QC20s sound "muddy" with ANC off

NepDouble07 · September 30, 2019

I just bought a pair of QC20s, and the noise cancelling is amazing alongside the audio quality, BUT when ANC is off, the sound quality takes a massive dive. It sounds super muffled, almost like I have a piece of fabric in-between my ears and the earphones. Is this normal? I have QC35s as well and I don't experience this issue (when wired in and wireless). I also compared them to my SoundTrue ultra earphones with the ANC off, and they sound way worse than the SoundTrue Ultra earphones. I tested it with my Bose puck thing (not sure what it's called, it came with the Companion 20s) my phone, and the front audio on my PC, same issue.

Spuriae · September 30, 2019

ANC headphones use a feedback loop to control their frequency response in the low and mid frequencies. If you turn off ANC, you turn off the active tuning that the headphones were designed for.

The QC35's absolutely do it too, just not to the same extent. With the QC20, the microphone and driver are coupled more strongly to your pinnae, which means that the feedback plays an even more important role in the tuning.

NepDouble07 · September 30, 2019

4 hours ago, Nimrodor said:

ANC headphones use a feedback loop to control their frequency response in the low and mid frequencies. If you turn off ANC, you turn off the active tuning that the headphones were designed for.

The QC35's absolutely do it too, just not to the same extent. With the QC20, the microphone and driver are coupled more strongly to your pinnae, which means that the feedback plays an even more important role in the tuning.

I appreciate the explanation, I thought there was something wrong with them with how drastic the difference in audio was. I do notice a difference with the QC35s but it's not as drastic, so it doesn't bother me, I still consider them fine when powered off. The difference in the audio wasn't the only thing I experienced with these earphones though. I noticed popping at higher volumes with ANC on (while I'm sitting in my room with basically no ambient noise, I've heard cases that certain ambient noises can cause popping), is that just the microphones picking up sound leakage from the earphones? I'm just assuming that's the case since with ANC off there isn't any popping at high volumes, and with ANC on at slightly lower volumes it doesn't happen.