Power consumption control of an active noise control headphone system that comprises headphones with at least one ear cup; at least one loudspeaker disposed in the at least one ear cup; at least one microphone disposed in or on the at least one ear cup that is configured to provide a microphone output signal representative of sound present in the ear cup; and at least one active noise control module that has at least two operating states and that is connected upstream of the at least one loudspeaker and downstream of the at least one microphone, wherein the microphone output signal at at least two different evaluation frequencies within the audible frequency range is evaluated to provide at least two evaluation output signals and the operating state of the at least one active noise control module is changed based on a comparison of the at least two evaluation output signals.