(Spoiler: It’s the airplane engine.) The reason has to do with the physics of sound and how noise-cancelling headphones work. The trouble is, active noise cancellation is really effective on only one of those things.
People purchase them in the hopes of dimming the din of kids at play, loud-talking officemates, the barking dog next door, and airplane engines. It’s a popular misconception that noise-cancelling headphones can block out any sound around you. This scene drives me bonkers because, as a headphones expert, I know the truth: That’s not how noise-cancelling headphones work. Meanwhile, a father relaxes blissfully undisturbed because he’s wearing noise-cancelling headphones. In it, a young boy jumps on a bed, raucously playing an electric guitar while another kid plays drums. This Amazon commercial bugs the heck out of me.
