An adaptive noise-canceling system generates an anti-noise signal from a noise reference signal with a feed-forward filter that filters the noise reference signal to produce the anti-noise signal. The feed-forward filter has a first response controlled by a set of first coefficients. The adaptive noise-canceling system includes a measurement subsystem for measuring a characteristic of an acoustic environment of the adaptive noise-canceling system, a classifier for classifying the characteristic of the acoustic environment by analyzing an output of the measurement subsystem, and a controller that provides the set of first coefficients to the feed-forward filter in conformity with an output of the classifier. The controller may include a look-up table for providing sets of values of the first coefficients to the feed-forward filter in conformity with an indication provided from the classifier and corresponding to a classification of the characteristic of the acoustic environment of the adaptive noise-canceling system.