Noise cancelling headphones seem to create a quiet listening environment for us, is this to allow us to better appreciate music? In fact, noise reduction headphones were created for a deeper goal - to protect hearing.

Excessive noise has a significant impact on the detailed reproduction of music, which is due to the masking effect of sound: although all sounds will enter our ears, if there is both a stronger sound and a weaker sound, we will feel that the stronger sound is clearer and the weaker sound will be masked. Simply put, although both stronger and weaker sounds exist, weaker sounds do not disappear in front of stronger sounds, but are masked out, causing us to be "auditory" and unable to hear them.