Is there such a thing as a noise cancelling stereo?

Active noise canceling is really directional, so you need to know where the sound is coming from and where you want the dead space. You can set up a car for instance with a dead space for the stereo, but the speaker locations and the seat are basically fixed.

That said, white noise (if you want to use the stereo) or a loud fan work wonders, especially if they’re closer to you than the door.

My neighbors run a summer camp during the summer for 6 to 12 year olds. A noisy oscillating fan doesn’t make it so I can’t hear them, but it does make it much easier to concentrate through.

@funkdaddy How specific does one need to be with the direction? The road runs away from my room rather than across the face of the door. I like the fan idea, since it would complement the open door and be a whole lot cheaper. But I wonder if it would mask the sound effectively, especially on weekends when there are some loud cars and bikes showing off.

As far as i know the answer is no. Science is always improving and there might be some miraculous system out there some day but the laws of physics are hard to beat.
Noise cancelling headphones work so well because they know the precise direction and location of your ear canal. They use microphones on the headphone to listen to the sound and rebroadcast a cancelling sound that will reach your ear about 100 us later. The physics works almost flawlessly.

It is possible to make such a system but it would only work at one precise spot in the room. Any deviation from that spot would allow certain frequencies to pass uncancelled. At 2 ft (estimate) the system would not work at all.

Just for interest there are systems that broadcasts in the high ultrasonic region (well above human hearing) that are used to produce pin-point audible sound apparently from nowhere. One beam is a constant frequency, the other is FM modulated . The sum of these two inaudible beams produces beat frequencies that are audible to humans but only if you are located at the precise spot where they cross. When you are in the sweet spot it is like someone is talking inside your head.
“Put down that drink, George. You’ve had enough!” .

I predict you will see this equipment in the hands of high priced Russian ‘fortune tellers’ and ‘mediums’ within 5 years. They will be able to demonstrate it live at psychic shows and make a fortune from believers. “Yes! My Grandfather spoke to me! He said not to worry. He is happy here with Grandma!”
Ministers will be able to use these systems too. “Really? Is that all you can afford to put in the plate? You know what you did last week. Toss in an extra $20 and we will call it even.”
Wait until the systems are placed outside store windows with the beams adjusted to cross where window shoppers would stand. “Oh go ahead. You know you want it.”

@LuckyGuy Thanks for your comprehensive answer. Considering some high end cars have sound systems that can play different songs to different people without clashing, I was hopeful. Looks like I’ll have to find a more mundane solution!

As you can probably tell, my company is more than moderately involved with the science of acoustics.

If you wanted to pay a small fortune we could make a device that went over your window. it would incorporate an array of pressure sensors to listen to the road noise and then retransmit the cancelling signal through a series of transducers in a phased array that tracked your motion in the room. If we want to cancel the boom boom from rap music emanating from wanna be drug dealers in their rice burners we need to suppress from 15 Hz up to about 10kHz. I’d need about 8 pressure x’ducers, 4 low freq actuators and 4 mid range. One Cypress PSOC 5 for control. (order 6 for backup). About 200 hours for software and Phase I testing. Another 200 hours for modification and final test (NIST traceable) with a target goal of 40db reduction of outdoor sourced ambient noise Phase 0 cost estimate would be in the $200k to $300k range for 2 working prototypes about the size of a window box fan with a total light transmittance less than 25%.
Production costs in volume of 1000 units would be on the order of $400 per piece.

Are you willing to try an experiment? Would you consider placing a 4 inch thick HEPA filter element over your window? It would reduce light and would restrict your view. It could theoretically reduce the frequencies above 1500 Hz significantly That would cover the whoosh and high frequency hiss from road noise. It will not stop the repetitive, jungle like boom boom sound from the playahs. To do that you need only the word of intelligent women who refuse to date/mate with such stereo system operators.
Or a well placed .22.

@LuckyGuy Unfortunately I don’t have the funds to invest in the development of such a device. How much would a HEPA filter to cover the doorway (approximately 1000×2300 mm) cost?

I realize that. I was just letting the engineer in me take over. I. can’t. help. it…

You can browse the filter aisle in Ames or Lowe’s Hardware if you have them there.

This website has all kinds of filters. filters usa

Here’s a cheap one. They are 20” x 25” x 5” 500 mm, 620 mm, 125 mm. for $20. Experiment with one window first. It would be great if you had one of those $40 Sentech Multimeters with a db scale so you can measure how much it works.
Then let us know. You’d be adding to the world’s collective knowledge.

Thanks, I’ll look into it!