What is Active Noise Cancellation (ANC)?

The short answer is active noise cancellation is a feature that can be activated, adjusted or deactivated for filtering out background noise for the person wearing a headset. It's an electronic countermeasure to room noise which helps to dampen sound so you can stay focused on your work.

Keep in mind, active noise cancellation is referring to your speakers and doesn't address microphone noise cancellation. Some headsets have both ANC and microphone noise cancellation and others will only have one of these features.