It’s March of 2026, and I just bought my first pair of noise-cancelling headphones. I’m shocked, astounded, perturbed, and horrified: Is this how you people have been walking around all this time?!
Last week, after losing my right AirPods 3 earbud, I ordered a new pair of AirPods 4 with active noise cancellation. They’re the first headphones I’ve ever worn with noise canceling.
Of course, noise-cancelling technology in headphones has been around since the 1980s, and became popular in big squishy over-the-ear Bose headphones in the 2000s. Noise canceling has been part of the AirPods Pro lineup since 2019. For some reason, I just … never tried them.
My first experience with noise canceling
I set up my new AirPods over the weekend while waiting around in the parents’ zone at a trampoline park. Because I didn’t bother reading the instructions, which suggest pairing by holding the case next to your phone, I simply put the unpaired earbuds into my ears.
Immediately, everything went quiet. I looked around, confused. Did the loud trampoline park just turn off the upbeat pop music they were blasting? Why was everyone suddenly silent? Is there an emergency? Was someone hurt? Oh god, was my kid hurt?! I was panicked, scanning the other tables where adults idly sat looking at phones or tying preschoolers’ shoes. No one else seemed to be concerned.
I took out the AirPods, and whoooosh — the music and din flooded back. My brain scrambled to make sense of the sensory experiences hitting it, slowly realizing that this was what noise-canceling does. I was like a caveman being shown a Bic lighter; fearful and confused. I was like the proverbial Victorian child who would pass out if you showed it the AI-generated video of anthropomorphic fruits on “Love Island.“
This is incredibly embarrassing on one level because I am a professional technology journalist who generally tries to stay up to date and informed about interesting personal tech devices. The fact that I had never used noise-canceling headphones was an odd oversight.
I don’t have good reasons for this, but I do have some weak excuses.
First and foremost, I’m cheap. And in my mind, headphones are something you shouldn’t have to spend more than $20 on — up until the iPhone 12, Apple included a free set of corded headphones in the box with a new iPhone or iPod. I had a drawer overflowing with them! Headphones were just something that came into your life, like a cheap black umbrella — you didn’t seek them out or intentionally buy them. Now, suddenly, I’m expected to drop a C-note on them?
When AirPods launched in 2016, I initially waved them off as overpriced and frivolous. It looked too easy to lose one. But eventually I gave in and, of course, realized that AirPods are incredibly convenient and great to use (I was right about them being easy to lose, however). Now, it’s hard to imagine ever going back to wired headphones, no matter how much Gen Z makes it look cool.
My other main reason is that because I use headphones while walking down the street, riding the subway, or in other public situations, the idea of not being able to hear my surroundings felt like a safety issue. Sure, it might be nice on a plane, but it didn’t make sense for my main headphone use.
Jury’s still out on whether I like the noise canceling
As I’ve been playing around with the new noise-canceling headphones, I’m not sure how much I actually like them. Taking them in and out is disorienting, like coming up to the surface too fast while scuba diving (or, what I imagine that feels like).
I tried them at the gym, where they seemed useful, but at home, my husband (who has had noise-canceling headphones for a decade) was mildly frustrated when he tried to talk to me, not realizing I had them in. Understandable!
The AirPod 4s can turn active noise-canceling on and off if you rub the earbud’s stem, but I haven’t quite mastered this yet — I’ve tried and sort of fumbled around, turning my podcast on and off and knocking it out of my ear. I’ll keep working at it.
I’m just glad to have finally joined the 21st century.
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