In one embodiment of the present invention, a central communications controller creates customized hearing experiences without unnecessarily encumbering listeners. In operation, for each listener, the central communications controller selects distracting and/or confidential sounds and generates a cancellation signal that substantially attenuates (i.e., “cancels out”) the selected sounds without corrupting remaining sounds. To selectively filter the sounds for a listener, the central communications controller leverages one or more highly directional loudspeakers to deliver the cancellation signal directly to the ears corresponding to the listener. More specifically, for a given ear, the central communications controller transmits the cancellation signal to a highly direction loudspeaker that targets the location of the ear. In this fashion, the central communications controller provides a listener-customized listening experience—selectively cancelling sounds at Identify sounds to be suppressed and generate ears—without relying on constraining sound delivery systems such as headphones, in-ear auditory devices, and the like.