I don’t normally recommend noise cancelling headphones to people unless they’re in certain environments where this feature is essential. It’s important to remember that many people use headphones on the go, while on transit or in places where there’s a lot of ambient noise. And, for these purposes, noise cancelling headphones may be the best solution. But there are also some issues with noise cancelling tech in general that I often worry about. The first is that in traditional examples, using ANC (Active Noise Cancelling) introduces additional noise floor - kind of like a mild hiss in the background. The second issue is that while effective, the noise cancellation can introduce some artifacts or burbles in the treble. How significant these issues are varies depending on the headphones, but so far this has been an obstacle for me.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://headphones.com/blogs/reviews/sony-wh-1000xm4-review-great-noise-cancelling-but-how-does-it-sound