ANC

abbreviationStandard termElectronics

A system that reduces unwanted ambient sound using destructive interference.

ANC stands for active noise cancellation. The system uses microphones to pick up external acoustic noise and generates a precise anti-noise waveform with inverted phase to cancel it out before it reaches the listener. It requires fast digital signal processing and low-latency audio pathways to be effective across variable frequencies.

Heard on the job

The ANC circuit is introducing a slight hiss when the environment is perfectly quiet.