Active noise-cancelling headphones can help reduce background noise by sampling ambient noise and adjusting the audio to help drown it out. But in order to do that, headphones or earbuds with noise cancellation features need more power than a traditional set of headphones. That’s why they usually have a battery compartment.
JBL’s new Reflect Aware C noise-cancelling earbuds are designed to plug into a USB Type-C port on smartphones, laptops, or other gadgets rather than a 3.5mm jack.
Since USB Type-C can deliver both data and power, that means the Reflect Aware C headphones don’t need a battery.
JBL and HTC unveiled the Reflect Aware C headphones together in the official announcement for the new HTC 10 smartphone. But the earbuds actually made an appearance on the Red Dot 21 design award website recently.
While the USB C model is new, JBL had previously introduced a version of the earbuds with an Apple Lightning connector for use with iPhones. They’re available for pre-order for $160 and there’s an estimated ship date of June 19th.
I like the idea of noise-canceling headphones that don’t need recharging. But it’d be nice if they were a little more affordable.
I have a pair of cheap Audio Technica earbuds that I use when traveling by bus, train, or airplane. The noise cancellation technology isn’t that great, but the price was right. While I can use them without noise cancellation if the battery dies, they sound awful when used without it.
So you need drivers and/or an app for them to function? I could see that limiting their lifespan.
Doubtful. USB audio devices are a well established and standardized thing. As long as you aren’t trying to connect them to a Windows host it should be reliable and driver free.
Since it is a USB audio device, one side effect is that 100% of the audio specs will be determined by the product and none by the host device since uncompressed digital audio will be sent over the USB port.
Any particular reason why not Windows machines? I’ve got a USB DAC attached to my workstation and it’s never had any problems, just gets detected as a USB S/PDIF device and that’s it, functions perfectly.
It might work but historically Windows has had the annoying habit of insisting on vendor drivers for pretty much everything, even items that ‘just work’ elsewhere. Haven’t played with ‘doze seriously since 7 though, maybe they finally got tired of being behind the times?
Ah, historically yeah that’s a problem though USB audio devices have had a stock driver. Windows 10 is a different beast though, if it can get an Internet connection it will install drivers. It’s impressive, I set up a machine recently that needed audio, NIC and graphics card drivers so I hooked up a phone to give it network access via USB and waited while things just burst into life. Half an hour later all those parts had drivers and worked perfectly.