Apple has announced the AirPods 5 – you obviously know this – and it comes with active noise cancellation as standard.
Well, while I’d say there’s still some debate over what to call ANC in open-ear designs, this kind of feature has gone from being rare in open-ear designs to becoming more widespread.
And with the cheapest version of the AirPods 5 at £119/$129, the ANC open-ears are quite an affordable proposition for iOS owners. And given that AirPods are selling like hotcakes, this is likely to give Apple even more dominance in the headphone market. Impressive considering they are primarily a device brand and less of a ‘traditional’ headphone brand.
But I’m going to monologue. The inclusion of ANC in an AirPods model at such an affordable price is a good thing, and I think it’s all about hearing health.
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Really ANC?
I think it’s strange that Apple labeled this feature as Active Noise Cancellation (ANC). At the risk of sounding like a fool to the mighty Apple, ANC works by using a feed-forward microphone – an external microphone that detects noise before it reaches your ear, and a feedback microphone – which is close to, if not in, your ear, but analyzes the noise in that region.
The open design, where it nestles in the earlobe rather than the ear, doesn’t seem close enough for the ANC system to work. Noise reduction seems to be a better way to describe it, but of course it’s not that appealing to those who think it completely cancels out noise.
Apple claims it will filter out up to 50% more noise than AirPods 4 with ANC, which sounds impressive; and Apple says Transparent mode will sound more natural, but that’s a ridiculous claim to me. If you want to hear what’s around you, turn off ANC. Transparent mode seems like an unnecessary feature for a headphone designed primarily to hear what’s around you.
It’s my skepticism that I detailed, but really, I think the use of (cough) noise reduction is a good thing. It’s been featured on several products before, and I hinted at it towards the end of 2025 when I wrote about the continued evolution of open-ear headphones.
The Shokz name is most widely associated with the open-ear design, and the OpenFit Pro added noise canceling earlier this year, but I think even they were caught off guard—surprised, you might say—by Apple pricing the AirPods 5 so low; the low price brings this technology to more people.
Noise reduction takes open ears to a new level
When I test open-ear designs, my ears bang in noisy environments. I recently tested a new pair for call quality, and while the person on the other end could hear me fine, I couldn’t hear anything they were saying when I was walking down the street or in a restaurant waiting for an order. All I heard was a cacophony of voices.
And it’s not good for your ears. We’re always exposed to loud noises wherever we go, and life can seem louder than ever at times, but headphones can protect you from that noise, and the open-ear design has never been particularly good at that.
You can take the edge off the noise with noise reduction. On a plane, on the subway (or metro), in loud indoor environments (they make my ears explode in pubs), the headphones muffle and protect your ears from being thrown by the racket around you. I wear headphones on public transport and when I fly – I feel like my ears are better.
Apple doesn’t mention hearing health in its press release, which is a bit surprising since they focus so much on health in other areas, but regardless, the added noise reduction at this price means more people can get that experience — and it could help their hearing health in the long run.
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