A system including an automatic noise canceling (ANC) headphone and a processor. The ANC headphone has a microphone configured to generate a microphone signal and at least two non-zero ANC gain levels. The processor is configured to receive the microphone signal, determine a characteristic of the microphone signal, identify a revised ANC level from the ANC gain levels based on a comparison of the characteristic to at least one threshold, and output a signal corresponding to the revised ANC level. Methods are also disclosed.