audio technica ath anc9 noise canceler cans review
Posted: Thu Dec 06, 2012 7:42 am
There's general consensus that Bose QC15 still reigns the supreme noise canceling headphone out there for planes, office, whatever. But I decided to go for the runner up, audio technica ath anc9. It's their top of the line active noise canceler.
First and foremost, there's a side of me that wants any can to be usable for simple mixing, or checking material. Even if they're noise cancelers (though generally people consider noise cancelers to sound bad). ANC9 is a strange one. The sound profile changes quite a bit when noise canceling is turn on.
But first let's run down performance when noise canceling is OFF. when it's off, it's largely balanced response, but lacking definition in the way high end, like above 8k-10k. 70-100hz range is a bit exaggerated so it adds a bit extra body and makes the sound plump.. maybe not a bad thing for plain listening but not really true to the material. The biggest problem is that the response is quite bad. You would never be able to mess with even the more obvious sounding comps on this. Everything loses punch. So, impossible to mix or do stereo mix checks. For plain listening it's ok. I think it's stupid to make headphones with such unresponsive drivers but whatever.
Now with noise canceling ON. ANC9 has 3 noise canceling settings, plane, office, and study, but basically it just cancels more noise here or there at different frequency profiles. But the 3 changes the playback audio in the same way. With noise canceling on, the audio get a huge lift 4k-6k range, very sibilant, shitty sound. It also seems to get a boost 40-100 range, boomy, fat fake bass. I guess these boosts increases intelligibility in loud conditions, but the headphone using dsp to alter signal for me defeats the purpose of a headphone, which is "reproduction", and not "fuck it up". But okay, okay, they're noise cancelers and they're sort of and exception. Just keep in mind frequency response accuracy is totally out the window with one. If they're going to eq the signal, at least make it so I can fiddle with it gosh. And maybe throw in a channel comp while at that.
Noise canceling:
Well, I've never used QC15 so I don't know how ANC9 measured up against the god of noise canceling.. I'm in a super loud office. It's like being in a construction site. There's actually construction going on right now. I'd say it's about as loud as being at a party. So, it's a lot of noise to cancel. ANC9 has 3 modes, here's my impression while playing no music. (so just engage/disengage noise canceling)
Plane: sounds like cancels more bass. Kills the broadband noise from outside the window to almost nothing. That's impressive. But people speaking? Well, it cuts out 200hz, making everyone sound very nasal, and maybe cuts down overall talking volume by 4-5db. Which is not bad, but if you're in a party, cutting down 4-5db doesn't help much. Also, this one feels like it's adding a lot of super low frequency material.. like when you listen to an LFO as you crank it up to audible range. So it feels strange if you're not playing back any music. You probably won't hear that if you're actually on the plane. (because you're drunk from the tiny little wines)
Office: No LFO craziness on this one. Compared to when noise canceling is off (heaphone on), this one cuts down a lot of 200-800 zone.. maybe by a full 6db. But you hear everything else. So above 1k, you've got yipping and yapping. My guess is, the cans are doing its job pretty well, the office is just way too noisy.
Study: I'm not sure what this one is. Maybe it's less aggressive than Office. It still does shut out outside rumble, but has very little effect on voice. You can have a plain conversation with the cans on. Maybe it's so you can study with your buddies and talk while having the cans on? But then you're making noise.
Off: With noise canceling off, there's very little passive noise reduction going on. If they spent some time beefing up the passive reduction part, that'll bring up the base reduction rate.
Comfort.. They're cirucmaureal, light. That's what I don't get. Why are they light. They should be hefty so the materials themselves can passively absorb noise. But whatever. It seems ANC9 was a specific attempt to beat QC15 at its own game so they look very similar. ANC9 is comfortable enough. Not like Sennheisers where its like sitting down in a luxury sofa.
Compared to EX-29, which is passive noise reduction, ANC9 has better reduction at critical bands, so overall ANC9 sounds much quieter. Of course ex-29 has good response so I can mix on them.
So that's about it. It's really good at reducing noise style sounds. Sort of effective at cutting down voice, but doesn't silence it, only 4-6db cut. Maybe the only way to reduce voice is to tell them to shut the hell up or they get a pair of headphones shoved up their ass. ("active" noise canceling) The sounds are bad, so ANC9 is a failure as headphones. I can't use them for audio production at all. Overall though, with noise canceling on and music playing at the same time, it does its job good enough to create an illusion of isolation. But you need both music and noise canceling on at the same time.
First and foremost, there's a side of me that wants any can to be usable for simple mixing, or checking material. Even if they're noise cancelers (though generally people consider noise cancelers to sound bad). ANC9 is a strange one. The sound profile changes quite a bit when noise canceling is turn on.
But first let's run down performance when noise canceling is OFF. when it's off, it's largely balanced response, but lacking definition in the way high end, like above 8k-10k. 70-100hz range is a bit exaggerated so it adds a bit extra body and makes the sound plump.. maybe not a bad thing for plain listening but not really true to the material. The biggest problem is that the response is quite bad. You would never be able to mess with even the more obvious sounding comps on this. Everything loses punch. So, impossible to mix or do stereo mix checks. For plain listening it's ok. I think it's stupid to make headphones with such unresponsive drivers but whatever.
Now with noise canceling ON. ANC9 has 3 noise canceling settings, plane, office, and study, but basically it just cancels more noise here or there at different frequency profiles. But the 3 changes the playback audio in the same way. With noise canceling on, the audio get a huge lift 4k-6k range, very sibilant, shitty sound. It also seems to get a boost 40-100 range, boomy, fat fake bass. I guess these boosts increases intelligibility in loud conditions, but the headphone using dsp to alter signal for me defeats the purpose of a headphone, which is "reproduction", and not "fuck it up". But okay, okay, they're noise cancelers and they're sort of and exception. Just keep in mind frequency response accuracy is totally out the window with one. If they're going to eq the signal, at least make it so I can fiddle with it gosh. And maybe throw in a channel comp while at that.
Noise canceling:
Well, I've never used QC15 so I don't know how ANC9 measured up against the god of noise canceling.. I'm in a super loud office. It's like being in a construction site. There's actually construction going on right now. I'd say it's about as loud as being at a party. So, it's a lot of noise to cancel. ANC9 has 3 modes, here's my impression while playing no music. (so just engage/disengage noise canceling)
Plane: sounds like cancels more bass. Kills the broadband noise from outside the window to almost nothing. That's impressive. But people speaking? Well, it cuts out 200hz, making everyone sound very nasal, and maybe cuts down overall talking volume by 4-5db. Which is not bad, but if you're in a party, cutting down 4-5db doesn't help much. Also, this one feels like it's adding a lot of super low frequency material.. like when you listen to an LFO as you crank it up to audible range. So it feels strange if you're not playing back any music. You probably won't hear that if you're actually on the plane. (because you're drunk from the tiny little wines)
Office: No LFO craziness on this one. Compared to when noise canceling is off (heaphone on), this one cuts down a lot of 200-800 zone.. maybe by a full 6db. But you hear everything else. So above 1k, you've got yipping and yapping. My guess is, the cans are doing its job pretty well, the office is just way too noisy.
Study: I'm not sure what this one is. Maybe it's less aggressive than Office. It still does shut out outside rumble, but has very little effect on voice. You can have a plain conversation with the cans on. Maybe it's so you can study with your buddies and talk while having the cans on? But then you're making noise.
Off: With noise canceling off, there's very little passive noise reduction going on. If they spent some time beefing up the passive reduction part, that'll bring up the base reduction rate.
Comfort.. They're cirucmaureal, light. That's what I don't get. Why are they light. They should be hefty so the materials themselves can passively absorb noise. But whatever. It seems ANC9 was a specific attempt to beat QC15 at its own game so they look very similar. ANC9 is comfortable enough. Not like Sennheisers where its like sitting down in a luxury sofa.
Compared to EX-29, which is passive noise reduction, ANC9 has better reduction at critical bands, so overall ANC9 sounds much quieter. Of course ex-29 has good response so I can mix on them.
So that's about it. It's really good at reducing noise style sounds. Sort of effective at cutting down voice, but doesn't silence it, only 4-6db cut. Maybe the only way to reduce voice is to tell them to shut the hell up or they get a pair of headphones shoved up their ass. ("active" noise canceling) The sounds are bad, so ANC9 is a failure as headphones. I can't use them for audio production at all. Overall though, with noise canceling on and music playing at the same time, it does its job good enough to create an illusion of isolation. But you need both music and noise canceling on at the same time.