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Hi, my Clavinova CVP207 is in the same room as 6 ft grand. Is a noise cancelling headphone going to be adequate to enable both digital piano and grand pianos to be played at the same time and having the players hear only their respective pianos? Anybody with experience using say an Audio Technica ANC7B noise cancelling headphone? Thanks.

Those noise cancelling headphones work best with constant pitched noise like the constant air noise in a plane or the constant noise from a lawn mower. I don't think you'd be happy with a set (or two) in this situation, but I'm certainly no expert when it comes to headphones.

I have a set of Sennheiser noise cancelling headphones that I use on long car trips (I have a diesel) or plane flights. They work great for what they do.

This is purely conjecture, but that's never stopped me before

Noise canceling headphones work by "listening" to outside sound and then sending a signal (in the headphone) that is the opposite of what it "hears" thereby canceling out the outside sound. So given that, here are some problems for their use in this situation:

- Noise canceling headphones by their very design can only react to external sounds and there is always some delta between the time the external sound is "heard" by the headphones and when they are able to produce the countering sound. This is why they work best for sounds that are constant. If you wanted them to cancel out someone playing the piano, they'd always be a bit "behind" since the sound is constantly changing.

- Since they attempt to cancel out the sound by basically sending the same sound out just out of phase, any time the acoustics notes and the digitals notes overlapped, the noise canceling soundwaves are likely to also interfere with the DP's.

Given that, I would think that it would not be effective to use active noise canceling headphones. You could always try to find a pair of closed headphones that have very good isolation. Or maybe even go with a set of IEM's while also wearing some hearing protectors (like those who shoot guns wear).

Also note that even though the acoustic player might not be able to hear the notes that the digital player is playing, they will likely hear the "thump thump thump" of the digitals keys hitting their stops. Depending on the level of player, what they're practicing and what piece their practicing, this could be quite distracting.

I'd like to point out that the person wearing the headphones might have to work a bit harder focusing, but that is not a bad thing. A pianist should be able to cancel out anything as they play to be in the zone, or cancel out selective things that are not a part of music-making. So even if they are using headphones that aren't specifically made to cancel outside noise, it would be a good way to test their focus.

I suggest if you cannot possibly put the digital in another room, do whatever you can to help dampen the grand (i.e., piano cover, acoustic tiles on the walls/ceiling, carpet/rug underneath, etc.

Thanks to all for helping to explain workings and limitations of "noise cancelling" in this context. bitWrangler's explanation of phase addition to cancel "noise" is crystal clear. This seems to be a negative in terms of potential unwanted or unintended alteration of the sound wave. So, I'll go with "nature" and headphones which are not noise cancelling. Now, if I can only find a set which won't mash Dumbo's ears!