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Audio Technica launches £70 noise-cancellers

Audio Technica, the Japanese headphone specialist, has launched a new low-cost ear canal noise-cancelling headphone.

Pricedat just £70, the new ATH-ANC3 QuietPoint headphones use a newtype of noise-cancelling technology called 'feed-forward'which is said to differ from the more commonly used feedback systemsfound in other designs. The system has a number of advantages overconventional methods and offers what Audio Technica claims is 85 percent noise cancellation.

TheATH-ANC3s use patented technology that detects external environmentalnoise through miniature microphones, which are incorporated into eachear bud. It then creates an equal and opposite noise signal, which isadded to the music signal and, therefore, cancels out the externalnoise.

To achieve the claimed 85 per cent figure, the ATH-ANC3sextend the active noise-cancellation over a wider frequency range.Audio Technica says this is unlike most similar in-ear headphones thatactively cancel only the lower frequencies.

The earphones includea compact control unit with a monitor switch that mutes all functionsto enable speech and to interrupt the active noise cancelling. Theheadphones also operate normally in a passive mode with the electronicsswitched off. They will be in the shops in April 2008.