There are two types of noise cancelling technologies for headphones — passive and active.

How is one supposed to binge-watch streaming TV on their phone, listen to music or play computer games in peace when faced with such Sisyphean challenges?

As with many other things in the modern world, science has the answer — noise cancelling headphones, which block out external noise and let the sound of whatever it is you actually want to be listening to come through, unsullied by the distractions of the outside world.

University of Queensland School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering research fellow and lecturer Dr Konstanty Bialkowski said there were two types of noise cancelling technologies for headphones — passive and active.

“Passive is like having a cup around your ear that reduces high-frequency noise; the other type is active cancellation — that’s for low-frequency noise,” he said.

“High frequency could be people talking or high-pitched squealing, low frequency is low-pitched hum like a car engine, aeroplane engine or a fan. The low frequency stuff is very repetitive and that’s really easy to actively cancel.”

Dr Bialkowski said one way to describe how active cancellation worked was to think of it as being like ripples in a pond.

“If you made a ripple which was the complete opposite of the other one the effect is zero — it cancels it out,” he said.

“That’s what’s happening in the headset. It has a microphone and it knows the distance between the microphone and your ear and it makes the complete opposite noise to cancel it out.”

Flights are the perfect environment for using noise cancelling headphones.Source:AFP

Sound processing technology in the headphones took care of that, Dr Bialkowski said, hence the requirement for a power source such as battery.

Seasoned travellers often recommend investing in a set of good noise cancelling headphones and Dr Bialkowski said they were particularly good at cancelling out aircraft noise.

“The kind of noise you really don’t want to hear on planes is that engine noise, that fan noise hum — it’s really repetitive,” he said.

It’s all well and good to hear the theory behind noise cancelling headphones, but how well do they work in practice?

A rather busy recent trip involving flights to Los Angeles, Washington DC, London and then Dubai before returning to Australia seemed like the ideal opportunity for me to test the effectiveness of noise-cancelling headphones in a real-world environment — Sony’s MDR-1000X wireless noise cancelling headphones to be exact.

Jet airliners are noisy places — not nearly as bad as they used to be, but as each jet engine is generating something in the order of 78,000 to 115,000 pounds of thrust it’s a bit hard to do quietly.

The hi-tech headphones work via wireless (Bluetooth) or wired (3.5mm aux.) connections and boast a number of features to enhance their effectiveness, including high-resolution audio upscaling, an ambient sound mode, and the ability to temporarily shut off both the noise cancelling feature (and any music/audio) by holding a hand to the touch panel on the side — allowing the wearer to hear people talking to them. They can also be used as a hands-free kit for a mobile phone too.

To give you an idea how effective the MDR-1000X headphones were: Putting them on was like finding myself in my very own cone of silence.

Sony 1000X Noise-Cancelling Headphones claim to have the best active-noise cancelling on the marketSource:Supplied

I could hear the dialogue and sound effects clearly in the in-flight movies and TV shows, and on one flight, had no idea there was a crying child in one of the rows further behind me until I took the headphones off to ask one of the flight attendants for a drink.

In short: It was amazing and the headphones were considerably ahead of the standard, non-noise cancelling headphones I’d been using previously.

The MDR-1000X headphones charge via USB and Sony say the batteries will last up to 20 hours in wireless mode or 34 hours when connected via a cable.

I was able to travel from Australia to Washington DC via Los Angeles — a total travelling time of approximately 22 hours — without recharging, with the headphones in near-constant use and connected via a 3.5mm aux. cable. Similarly, the battery lasted the entire 22-ish hour London-Dubai-Australia journey with no problems.

Even without being used for the traditional “listening to audio” stuff, the headphone’s noise cancelling functionality on its own provided a delightful quiet, making it possible to work, read or sleep in peace — something I took full advantage of while flying, meaning I was actually able to get some rest on the flights and arrive at my destinations without feeling like one of the titular characters from The Walking Dead.

The benefits of noise cancelling headphones such as the Sony MDR-1000X extend beyond the economy class cabin of a jet airliner, however. Blocking out ambient noise means watching TV shows or movies on a computer is still enjoyable, and the technology works well on buses, trains and in cars (as long as you’re not driving, for obvious reasons).

Basically, the seasoned travellers are right: Noise-cancelling headphones make a huge difference when flying and while the MDR-1000X might be the top end of the range (RRP $699.95), it’s clear from my experiences on the trip that having a decent set of noise cancelling headphones is it.