Audio Technica ATH-ANC9

In the realm of active noise cancellation, there's Audio Technica, Bose and Sennheiser... then the rest. For quite a while now, all three manufacturers have been fighting a merciless technological battle, coming out with ever more impressive products year by year. And the Audio Technica ATH-ANC9 is proof.

Design: Dry Yet Accessorised

Audio Technica is not known for design, and those models with the fake fur on them certainly don't help. Fortunately, the company dispensed of all capillary pretensions with this one and went with matte black plastic instead. At least this time it's discreet. Unfortunately, like its forebears and its direct competitor from Bose, the QuietComfort 15, when you take a closer look the materials used on this Japanese headphone appear to be of mediocre quality. That said, it's sturdier and more durable than the Bose QC 15.

With the accessories, nothing's been forgotten. There's a jack adapter, an airplane adapter, a standard cable, a hands-free kit cable and a semi-rigid case (the ear cups fold sideways for easy storage).



This is a very comfortable headphone. Whereas the QC15's weight distribution and highly flexible ear pads leave ample room for improvement, this is not the case with the ATH-ANC9. After several hours wearing it on end, we felt no discomfort at all.

The battery goes into a small compartment in the right ear cup and the power and noise cancellation buttons—which we'll get to later—are on the outside of the right can.

Audio: Cancellation À La Carte

The big, new feature on the ATH-ANC9 is a choice between three different noise cancelling modes. The idea is simple: depending on the environment in which you're using the headphone, the ambient noises aren't the same. So all you have to do is change the noise cancellation settings for your environment. Each time you switch modes you hear one, two or three beeps to indicate which mode you're in, and the LED switches between blue, red and green.

The first and last modes are similar in the frequency bands they filter, but the quantity is different. Blue mode cancels 95% of all noise at 200 Hz, compared to 85% in green mode. Red mode filters 95% at 300 Hz. Blue mode is intended for public transportation (airplanes, the Tube, etc.), red mode for noisy indoor settings (PC fans, air conditioning, etc.) and green mode for relatively quiet indoor environments (libraries, home, etc.).

The passive isolation is very good and the three noise cancelling modes are highly effective. The most impressive is clearly the blue mode: you shouldn't need any aspirin on your next cross-Atlantic flight—not for the noise, in any case. The red mode is also very good at reducing typical background noises found in the workplace. Just make sure you can hear your phone! The green mode may not seem that useful at first, but it has one very important purpose: to go unnoticed. It greatly reduces the incessant hissing and sense of void so common to noise cancelling headphones. In an already-quiet setting this is a real treat, especially when you have it running with no music on.

But let's not forget the audio rendering. Audio Technica tends to emphasise the high-end of the spectrum in its headphones, but the ANC9 gives us peaks across the board.


At the low-end, these peaks are obvious both on the graph and to the ear. Unlike the Bose QC15, which has big, punchy bass but is more restrained in the rest of the spectrum, the ATH-ANC9 has massive lows (+10 dB at 70 Hz!) that stretch all the way into the low mids. That little bump between 1 and 2 kHz gives pep to the voice and stops it from getting drowned out by the bass, but it doesn't rise back up until much higher up in the spectrum. Peaking at 8 kHz, the highs are certainly not lacking, even feeling aggressive at times. On the other hand, sibilance is never really an issue.

With the exception of the (very minor) problem in the high-end, it's all smooth sailing. The lively, playful rendering should please most listeners. But beware, the passive noise reduction—yes, the ANC9 also works sans battery—takes punch out of the lows and degrades the overall rendering.













Harmonic distortion, too, is never really an issue. It's definitely an improvement on the ANC7B. The bump in the left curve may be higher than the one on the right, but that's just the trace of the hum coming from the active noise cancellation. It's slight and can be easily covered up with an ordinary audio signal, although more discerning ears may be able to pick it out.

Audio Technica took the route of innovation this time by offering multiple active noise cancelling options. That was an excellent idea. The ability to reduce the noise cancelling and shift its coverage makes the ANC9 a very urban headphone that's versatile enough for most situations in a city dweller's day. People who spend a lot of time in airplanes and trains, however, may prefer the Bose QuietComfort 15, which cancels more noise and is also extremely comfortable.