Reviews of AirPods 4 Active Noise Cancellation | 2024

On September 10, Apple held its fall Apple Event, and the AirPods, which took up the shortest percentage of time, became the new product discussed most after the conference, especially the AirPods 4 with ANC—Apple's first semi-in-ear active noise-canceling headphones. Today, we'll take an in-depth look at active noise cancellation and how well the AirPods 4 with ANC works.

What is Active Noise Cancellation

We can understand active noise cancellation through a simple comparison. Imagine you are in a grocery filled with people talking, children crying, and promotional announcements over loudspeakers. If you feel uncomfortable, the quickest way to reduce the noise is to cover your ears with your hands, creating a relatively closed-off space between the noise and your ears. By using sound-blocking materials (in this case, your hands) to block external noise, you achieve what is known as passive noise cancellation.

We all know that sound travels through the vibration of a medium, and when sound waves are out of phase with each other, they theoretically cancel each other out. Active noise cancellation is based on this principle, allowing two sound waves to cancel each other when they meet, thereby eliminating noise. This technology was first applied in commercial aviation headsets and gradually expanded to road vehicles, mobile phones, headphones, and earbuds.

📢Share this on:

How's AirPods 4's Active Noise Cancellation

In Active Noise Cancellation mode, outward-facing microphones detect external sounds, and Airpods 4 (ANC) counter with anti-noise, canceling the external sounds before you hear them. The image below shows the results of our active noise cancellation test.

Based on the test results, the noise cancellation performance of the AirPods 4 is quite impressive for a semi-in-ear earbud category. However, compared to in-ear earbuds, there is still a noticeable gap.

Officially, it has been stated that The active noise cancellation of AirPods Pro 2 has been improved by up to 2 times compared to the AirPods 4 (ANC). In practical use, we found that it excels at suppressing low-frequency noises, such as air conditioning sounds.

However, its performance is average regarding high-frequency transient sounds, like brake noises or mechanical keyboard clicks. Overall, the AirPods 4 (ANC) delivers commendable noise reduction performance for an open-back noise-canceling earbud.

Bonus: Remove Audio Noise with EaseUS Noise Reducer

The advancement of AI technology has given rise to a wide range of related products, including AI-powered noise reducers. As a powerful noise reduction tool, EaseUS Noise Reducer allows you to process up to 20 minutes or 350MB of audio or video for free. Whether your files contain mouse clicks, traffic noise, or other environmental sounds, this tool can help. If you don't have a file on hand, it also allows you to paste a link directly from YouTube or SoundCloud for noise reduction (this feature requires payment). Additionally, it supports multiple file formats for upload, including MP3, FLAC, AC3, MP4, OGG, and more. Get access to it!

EaseUS Online Vocal Remover100% music and voice separation

Powered by Advanced AI

🌟Key Features of EaseUS Noise Reducer:

• Use AI algorithm to get rid of ambient noise in audio
• Support multiple file formats
• Allow to remove noise from YouTube and SoundCloud links directly
• The app version is also available for Android and iPhone users

See More:

To Sum up

After reading this article, you might know what Active Noise Cancellation is and have some understanding of AirPods 4's active noise cancellation effect. This technology is widely used on Apple headphones, including AirPods 4 with active noise cancellation, AirPods Pro 2, and AirPods Max. If you need to reduce the noise of audio or video files, you can try using EaseUS Noise Reducer. Its noise reduction processing effect will not disappoint you.

FAQs on AirPods 4 Active Noise Cancellation

Keep reading this part to get more insights.

1. Do AirPods 4 have noise cancellation?

Yes, the new AirPods 4 with active noise cancellation has noise cancellation.

2. How to activate noise cancellation on AirPods 4?

To turn on Active Noise Cancellation on your iPhone, go to "Settings" > "Accessibility" > "AirPods" to turn on noise cancellation.

To switch between different modes on AirPods 4 (ANC), press and hold the force sensor on either AirPod to switch between Active Noise Cancellation, Transparency mode, and Off.

3. Which AirPods have Active Noise Cancellation?

AirPods 4 (ANC), AirPods Pro, and AirPods Max have Active Noise Cancellation.