, and as a result usually they have more noise blocking material which provides a much better barrier to ambient sound. Additionally, because they entirely enclose a person’s ear, they can seal it off from any sort of outside noise that could potentially slide in. Though, this is assuming that the headphones are made well and fit well. If they are shoddily designed, ambient sound can still get inside.

Shure’s SRH 840 headphones are extremely well produced for passive noise cancelation. Shure manufactured the ear cushions from dense memory foam, which along with supplying better sound isolation also makes these headphones feel as if you could take a nap in them.

In-Ear Headphones – Ear Buds and Ear Canal Headphones

In-ear headphones can be found in two variations, earbuds and and ear canal headphones. Earbuds rest slightly inside your ear and do not make a good seal, so they are not that good at noise cancelling. These are generally consumer targeted, so their quality of sound very often is not very good.

Ear canal headphones, on the other hand, totally seal off the ear from ambient sound and give you a direct path from the headphone to the ear canal. The majority of pro “Ear buds” or “Noise canceling earbuds” are in reality ear canal headphones.

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