Noise cancelling is the feature these headphones were originally bought for – so it’s understandably annoying when it decides to stop working. VMK20 ANC issues are usually caused by settings, earpads, or more rarely hardware faults. Let’s go through where the problem most likely lies.
First, the basics
VMK20 noise cancelling works with a separate chipset and a separate button on the left cup. This means a couple of things that confuse many people:
- ANC does not turn off automatically with the headphones. It’s its own system. If you turn off the headphones but not ANC, noise cancelling stays on and drains the battery. Next time the battery may be empty and ANC will of course not work.
- The green LED in the left cup indicates that ANC is on. If the light doesn’t come on when pressing the button, the ANC battery is probably empty. Charge the headphones fully and try again.
- A faint hiss in silence when ANC is on is normal. It’s the self-noise of the noise-cancelling microphones, and it disappears as soon as you start playing music. All ANC headphones do this – even the ones that cost three hundred euros.
How to fix it
- Charge the headphones fully. With USB-C for 2–3 hours. ANC requires power to work, and if the battery is low, noise cancelling is the first thing to shut off.
- Do a reset. Plug a 3.5 mm AUX cable into the headphones and unplug it. This disconnects the Bluetooth circuit and resets the connections. Simple but effective.
- Check the earpads. This is a surprisingly common culprit. VMK20’s noise cancelling needs a proper seal around the ear. If the earpads are compressed, hardened, or have come loose at the edges, ANC will leak like a sieve. Especially on headphones used for over a year, the pads start to wear out – that’s normal wear. You can get new earpads from us, and the old ones come off by twisting them off.
- Try ANC without music and Bluetooth. Turn the headphones off, press the ANC button to turn it on, and listen. Do you hear an even attenuation from both sides? If one side clearly leaks more, the fault is either in the earpad or the microphone.
- Clean the microphones. VMK20 has four ANC microphones on the outer surfaces of the cups. If they’ve accumulated dust, skin oils, or that mysterious pocket lint, wipe them gently with a dry cloth.
If one side doesn’t attenuate properly
This is the most common complaint, and the cause is usually mundane: the earpad on one side has compressed more than the other. Try pressing the cup tighter against your ear – if the attenuation clearly improves, the earpad is the culprit. Replace the pads, and the problem will disappear.
If the earpads are fine but one side still leaks, it may be a microphone fault. In that case the device needs to be inspected in service.
If nothing helps
Send us a photo of the headphones and your order number to info@valco.fi. Tell us which model, when it was purchased, and what you’ve already tried. Our service in Kajaani will fix these – free of charge during the warranty, after the warranty for the price of a repair package. We don’t throw headphones away; we repair them.
And remember: every service order funds 0.000001 % of our Death Star. Thank you for your contribution to galactic peace.