They already had tinnitus but it was never quiet enough for them to notice it. When you focus on other sounds it just kinda fades out.
AirPods causing tinnitus?
41–50 of 200 posts
Re: AirPods causing tinnitus?
#42There are so many variables to this it's obnoxious. What do you define as loud? Are you using them in ANC? Is it regular Airpods or Airpods Pro? Do you notice tinnitus after using ear plugs for a while? When listening to music other ways?
I have tinnitus due to ear infections when I was younger. In my subjective experience, my AirPod Pro's have not changed it in any meaningful way. I use them enough that I have two pairs of APP so I can swap when the batteries die. Now I also have added AirPod Max when I don't want the "joys" of fully in ear. Only mention that because they have similar ANC.
The challenge with tinnitus is that it's highly subjective and can vary based on a lot of things. Just take a skim of https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/tinnitus/symp... -- There are 8 "Other causes" listed, with the last one being "including diabetes, thyroid problems, migraines, anemia, and autoimmune disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis and lupus have all been associated with tinnitus."
There are certainly days when my Tinnitus is worse, to the point where I have to have sound on to keep me mentally stable. Other days when I forget I even have it.
TLDR: If you have ringing in your ears that is bothering you, see a doctor.
Re: AirPods causing tinnitus?
#43I’ve been using ANC headphones basically 24/7 for years. I enjoy the silence. I wish in the future there’s a way to do this via a brain chip or something and maybe even selectively completely filter out noise.
This is my dream too
Re: AirPods causing tinnitus?
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ummmm. ANC attenuates certain frequencies and fails to attenuate other frequencies. Which you would end up hearing anyway if you weren’t wearing the headphones. So effectively the sound power reaching your ears didn’t change for those frequencies. I have worked on ANC systems in automotive applications.
> Ummmm Serious question, because I see it so often: what are these fillers meant to achieve?
Shortcut to passive aggressiveness
Re: AirPods causing tinnitus?
#45I don't use AirPods specifically but every pair of ANC headphones I've used all exhibit that pressure that I feel but can't hear. I wish there was a way to dial down the ANC amount for less effective cancellation along with less ambient pressure.
If I really want quiet like on a plane, I'll use non-ANC earbuds with good passive isolation and put a light pair of Bose cancellation headphones with no signal over top.
Re: AirPods causing tinnitus?
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ummmm. ANC attenuates certain frequencies and fails to attenuate other frequencies. Which you would end up hearing anyway if you weren’t wearing the headphones. So effectively the sound power reaching your ears didn’t change for those frequencies. I have worked on ANC systems in automotive applications.
> Ummmm Serious question, because I see it so often: what are these fillers meant to achieve?
Replication of speech habits into text.
In this case, it signifies skepticism.
Re: AirPods causing tinnitus?
#47Listening to loud stuff directly piped into your ear certainly seems like a good way to get tinnitus...
You just described all hearing
Re: AirPods causing tinnitus?
#48I wonder if it's the noise cancellation causing problems. I definitely hear a high-pitched noise from the noise cancellation feature and rarely use it at all specifically because of that, except very infrequently like on planes. Maybe the high frequency noise is damaging the ear drums at high frequencies? But I can definitely say I do not have tinnitus despite wearing AirPod Maxes quite often.
Ummmm. ANC attenuates certain frequencies and fails to attenuate other frequencies. Which you would end up hearing anyway if you weren’t wearing the headphones. So effectively the sound power reaching your ears didn’t change for those frequencies. I have worked on ANC systems in automotive applications.
theoretically. it's never going to match the input exactly though and therefore it will generate noise of its own. it's conceivable that there would be less variation in this noise, due to quantized nature of the system that synthesizes the cancellation, and that a fixed synthesized signal for long durations could exhaust parts of the cochlea that are used to the high variability of natural sounds and/or trigger an adaptation in auditory cortex.
or the software is bad or the anc mic fails, and it generates a high pitched whine that causes short term tinnitus.
just spitballing because it's fun. would be interesting to analyze the frequency responses to benchtop and realistic scenarios for anc in modern earbuds.
also would be interesting to understand the psychophysical response to those behaviors!
Re: AirPods causing tinnitus?
#49I have pretty much stopped using my AirPods (and mostly headphones connected to the iPhone) after reading that emergency alerts can cause hearing damage:
https://old.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/c8s6yi/eardrums_dest...
https://www.vice.com/en/article/n7naqg/apple-airpods-hearing...
Re: AirPods causing tinnitus?
#50This is very interesting. I've noticed my tinnitus has seemed to be worse as of late. I exclusively use AirPods Pro. I wouldn't say I listen to loud music, but I'm wondering if the noise cancellation could have something to do with it...
I have had tinnitus for years, and have never felt comfortable with noise cancelling headphones. Purely anecdotal, of course, and even regular headphones are uncomfortable after awhile, but active noise cancellation is unbearable for me