I asked a similar question a few years ago and was convinced by the responses that instead of looking for headphones with active noise cancellation (ANC) that sounded better than my Bose over-ear I was looking to upgrade from that I’d be better off with the passive noise cancellation from a good set of IEMs. IEMs will be much smaller for your carry-on or to tote around town and Shure (for example) advertise 46dB reduction in outside noise levels.
The noise reduction is definitely different from ANC in that it is across the spectrum and all frequencies with good IEMs as opposed to ANC that often works best only with constant background noise (like airplane engines or the lawnmower) but works less for sudden sounds that aren’t constant which instead sound muffled/wrong but definitely get through.
I ended up with a pair from Campfire Audio and love them, but there are lots of IEMs that will blow away the best ANC headphones for sound quality at the same price.
The noise reduction is definitely different from ANC in that it is across the spectrum and all frequencies with good IEMs as opposed to ANC that often works best only with constant background noise (like airplane engines or the lawnmower) but works less for sudden sounds that aren’t constant which instead sound muffled/wrong but definitely get through.
I ended up with a pair from Campfire Audio and love them, but there are lots of IEMs that will blow away the best ANC headphones for sound quality at the same price.