Introduction: ENC focuses on the outgoing voice path, shaping what the other caller hears when office chatter, keyboard clicks, or street wind enters the microphone.
Most people judge earbuds by what they hear. Call clarity is different. It is judged by the person on the other end, who hears your voice plus whatever your microphones pick up. In an open office, that may be keyboard clicks and nearby conversations. On a street, it may be traffic rumble and wind. ENC is the call-side feature meant to improve that outgoing voice. Understanding the call path makes it easier to judge what ENC can realistically do, and where every earbud still faces limits.
The Call Path Where ENC Processes the Speaker's Voice
When you speak, your voice creates pressure waves. The microphone converts those waves into an electrical signal. That signal contains your voice and every other sound arriving at the mic port. A microphone's sensitivity describes how much electrical output it produces for a given sound pressure. High sensitivity helps capture quiet speech, but it also makes the mic more responsive to background sound. The useful measure is signal-to-noise ratio: how much of the captured signal is your voice versus everything else. ENC works on this uplink signal before it is encoded and sent over Bluetooth to the phone and network. The other caller never hears the raw mix; they hear the result after processing. ENC uses multiple microphones and digital processing to estimate what is background and what is speech. Multiple mics give the system different samples of the same sound field. The small differences in timing and level help separate sound arriving from the front, where your mouth is, from sound arriving from the sides and back. ENC also watches for voice activity, then reduces parts of the signal that look like steady noise or non-speech. The goal is intelligibility, not silence. Office and street noise often overlap the same frequency range as human speech. When a noise shares the same pitch and timing as a voice, some of it reaches the other caller. The Wesdar TWS1190 carries an ENC Clear Calls label and a 4-Mic ANC design, which places it in the call-clarity category; actual results still depend on the environment, fit, and mic placement.
Open Office Noise and the Sounds That Interfere with Speech
Open offices feel quiet to the person sitting there, but a call microphone hears many separate events. HVAC hum, laptop fans, keyboard clicks, chair scrapes, mouse clicks, notifications, and conversations all arrive at different levels. Some are steady. Some are sudden. The difficult ones are not always the loudest; they are the ones that overlap speech or appear unpredictably. This is why two callers can have very different experiences in the same room. One person sits near a vent and sounds clear. Another sits beside a mechanical keyboard and sounds harsh to the listener.
1. Keyboard Clicks and Chair Scrapes Arrive as Short High-Energy Bursts
Keyboard clicks are short, broadband bursts. They contain energy across many frequencies, including the consonant range that helps speech sound crisp. A click does not last long, but it can land on top of a word and make a syllable harder to understand. Chair scrapes and object drops behave in a similar way. ENC can reduce steady office hum because the system has time to learn that noise profile. Short bursts are harder because they appear without warning and end before the algorithm can fully separate them. A keyboard close to the mic can be picked up strongly. Moving the earbud or the keyboard, or using a softer keyboard, often helps more than any processing setting.
2. Human Chatter Blends with the Speaker's Own Voice
Nearby conversation is the hardest office noise for any call system. A background voice has the same basic ingredients as your voice: pitch, vowels, consonants, pauses, and rhythm. The microphone cannot simply filter out "speech" because your voice is also speech. ENC can use direction and level differences to favor the person wearing the earbuds, but several talkers around a room create a diffuse field. Sound bounces off walls and arrives from many angles. Some background voices may become softer for the listener, yet they can still be audible when they are close or when the person speaking pauses. The result is usually improved clarity, not a private phone booth.
Street Noise, Wind, and Realistic Expectations for Clear Calls
Street noise is a mix of steady and sudden sounds. Traffic rumble, tire noise, and distant engines create a low-frequency bed. Horns, sirens, bus brakes, and construction add sharp peaks. ENC can target the steady low-frequency bed because it is predictable. The system estimates that noise and reduces its level in the outgoing signal. This is why a caller on a busy road often sounds clearer than they would without ENC. The improvement is most noticeable on continuous hum, not on every individual event. A passing truck or a sudden horn can still cut through, especially when it is close to the microphone. Wind is a different problem. Wind noise is not just sound traveling through the air. It is turbulent airflow hitting the microphone port and creating pressure changes across the diaphragm. That pressure can be strong at low frequencies and can overload the mic capsule. Wind also changes direction and strength from second to second. A steady traffic rumble has a stable pattern that the system can learn and subtract. A gust does not. It can appear as a low-frequency thump, a crackle, or a broadband rush that masks speech. Some earbuds use mesh, port shape, or software to reduce wind pickup, but no small earbud can make wind disappear in every direction. Realistic expectations help. In a quiet room, ENC has little to do. In an open office, it can reduce steady hum and some background chatter, but keyboard clicks and close voices may still reach the other caller. On a street, it can make your voice easier to follow over traffic rumble, while wind and sudden events remain the main limits. Placement matters: the mic ports should not be covered by a hat, scarf, or hand, and the earbuds should sit consistently in the ear. If the other caller says you sound distant, the issue may be fit or mic position rather than the noise reduction itself. ENC is an uplink speech tool. It improves the odds that your words arrive clearly. It does not turn a noisy street into a silent room.
Conclusion
ENC addresses outgoing call clarity. The microphone path, not the music path, is where it matters. In open offices, the main challenge is short bursts and overlapping voices. On streets, steady rumble is easier to reduce than wind and sudden peaks. The Wesdar TWS1190 lists ENC Clear Calls as a confirmed feature, alongside a 4-Mic ANC label. For buyers and users, that label points to everyday call use in real environments. The sensible expectation is better voice pickup and less background interference, not perfect isolation. Check call samples in the environments you care about, because that is where the difference shows up.
FAQ
Q: How does ENC reduce keyboard and office chatter during calls?
A: ENC works on the outgoing microphone signal. It uses multiple mic inputs to estimate which parts of the sound are steady background and which parts match your voice. Keyboard clicks are short bursts, so they are harder to remove than a continuous fan hum. Nearby chatter can also overlap your voice. ENC can lower some of that interference and make your speech easier to follow, but it will not erase every click or every background voice.
Q: Why is street wind noise harder to manage than steady traffic rumble?
A: Steady traffic rumble has a predictable low-frequency pattern. A call system can learn that pattern and reduce it in the outgoing signal. Wind is turbulent airflow hitting the microphone, so it changes direction and strength quickly. It can create low-frequency pressure and broadband rushing sounds that overlap speech. That unpredictability makes wind harder to manage than a steady rumble, even when both are loud.
Q: Does ENC make a call completely silent for the listener?
A: No. ENC is designed to improve the clarity of your voice, not to create a silent room. It can reduce steady background noise and some chatter, so the other caller hears fewer distractions. Short sounds, close voices, horns, and wind gusts may still come through. The result is usually a clearer call with less background, especially in moderate noise.
Sources / References
ETSI TS 103 224: Speech and multimedia transmission quality testing in background noise
Understanding Microphone Sensitivity
ITU P.381: Technical requirements and test methods for analogue wired headsets or headphones
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