Noise canx headphones - just the base unit, not the earpieces?

[BreatheEasy]

Most of the noise cancelling 'phones seem to use a little box of tricks dangling around your neck - is there any reason why makers couldn't just do this unit but allow you to plug your own choice of headphones into the unit, or am I been a bit naive here? Unless someone could suggest said product to me already in existence. I was thinking of some Sony MDRNC6 or 11 phones for regular long haul flights I go on if not....

 

[Andrew Everard]

[quote user="BreatheEasy"]is there any reason why makers couldn't just do this unit but allow you to plug your own choice of headphones into the unit, or am I been a bit naive here?[/quote]

Only that the noise-cancelling uses little microphones built into the earpieces to grab the noise being received at your ears and deliver the anti-noise (inverted phase) to cancel it. If the microphones were some way away from your ears, you wouldn't get the same cancellation effect.

 

[Anonymous]

Hmmmmmmmmm, thinks...

Couldn't you use the signal induced on the actual driver to the same effect? Possibly too hard to actually achieve I suppose as it's likely completely insignificant compared to the input signal, so maybe not in practice? Shouldn't be beyond the wit of man though...