An active noise reduction headphone (100;400) comprising: a speaker to receive a driver signal and generate sound based on the driver signal; a feedback microphone to detect sound proximate the speaker and generate a feedback audio signal; a feed-forward microphone to detect ambient sound and generate a feed-forward audio signal; a memory to store a plurality of customized profiles each tailored for a particular subject and/or subset of subjects, each profile including controller information, acoustic parameters for which the controller information is optimized, and at least one expected energy ratio between the feedback audio signal and the feed-forward audio signal and/or between the feedback audio signal and the driver signal; a noise reduction circuit coupled to the speaker and the feedback microphone; a processor coupled to the noise reduction circuit and the memory; and a profile selection routine executable by the processor and configured to: identify (606;704) acoustic characteristics of a subject wearing the ANR headphone by determining at least one actual energy ratio between the feedback audio signal and the feed-forward audio signal and/or between the feedback audio signal and the driver signal; compare the acoustic characteristics of the subject with the acoustic parameters of the plurality of profiles by comparing a difference between the expected energy ratio and the actual energy ratio with a threshold; select (810;904) a profile from the plurality of profiles based on the comparison between the acoustic characteristics of the subject with the acoustic parameters of the selected profile; and provide the controller information of the selected profile to the noise reduction circuit. a speaker to receive a driver signal and generate sound based on the driver signal; a feedback microphone to detect sound proximate the speaker and generate a feedback audio signal; a feed-forward microphone to detect ambient sound and generate a feed-forward audio signal; a memory to store a plurality of customized profiles each tailored for a particular subject and/or subset of subjects, each profile including controller information, acoustic parameters for which the controller information is optimized, and at least one expected energy ratio between the feedback audio signal and the feed-forward audio signal and/or between the feedback audio signal and the driver signal; a noise reduction circuit coupled to the speaker and the feedback microphone; a processor coupled to the noise reduction circuit and the memory; and a profile selection routine executable by the processor and configured to: identify (606;704) acoustic characteristics of a subject wearing the ANR headphone by determining at least one actual energy ratio between the feedback audio signal and the feed-forward audio signal and/or between the feedback audio signal and the driver signal; compare the acoustic characteristics of the subject with the acoustic parameters of the plurality of profiles by comparing a difference between the expected energy ratio and the actual energy ratio with a threshold; select (810;904) a profile from the plurality of profiles based on the comparison between the acoustic characteristics of the subject with the acoustic parameters of the selected profile; and provide the controller information of the selected profile to the noise reduction circuit. identify (606;704) acoustic characteristics of a subject wearing the ANR headphone by determining at least one actual energy ratio between the feedback audio signal and the feed-forward audio signal and/or between the feedback audio signal and the driver signal; compare the acoustic characteristics of the subject with the acoustic parameters of the plurality of profiles by comparing a difference between the expected energy ratio and the actual energy ratio with a threshold; select (810;904) a profile from the plurality of profiles based on the comparison between the acoustic characteristics of the subject with the acoustic parameters of the selected profile; and provide the controller information of the selected profile to the noise reduction circuit.