ANC is fantastic for all audiences.
As someone who now works from home on the ground level, I often get noise from other residents outside or from adjacent flats. ANC allows me to cut out the noise and focus on what I need to do.
It’s also incredibly helpful when on public transport, but sometimes you want a little bit of sound to leak in so you don’t miss announcements on public transport. I also find myself needing to leak sounds in because I become very self-concious of how I sound.
Having a measure of different noise cancellation levels is the most ideal I find. I use Sony WF-1000XM3’s (in-ear), Sony WH-1000XM1’s (circumaural) and Microsoft Surface Headphones 2 (circumaural). I do not enjoy having to alter the ANC on the in-ears, the Sony over-ears are greate for when you cup to let sound in temporarily and the Surface Headphones 2 feature a dial that allows you to alter the ANC to passthrough the way you like.
Having ANC these days look as though you require some level of control in how transparent they can be.
