It is well known that most of the noise in
our world is low-frequency noise. In particular,
ultralow frequencies of 100 Hz and below
are dominant and these are often perceived
as a sense of pressure or vibration.
Actually, though, it was through the development
of the MDR-NC500D that I first
became aware of these sensations. When
the low-frequency noise is cancelled, not
only does the environment become quiet,
but the feelings of oppressiveness and vibration
also disappear. This renewed my confidence
in the performance of these digital
noise canceling headphones.
It was about 15 years ago that I first saw a
company internal prototype of a digital noise
canceling headphone set. Although this unit
was research based, I remember that the
audio quality has been superb ever since
that time. That demo, however, was a large
system that consisted of 3 or 4 racks mounted
on a cart.
It is, of course, due to the increasingly high
performance of electronic devices that these
degrees of miniaturization, weight reduction,
and even further improvements in noise cancellation
performance have been achieved.
In addition to those factors and the miniaturization
and increased speed of electronic
circuits, the elegant high-performance processing
that is now possible in software is another large factor. It turns out that the
people who were in charge of the areas
related to the digital signal processing were
engineers who have previously specialized in
designing high-fidelity audio amplifiers. This
is one of Sony's great strengths: that when
one wants to accept the challenge of new
theme, there will be solid resources available
within the company.
One thing that works to our advantage here
is that due to the extensive market penetration
of digital music players, such as the
Sony “Walkman”* over a long period, there is
a strong awareness in the market that the
audio quality changes greatly when one
switches headphones. It seems that an
increasing number of people have become
aware of noise canceling headphones while
searching for headphones that provide audio
quality that matches their preferences. I am
hopeful that interest in digital noise canceling
headphones will continue to increase in the
future.
*: “Walkman” is a registered trademark of Sony
Corporation.
 What music do we enjoy, and where do we enjoy it? |
Vol.53