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Comment by shell0x | Hacker News Reader

Noise canceling headphones are absolutely a game changer. I work from home in a very noisy downtown apartment with poor soundproofing and I’d never get anything done without ANC. I haven’t had the chance to try the AirPods Max yet, but I do wonder how it compares to the Sony headphones.

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Unfortunately ANC only works on some sounds. In the suburbs you have leafblowers and cars driving past you on the sidewalk, and ANC removes everything /else/ which makes them stand out even more.

Leaf blowers and cars driving past are exactly the kind of thing that ANC works well on, a fairly constant noise. It doesn’t block out other kinds of things well. At least it always seems to go that way for me, so I can’t relate to your comment at all. My experience seems exactly the opposite and I have trouble imagining it differently for anyone else, because it works well against a constant noise kind of in the bass range.

>Leaf blowers and cars driving past are exactly the kind of thing that ANC works well on, a fairly constant noise.

I can tell you haven't heard a leaf blower in a while, if ever. The revving the operators inevitably do causes it to bounce up and down over the spectrum at completely random-seeming intervals. Punches right through ANC, windows, doors, walls.

As if that's not bad enough they pollute more than a gigantic SUV because of how much oil they burn being a two-stroke.

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