white noise sound produced by headphones: QuietComfort® 25 Acoustic Noise Cancelling® headphones

[bgrinstein]

Bose product name

QuietComfort® 25 Acoustic Noise Cancelling® headphones — Apple® devices

Country

USA

Firmware Version

uh?

Detailed description of the issue and steps to reproduce

While my "QuietComfort® 25 Acoustic Noise Cancelling® headphones — Apple® devices" do cancel external noise (to some extent, there is a noticeable amount of white noise I hear when they are on. In other words it is quieter with the headphones turned off, at last when there are no external sounds.

What environment do you experience the issue in?

Quiet home office

When did you start to experience the issue? Did it work correctly previously?

I noticed it today. I had not paid close attention previously, so I do not know when this started. The headphones were purchased new in May 2020.

Any troubleshooting steps you took

Turned on and off several times. Checked that the on light stayed on (no flashing, so battery must be ok)

[Vicky_W]

Hey Bgrinstein, 

Thanks for posting! 

Excessively noisy environments such as airplanes taking off, concerts, emergency sirens, and construction zones (among others) can overwhelm the microphones used to monitor external frequencies (part of the ANC technology) causing the headphones to crackle or distort.

For example, have you ever held your phone too close to your mouth or talked loudly during a phone call? When you do, your voice can sound distorted to the person you are talking to. When you move your mouth away from the phone and talk at a normal level, the sound of your voice returns to normal. This is similar to what is happening when exceptionally loud noises occur in the environment where the headphones are used.

It is important to know these loud environments will not damage the headphones and there is no lasting damage to the product. If you would like to reduce the number of times this happens we recommend doing your best to move away from the loud noises. For example, if you are flying choosing a seat further away from the engines will reduce this effect.

Can I please ask if this happens when you are playing audio or is it just when there is silence and no audio? Do you have any fans or airconditioning in the room at all as this may cause the experience as mentioned above? 

I look forward to your reply. 

[bgrinstein]

I do not think you read my post carefully, or you just copy pasted a ready made answer that is IRRELEVANT. I am in a completely quiet room. If I turn the headphones ON I hear white noise, if I turn them OFF I do not hear it. It is very faint noise, but I am sensitive. It becomes irrelevant once I am playing loud music or if there is a lot of ambient noise. The headphones are properly reducing external noise

[Sam_F]

Hi bgrinstein,

The white noise that you may be hearing could be the subtle sound of the active noise-cancellation coming into play on your headphones, which then becomes less noticeable when you start playing music. Although you may notice a very slight white noise, it shouldn't be overbearing or annoying - is this not the case for yourself? Has the white noise progressively gotten worse over time or always stayed at the same level?

[bgrinstein]

Thanks! You are right that it is less noticeable once the music (or whatever sound) is playing over it, but that is not because it is not there in the background, but rather that it is quieter than the music. As to whether it has become worse over time, I do not know: I had not  noticed it in the past, and now I do. This could be because I did not pay attention in the past, or because it has gotten worse. It  would be useful to have a standard to compare to, but I have no idea how.