Automatic Noise Cancellation Problem

[wd45]

Here is a weird thing.

 

I was listening to a CD while driving at 60mph on the freeway. This CD features a conga player prominently. Apparently, the Automatic Noise Cancellation system heard parts of it as engine noise, and tried to cancel it out.

 

It sounded like the classic feedback you hear from a microphone -- starts quiet and gets louder. The frequency or pitch of the sound was close to that of the engine. It was noticeable, and quite irritating.

 

So it looks like there are some types of music I'll be unable to listen to in this car. 

 

Anyone else experience this?

 

(The CD was "Cachaito" by the Afro-Cuban Jazz musician Orlando "Cachaito" Lopez.)

[Laurel]

I'm old and never have my radio cranked up that loud LOL.  Sounds like a good thing to me as I hate hearing cars next to me at traffic lights with their cars kabooming so loudly that their cars shake.  But for you youngsters it may be an issue. I went to Apple to listen to Cachaito as I have never heard of him, and actually the music is quite different, lively, and catchy to listen to.

Edited January 17, 2013 by Laurel

[RachelnLa]

I am a bubble gum pop girl or some good old Cajun French music.

[PWBarrett]

I didn't think the C-Max had active noise cancellation, just some passive cancellation channeling or somesuch.

But I'm curious to try out the tunes you suggested and see what I get.

 

[Was there a particular track?]

Edited January 18, 2013 by PWBarrett

[valkraider]

Yes, CMax has active noise cancellation.

 

It actually causes problems with the audio quality of the MFT hands-free phone system. That is one of the things which is supposed to be fixed with the 3.5.1 update.

[wd45]

I haven't done an update on the system yet. perhaps this will address the issue. Thanks for the heads up on that, and I'll let you know if it helps.

[PWBarrett]

Yes, CMax has active noise cancellation.

 

It actually causes problems with the audio quality of the MFT hands-free phone system. That is one of the things which is supposed to be fixed with the 3.5.1 update.

 

Ah - I stand corrected - I should have googled this first.  I thought the cabin noise cancellation was passive and the 3.5.1. improvement just had to do with noise cancelling microphones for hands-free calling.

But it really does have active noise cancellation  - what a cool feature.  I'm surprised they don't list it on the sticker as a standard feature.

[JohnnOhio]

Anyone know how to turn on the active noise cancelation? The car I test drove had it on and working (nice and quiet)

My max I ordered isn't quiet at all. Need to know how to turn it on.

[zhackwyatt]

Anyone know how to turn on the active noise cancelation? The car I test drove had it on and working (nice and quiet)

My max I ordered isn't quiet at all. Need to know how to turn it on.

It's always one.  You can't turn it off.

[JohnnOhio]

It's not working then. Time to go in for service.

 

Thanks

[salsaguy]

going by my Nickname you can guess if filtering out salsa music in my car would irritate me...

:)

baile baile!!

[JohnnOhio]

Cool salsaguy

 

Fiesta Latina !!!!!

[ceemax71]

Anyone know how to turn on the active noise cancelation? The car I test drove had it on and working (nice and quiet)

My max I ordered isn't quiet at all. Need to know how to turn it on.

 

You cannot turn noise cancellation on or off, however it is only active when the ignition is in run and all of the doors, hood, and rear hatch are closed.

[JohnnOhio]

Ceemax 71

 

It's not working at all. Never has. I hear tire whine wind noise ICE running AC compressor noise while driving. My truck with offroad tires is not much noisier to drive in than my max. I see why they put in the car. It's makes a lot of noise.

[ArizonaEnergi]

Anyone know how to tell if the noise suppression system is NOT working?

Edited July 20, 2013 by ArizonaEnergi

[ceemax71]

It is hard to find any detailed information on the active noise cancelling. But from what I could find, it is only supposed to cancel out engine noise; not tire noise, wind noise, mother-in-law noise ;), or other undesirable noise unless the noise happens to be the same frequency as the engine noise.

 

Here is the description from the shop manual:

Active Noise Control

Active noise control is an audio system feature that eliminates some of the low frequency engine noise within the passenger compartment typically induced under wide open throttle or heavy part-throttle conditions. The system uses 3 microphones, a DACMC, and the audio system speakers. The DACMC determines the noise frequency to be canceled based upon engine rotation speed data from the PCM and the microphone input signals.

While the engine is running, the active noise control microphones located in the front and rear of the headliner monitor the engine noise resonating in the passenger compartment. The microphones transmit this noise as analog signals to the DACMC, where they are converted into digital signals by the integrated analog/digital converter. The digital signals are processed and an inverted phase sound wave with the same amplitude as the original sound is created. This new sound is converted into an analog audio signal and output by the DACMC internal tone generator to all of the speakers except the instrument panel center speaker (if equipped).

 

It doesn't work quite like noise-canceling ear phones, where it cancels all sound external to the ear phone.

 

It looks like the only possible way to know if it is working or not, would be using the IDS software tool.

There are several diagnostic trouble codes associated with the active noise cancelling system.

 

I have noticed on my C-Max that at times the ICE becomes suddenly louder as though the noise cancelling temporarily stopped working.

[Jbtbga]

Does the noise cancellation system cause an echo? Have been hearing an echo sometimes while listening to NPR, never with music

[fotomoto]

Does the noise cancellation system cause an echo? Have been hearing an echo sometimes while listening to NPR, never with music

 

If you are listening to that station on HD radio, you can get an echo/repeat effect when the tuner switches from digital to analog sources whenever there's a loss in signal.  On another car, I had a JVC head unit that was so bad about this I had to keep it on analog which negated the reason I bought it.  OTOH, I don't have this issue with the Sony unit in the CMax listening to the same station going down the same roads.   FWIW

[Jbtbga]

Thanks, fotomoto. I am sure that is it. See the HD flicker, just hadn't put 2 and 2 together

[Jaydrama]

If you want to hear the noise cancellation in action, trying to hold it together, play some favorite music with just the rear windows down at 50-55 mph.

[mnrobitaille]

Concerning the noise cancelling, it can affect being able to hear emergency vehicles.

 

On Friday, we turned out of a gas station that's about a block from a Fire Station, next thing we know we had am ambulance right next to us with lights & siren going, & we could only heard the siren when they were right next to us (all we had on was the A/C on AUTO). Thankfully, we remembered that the fire department sends out as fire truck with every ambulance so we were expecting the fire truck to be not far behind the ambulance.

[bigalpha]

Holy crap, I must have missed this feature in the manual.  Is there some definitive test of this I can do to listen to the difference as I drive?

[Noah Harbinger]

Concerning the noise cancelling, it can affect being able to hear emergency vehicles.

 

On Friday, we turned out of a gas station that's about a block from a Fire Station, next thing we know we had am ambulance right next to us with lights & siren going, & we could only heard the siren when they were right next to us (all we had on was the A/C on AUTO). Thankfully, we remembered that the fire department sends out as fire truck with every ambulance so we were expecting the fire truck to be not far behind the ambulance.

 

Based on the description of the system, I would expect that to be the result of the C-Max's superb soundproofing, not the noise cancellation. 

[Bill-N]

FYI, according the the Owner's Manual (3rd printing, pg 279), fuse F22 controls active noise cancellation.

[robfixit]

If anybody is going to try to remove F22 to test it, make sure you know there are more than one F22 fuse. The one listed as active noise cancellation is in the Luggage compartment fuse box (on page 206 of the 2014 CMax owner manual). I was thinking it would be interesting to make a switch and cable going to the fuse box to be able to turn it off and on to see how effective it is.