Old systems relied on insulation and dampers to passively kill sound, which ultimately resulted in extra weight and a faint, low-frequency buzz seeping through. The ANC system, on the other hand, uses software and components like controllers and microphones to measure and reduce noise.
It’s like this: the mics pick up a sound, the software analyses it, and then the speakers spit out the inverse waves, thus cancelling it altogether.
But that process was limited by the software, which struggled to get the cancellation done in the 0.009 seconds it takes for road or engine noise to reach the ears of passengers, says Hyundai. The new RANC will do the deed in just 0.002 seconds.
“Using an acceleration sensor, RANC calculates the vibration from the road to the car and the control computer analyzes road noise,” the brand explains in a release. “As its computation and signal transfer speeds are optimized, it only takes 0.002 second to analyze the noise and produce an inverted soundwave, generated by the DSP (Digital Signal Processor).”