Noise Canceling

Focal has unveiled its first pair of wireless ANC headphones in the shape of the oddly-named Bathys. The eye-catching cans come with proprietary drivers, boast two optimized ANC modes, support aptX Adaptive and promise long battery life.

QuietOn's latest set of active noise-cancelling sleep earbuds are absolutely tiny, suitable for side-sleepers and extremely simple to use – although there's a couple of odd design decisions here. I've spent a few weeks sleeping in "nordic quietude."

Whatever other qualities they may possess, jet fighters are not known for their quiet engines. They could soon become considerably less noisy without any loss in performance, though, thanks to a relatively simple alteration.

Although an airliner's engines may be very loud on takeoff, its wings also create a lot of wind noise when it's landing. According to a new study, the latter problem could be addressed with the addition of a shape-memory alloy filler within the wing.

A number of hearing aids are now able to amplify one person's voice while filtering out distracting background voices. Well, it turns out that female tree frogs are able to perform a similar task, in order to hear the mating calls of males.

Sony cemented its position as a leader in the Active Noise Canceling space with the release of the WH-1000XM3 ANC headphones in 2018, and now the new WH-1000XM4 model has landed ... with a few more tricks up its sleeve.

The Kokoon Bluetooth headphones are deeply comfortable and deliver solid sound. However, the "sleep enhancing" bells and whistles are a little inconsistent for headphones priced at the luxury end of the market, so they're not for everyone.

Hyundai is claiming a "world first" with its "road noise active noise control system," which uses sound piped through a car's speakers to negate road surface noise as well as engine noise for a significantly quieter cabin.

Though portable Bluetooth speakers allow music lovers to share audio with those around them, headphones are mostly a private listening experience. With the launch of Augmented Audio, BG Audio gives users the choice to keep things private or share with others, either locally or remotely.

Most of the true wireless earphones out there only offer passive isolation from the world around you. Sony's upcoming WF-1000XM3 earphones rock the company's excellent active noise cancellation tech so that you can focus on the music.​​

In our increasingly noisy world, it can be hard to find some quiet time. Now, a team of mechanical engineers at Boston University has developed a new device that is specially designed to block up to 94 percent of incoming sound waves, while still letting air pass through.

For some time now, Bose has been using the car stereo to help cancel out engine noise and give car users a quieter ride. Now the company has announced it's going to extend the system to manage road and tire noise as well - which could have knock-on effects for efficiency and lightweighting.