This you should know to choose some

In the same way that hardware and software algorithms are managing to push even the limits of optics in photography, something similar is happening in the field of sound. A few days ago Apple coined the term computational sound to define the essence of its new AirPods Max headphones.

This concept is important, as it explains the revolution that has been going on for a few years in the field of sound. Headphones are no longer simply a miniature speaker not unlike those of decades ago. Today more and more models are equipped with technologies that not only seek to make the sound sound better, but also to isolate ourselves from the environment or make our voice heard crystal clear.

One of the main features that has come to headphones in recent years, curiously, is to improve silence. In a world where noise pollution can be enormous, headphones now also play the role of isolating us from the environment. And this is achieved with a key component: microphones.

Today’s headphones incorporate more and more microphones. And these are not only used if we want to transmit our voice in a call or speak to a voice assistant. They also perform the function of analyzing ambient noise, and even that of the eardrum itself, to cancel background noise. Such is the importance of this component that the AirPods Max incorporate nine microphones.

A key product in this regard was the Sony WH1000XM3 headphones, which we reviewed at the time. A product that marked a before and after for its excellent external sound cancellation system. They are even capable of adapting to the pressure of an airplane flight to neutralize ambient noise. Which made them a powerful ally for travelers wanting to take a nap in a noisy environment.

These Sony headphones were the trigger for more advanced products. They also unleashed a kind of competition to get Bluetooth earbuds to feature sound-canceling technology like over-ear headphones.

Several manufacturers began to launch products of this type, including Apple. Which markets the Airpods Pro with ambient sound cancellation. But are not the only ones. The Jabra company, one of those that is creating some of the best high-end wireless headphones, has models such as the Jabra Elite 75t or the Jabra Elite 85t on the market.

We have had the opportunity to test both. In both cases we find a quite surprising ambient sound cancellation system. Especially considering the small size of these headphones. Although the sound cancellation is much more forceful in the 85t model, whose price is also higher. And that’s partly due to the number of microphones they incorporate: six.

But to achieve the cancellation of the ambient sound and improve the audio you need a processor that governs the system. Sony has long been incorporating this component into its earband and earbud headphones. But it was the first generation of Apple Airpods in which the inclusion of a chip that significantly improved its functions drew attention.

These chips serve numerous functions. Some of them are even equipped with artificial intelligence algorithms to recognize the room we are in and adapt the sound to it. As for example with the Sony WH-1000MX4. But the processors also fulfill functions such as reducing noise in the voice output signal.

This is what the Jabra Elite 85h headband headphones achieve, for example, which process the audio from six of its eight microphones to improve the sound of our voice when having a telephone conversation. To find out about the effort that different manufacturers make in the field of computational sound, it is a good idea to look at the applications for phones that they launch.

The ability to customize the different functions of the headphones puts us on the track of two things: the sophistication of its hardware and the algorithms used. Curiously, the Airpods do not incorporate any kind of application, as they are linked to the iOS operating system of the iPhone itself. Which also makes pairing with the phone easier. Sony or Jabra have turned to developing quite sophisticated applications for Android or iOS.

Nor should we forget something that is extremely important when it comes to talking about Bluetooth headphones: the quality of the wireless transmission. Something that depends on the Bluetooth standard, ideally version 5.0, but also on the audio transmission codecs.

It depends largely on them that we can receive the audio with the highest possible quality. In this article on Bluetooth speakers we talked about this aspect. Sony, for example, uses the LDAC high definition audio transmission protocol, which allows three times as much data to be transferred as Bluetooth technology. But this standard is not compatible with any phone.

Of course, all of this has an energy cost. And it is important to observe the autonomy of these devices. In some models for example we have observed that when it is scarce, there is some instability to correctly receive the signal.

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