Types of noise cancellation for Bluetooth headsets

Many Bluetooth headsets come with noise cancellation functions, also called noise reduction, but what is noise cancellation, how many types of noise cancellation and what factors should be considered?

By definition, we can understand literally that noise cancellation is a kind of method to reduce noise or somewhat eliminate noise.

Generally speaking, there are 3 types of noise reduction methods for Bluetooth headphones and headsets: active noise cancellation, passive noise cancellation and call noise reduction.

ANC Active noise cancellation

Principle of ANC is to collect some regular noise from the outside world through a noise pickup microphone, add the reverse noise signal to the music signal through circuits or algorithms and directly cancel out the external noise in order to achieve noise cancellation.

Passive noise cancellation

Passive noise cancellation, it’s known as noise isolation and the simplest method of noise cancellation. Use some physical barriers to prevent noise from entering into your ears, like cover a pair of ear caps over your ears or insert in-ear earbuds into the human ear to physically isolate the sound of external sounds. 

Call noise reduction

Call noise reduction is designed for better call quality of Bluetooth headsets which people on the call can hear clearly. Its principle is to use the chip-set inside the Bluetooth headset to filter the signal received by the call microphone to reduce the external noise. At the same time, you can also perform echo reduction processing on the call sound from the other party. 

There are both advantages and disadvantages of above noise cancellation methods. Knowing types of noise cancellation methods and the inner workings of how noise is reduced and eliminated from earphones can significantly help us to choose a noise cancellation solution anytime, and have smart selection of a wireless Bluetooth earphone.