Noise cancelling headsets

The right noise cancellation for your headset depends on where you make your calls. In a quiet private office, a microphone with no noise cancellation gives your voice its most natural sound. In a moderately busy room, a passive microphone blocks enough background noise without changing how you sound. On a busy office floor, in a contact centre or on a shop floor, an active microphone removes far more noise, so callers hear you clearly over everything around you.

Choosing the wrong type causes problems either way. Too little noise cancellation lets callers hear the room behind you. More processing than you need can make your voice sound slightly less natural. Below, we explain how each type works, so you can match the headset to your workspace.

A passive noise cancelling microphone reduces background noise through its physical design alone, with no electronics or software. The microphone sits on a boom close to your mouth, so your voice reaches it much louder than the sound from the rest of the room. It is also shaped to pick up sound mainly from the front. Noise coming from the sides and behind is partly blocked, and a foam cover or shield over the microphone softens low-frequency rumble, breathing and the puffs of air from letters like P and T.

Because nothing is processed, your voice sounds completely natural to the caller. Passive microphones work well in quiet and moderately busy rooms. On a loud office or shop floor, an active microphone removes more of the background noise.

An active noise cancelling microphone uses two or more small microphones. One sits close to your mouth on the boom and picks up mostly your voice. The others sit further away and pick up mostly the noise around you. A small processor inside the headset compares the two, works out which sound is your voice and which is background noise, and removes the noise before your voice reaches the caller.

Callers hear you clearly, with far less of the office, shop floor or household behind you. Nothing changes for you, because the microphone only cleans up what is sent. In a very quiet room, a headset without this processing can sound slightly more natural, but on a busy floor an active microphone makes a clear difference to your calls.

A microphone with no noise cancellation picks up all the sound around it, from every direction, and sends it to the caller exactly as it hears it. It has no shielding to block background noise and no software to filter it. The only thing that helps your voice stand out is where the microphone sits: the closer it is to your mouth, the louder your voice is compared with the room.

With nothing filtering or shaping the sound, your voice comes through with its full, natural tone, which is why this type gives the purest sound in a very quiet room. The trade-off is that the caller also hears everything else, such as keyboards, conversations and traffic. That makes it best suited to private offices, quiet home offices and recording spaces. You can find headsets with no noise cancellation in our general Headsets category.

Some headsets, often sold as active noise cancelling or ANC headsets, also have noise cancellation built into the ear cups. This is separate from the microphone. It changes what you hear and has no effect on what the caller hears. Small microphones on the outside of each ear cup listen to the noise around you, and the headset plays a mirror-image sound wave that cancels it out before it reaches your ears. The background goes quiet, so you can concentrate and hear the caller without turning the volume up.

ANC works best on steady, low-pitched noise such as air conditioning, traffic, engine hum and machinery. It has less effect on sudden sounds and voices close by. Most models let you switch ANC off, and many have a hear-through mode that lets the room back in at the press of a button, so you can talk to a colleague without taking the headset off. 

The noise around you decides which headset to choose. Start with the room you work in most, pick the microphone grade that suits it, then decide whether you also need ANC in the ear cups.

Open-plan offices are full of the hardest noise to remove: other people talking. Choose a binaural headset with an Active noise cancelling boom microphone. Covering both ears helps you follow the caller, and the active microphone keeps nearby conversations off your calls. Ear-cup ANC is optional here. It cuts air conditioning and general hum well but has less effect on voices close by, so the closed ear cups of a binaural headset do most of the work.

Contact centre agents sit close together and talk all day, so an Active microphone is the usual choice. Agents also need a light headset for long shifts, replaceable ear cushions and a connection that suits their phone system. Our call centre headsets page covers those points and lists headsets chosen for agents and supervisors.

Most homes are quiet for much of the day, so a Passive microphone is often enough for Teams and Zoom calls and keeps your voice sounding natural. If you share your home with children, pets or a busy kitchen, choose an Active microphone so callers hear only you. Add ear-cup ANC if household noise makes it hard to concentrate or to hear the caller.

Warehouses, stock rooms and shop floors have loud, steady noise from machinery, vehicles and ventilation. Choose an Active microphone to keep that noise off your calls. Where available, ear-cup ANC cuts the steady hum you hear. Where staff need to hear vehicles and alarms, choose a monaural headset or switch ANC off. For staff who move around, DECT wireless headsets have the longest indoor range, and DECT uses its own frequency band, so it does not compete with Wi-Fi.

Noise cancelling headsets use the same connections as any other business headset, so choose by the device you make calls from.

• USB: plugs straight into a laptop or PC for Teams, Zoom and other softphones, with no charging or pairing. See USB headsets.
• Bluetooth: connects to a laptop and a mobile, often through a USB dongle for a steadier connection. This suits hybrid and hot-desking staff. See Bluetooth headsets.
• DECT: connects to a base station for a desk phone and, on many models, a PC as well. DECT has the longest indoor range, for staff who leave the desk. See wireless headsets.

Most headsets with ear-cup ANC in this range are Bluetooth models, built for hybrid working. Use the Connection Type filter alongside the Noise cancelling type filter to narrow the range.