[anigbrowl]

No. The time to do D/A/D conversion and signal processing would just leave you with noise above the wavelength equivalent o the time loss, plus a whole bunch of spurious transients. It would sound quieter on a first impression, but probably prove more fatiguing over time due to the departure from natural noise spectra (which our brains are better at filtering)...which is exactly why I find Bose's headphones impossible to tolerate for more than a minute or two.

If you want quiet, get a pair of large close-backed headphones with good insulation, such as Sony MDR-7506. OK, so they weigh a bit more. OTOH they cost less and sound better, which is why they're a fixture in the gear boxes of location recordists.

[meowface]

Keyword here is definitely "sound better." Bose's headphones do not sound very good at all, though I'm not sure if it's due to the quality of the headphone driver, side effects of the active noise cancellation, or a combination of the two.

The much cheaper cost certainly helps too.

[paletoy]

Maybe it's your personal taaste(or that you haven't tried the right earphones) , but at least according to reviews, many are quiet pleased with a good noise cancelling tech when it's working well.

[anigbrowl]

Well, you can find an audience for anything. I'm a sound engineer (mainly for film) by profession, so although I'm pretty opinionated about this my comments are based on nearly 20 years years of field recording experience.