Spend any time shopping for headphones or earbuds, and you’ll see “ANC” pop up in the marketing material of all but the most budget models. What was once sci-fi technology has, like so much sci-fi technology, trickled down into the mid-range, to where it’s no mystery that you’ll find plenty of options with ANC no matter where you look.The only mystery might be what ANC is. It stands for active noise cancellation, and it’s a technology that uses a lot of impressive hardware, plus the earbuds’ or headphones’ own hardware, to generate sound that actually makes them quieter. Confused yet?What ANC Actually does: A BreakdownI’m going to refer to it as ANC from now on, because active noise cancellation is a mouthful, even when I’m typing or just reading the words in my head.ANC, in layman’s terms, uses a microphone to detect sound from your surrounding environment. Then it plays back sound waves in your ears that are as close to opposite as these penetrating sound waves as possible.When the sound waves overlap, they cancel out much of the ambient noise, making the earbuds or headphones more effective at silencing the noisy world around you. I’ve used all sorts of earbuds and headphones over the years, with and without ANC, and when you’re comparing two pairs that are about the same size or weight, the ANC pair trounces the other.It’s noticeably more effective than simply passive earbuds that rely only on plugging your ear canals or passive headphones that depend only on creating a seal around your ears.You can turn ANC off to preserve battery life, since it saps some of the charge. Most headphones and earbuds with ANC also offer a transparency mode that amplifies ambient noise slightly, so you can still hear your surroundings while listening to your music or audiobook.Transparency mode is great when I’m hanging around the apartment, because I won’t miss a doorbell or a friend asking a question. When it comes to the noisiest environments, such as the subway, on an airplane, and in the gym, though, I use ANC. Nothing passive that I’ve used can touch it.The post What Is Active Noise Cancellation, and Is It Actually Worth It? appeared first on VICE.