An active noise reducing earphone comprising: a rigid cup shell (501, 1001) having an inner surface and an outer surface, the inner surface encompassing a cavity with an opening; a microphone arrangement configured to pick up sound with at least one steerable beam directivity characteristic, and to provide a first electrical signal that represents the picked-up sound; an active noise control filter configured to provide, based on the first electrical signal, a second electrical signal; and a speaker (407, 506) disposed in the opening of the cavity and configured to generate sound from the second electrical signal; wherein the active noise control filter has a transfer characteristic that is configured so that noise that travels through the shell (501, 1001) from beyond the outer surface to beyond the inner surface is reduced by the sound generated by the speaker (407, 506); wherein the microphone arrangement comprises: an array of multiple microphones, the multiple microphones being distributed over the outer surface of the shell (501, 1001), and a beamformer block (800, 900) electrically connected to the array of multiple microphones and configured to provide in connection with the array of multiple microphones, a directivity characteristic of the array of multiple microphones that includes at least one beam; characterized in that: the microphone arrangement is configured to provide an awareness mode of operation in which one or more beams are steered in different directions and to evaluate a signal-to-noise ratio of each beam; a direction in which one beam thereof having a highest signal-to-noise ratio is selected as a direction of a desired-sound source; and the active noise control filter is deactivated in the awareness mode while the one beam with the highest signal-to-noise ratio is selected as the direction of the desired-sound source. a rigid cup shell (501, 1001) having an inner surface and an outer surface, the inner surface encompassing a cavity with an opening; a microphone arrangement configured to pick up sound with at least one steerable beam directivity characteristic, and to provide a first electrical signal that represents the picked-up sound; an active noise control filter configured to provide, based on the first electrical signal, a second electrical signal; and a speaker (407, 506) disposed in the opening of the cavity and configured to generate sound from the second electrical signal; wherein the active noise control filter has a transfer characteristic that is configured so that noise that travels through the shell (501, 1001) from beyond the outer surface to beyond the inner surface is reduced by the sound generated by the speaker (407, 506); wherein the microphone arrangement comprises: an array of multiple microphones, the multiple microphones being distributed over the outer surface of the shell (501, 1001), and a beamformer block (800, 900) electrically connected to the array of multiple microphones and configured to provide in connection with the array of multiple microphones, a directivity characteristic of the array of multiple microphones that includes at least one beam; characterized in that: the microphone arrangement is configured to provide an awareness mode of operation in which one or more beams are steered in different directions and to evaluate a signal-to-noise ratio of each beam; a direction in which one beam thereof having a highest signal-to-noise ratio is selected as a direction of a desired-sound source; and the active noise control filter is deactivated in the awareness mode while the one beam with the highest signal-to-noise ratio is selected as the direction of the desired-sound source. an array of multiple microphones, the multiple microphones being distributed over the outer surface of the shell (501, 1001), and a beamformer block (800, 900) electrically connected to the array of multiple microphones and configured to provide in connection with the array of multiple microphones, a directivity characteristic of the array of multiple microphones that includes at least one beam; characterized in that: the microphone arrangement is configured to provide an awareness mode of operation in which one or more beams are steered in different directions and to evaluate a signal-to-noise ratio of each beam; a direction in which one beam thereof having a highest signal-to-noise ratio is selected as a direction of a desired-sound source; and the active noise control filter is deactivated in the awareness mode while the one beam with the highest signal-to-noise ratio is selected as the direction of the desired-sound source. the microphone arrangement is configured to provide an awareness mode of operation in which one or more beams are steered in different directions and to evaluate a signal-to-noise ratio of each beam; a direction in which one beam thereof having a highest signal-to-noise ratio is selected as a direction of a desired-sound source; and the active noise control filter is deactivated in the awareness mode while the one beam with the highest signal-to-noise ratio is selected as the direction of the desired-sound source.