Raucous laughter, babies crying, someone coughing up a lung—the joys of air travel. I'm thankful for my plush neck pillow and face mask to keep my senses dulled to what's around me when I fly, though nothing has made as great a difference as my noise cancelling headphones. The Bang & Olufsen Beoplay Portal are my blocker of choice, as they're the most effective at reducing outside noise and jet turbine rumble to the bare minimum. So, you might be surprised to hear my rally against noise cancelling headphones for gaming, but let me explain.
Active noise cancelling (ANC) is when the headset uses microphones and onboard processing to counteract outside interference. It's quite literally cancelling the noise out with an equal and opposite soundwave. There are multiple types of ANC: feed-forward, which uses a microphone outside the device to pickup external noise; and feed-back, which listens closely to what's happening closer to the listener's ear canal to more accurately counteract what's actually seeping in. The best systems often use a combination of both and adapt how they use each technology for better results. That's what the Beoplay Portal offers, so it's a great example of what ANC can offer, especially for travelling the globe.
