Is there a gizmo I can get to turn my normal headphones into noise cancelling headphones?

I have a set of AKG K451 headphones which I’m very happy with. Recently I have started a new job and now travel into London on the train and tube. I find the noise of the train means I have to turn the volume up very loud to hear the music properly.

A friend of mine has some noise cancelling headphones and says they really help cut down on the train noise so he can keep the volume at a more reasonable level and still hear the music fine. I’m more than happy with my current headphones and don’t really want to get new ones, so would handy if I could just get an add on gizmo.

Active noise cancelling requires stuff in the headphone cups to take an input of the ambient noise at the ear and adjust the audio with a cancelling signal. So basically, no.

jairaj – Member 
I find the noise of the train means I have to turn the volume up very loud to hear the music properly.

Lovely for fellow commuters… “n-tss, n-tss, n-tss, n-tss, n-tss, n-tss” 😉

“n-tss, n-tss, n-tss, n-tss, n-tss, n-tss”

A fellow Bloodhound Gang fan?

I thought it was “boots n cats n boots n cats n boots n cats”

Just get a pair of canalphones with well-fitting eartips, which give passive noise-cancelling in the same way that earplugs for industry do; either triple-flange or Comply foam ones are best.
Something like a pair of Shure SE215’s, or MeeAudio M6 Sport: https://www.amazon.co.uk/MEE-Audio-Ear-Isolating-Earphone/dp/B0038W0K2U
£15.99, so not exactly breaking the bank! I’ve got a couple of pairs, they sound great, they block most background noise if you use the triple-flange tips, they’re around 26dB attenuation, the same as industrial protection, and they won’t piss off fellow travellers.

triple-flange

Eh, sorry, but I’m pretty sure that isolating and noise cancelling are two totally different things.

Active noise cancelling requires stuff in the headphone cups to take an input of the ambient noise at the ear and adjust the audio with a cancelling signal. So basically, no.

I was hoping there was a module you could that sits inline with the source and the headphones that alters the signal to cancel out the ambient noise. But doesn’t sound like such a thing exists.

Just get a pair of canalphones with well-fitting eartips, which give passive noise-cancelling in the same way that earplugs for industry do; either triple-flange or Comply foam ones are best.

Thanks for the suggestion I’ll look into those. I was about to say “not sure about the sound quality of £15 headphones” but then remembered I’m on a noisy train and listening to highly compressed audio (phone is low on storage space). So I really don’t think £15 headphones are going to be the weak link. 🙂