ANC control question

Question

The specs for the Surface headphones 2 state that there are 13 levels of active noise cancellation.  I know some active noise cancellation headphones give a slight hum when ANC is enabled and you are not listening to anything.  So, I am wondering if you can turn the active noise cancellation off completely on the Surface Headphones 2?

Answer 1

Same issue here. The ANC adds a distinct hiss that is distracting. I would love for MS to add an option "Off" between "Low" and "Amplified" that just shuts off ANC and does not do anything with outside noise.

Simply turning off ANC and ignoring outside noise (in theory) should be easy to implement in a firmware update. If there is a solid reason why such an option was not included, I would love to hear it.

Answer 2

13 levels of ANC that's cute. But why isn't off one of them?

Answer 3

I also have the same problem. It would truly be amazing if you could allow ANC to be turned off. The humming is especially annoying when music is playing quietly or off. 

During the use of the function "ambient sound amplified" the hissing is even more annoying - at a deeper tone. 

The only way I see to get rid of the white noise is by using the cable. Bluetooth is then disabled and there are no more disturbances. I however still wish the possibility existed to turn off ANC while Bluetooth is enabled!

If anyone knows a way to reduce the white noise I would be crazy thankful :)

Answer 4

These are my first Noise cancelling headphones. With Noise cancelling turned On to High, I can still hear some human noise or any noise coming from a computer. Is this normal?

Also, with Noise cancelling turned on to High, if I am on a call, will the people on other side hear those noises as well?

Thank you.

Answer 5

Hi, RobD'Ovidio! 

Thanks for reaching out to Microsoft Community and posting your inquiry regarding your Surface Headphones 2. Thanks for taking the time to let us know about this and allowing us to help you out. It is mentioned at the Use Surface Headphones article under the Adjust noise cancellationsection that you can do the following: 

To	Do this
Increase noise cancellation	Turn the dial on the left forward to hear less sound around you.
Decrease noise cancellation	Turn the dial on the left backward. When you turn off noise cancellation, outside sound will be amplified.

You can check the noise cancellation level anytime you're on your Windows 10 PC or mobile device.

You'll see several levels of noise cancellation in the Surface Audio app. Here's a quick summary of the different levels: 

• High. You should hear little or no surrounding sound. This is the maximum noise cancellation level when it's turned on all the way.
• Medium. You'll likely hear loud noise or surrounding voices, but might not hear lower surrounding sounds, such as traffic or sound from a crowd.
• Low. You'll likely hear surrounding sound while listening to music.
• Ambient sound amplified. Noise cancellation is turned off and surrounding sound will be amplified. You'll likely hear surrounding sound while listening to music.

We hope to have helped you out. 

Kind regards,

Janette_Z