Live data from Hacker News

New earplugs won't amplify the sound of your own voice

scientificamerican.com

11–20 of 33 posts

Re: New earplugs won't amplify the sound of your own voice

#11
post #2

I need earplugs that won't amplify my tinnitus. Or, better yet, cancel it.

unfortunately masking peripheral stimuli won’t necessarily do much for reducing central percepts of non-peripheral stimuli. Tinnitus isn’t a sound, exactly…

All I know is that there are some sounds that help my tinnitus and other sounds that trigger it. If I could have something that filters the triggering frequencies and also sends out the masking frequencies, maybe it would help? I don't know.

Re: New earplugs won't amplify the sound of your own voice

#13
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like that is what these will do for me, if they work as promised. When I sing in choir(etc), I can't wear regular earplugs, because my own voice triggers my tinnitus.

Why would you want to wear earplugs while singing?

Performing music is very loud and will result in hearing damage over time, which is not something you want if you like music.

Professional musicians nowadays tend to wear IEMs (In Ear Monitors), which are earplugs that drastically cut sound level but have an earbud driver that pipes in audio from the mixing board at a safer volume. This also offers better clarity, the ability for individual band members to hear themselves play better, and the possibility of a click track.

Despite the general public's lack of awareness of hearing safety, it's not really recommended that you even attend concerts without hearing protection (concert earbuds such as those from Etymotic Research) to attenuate the volume to safe levels, as venues are pushing 90-100db.

Re: New earplugs won't amplify the sound of your own voice

#14
post #2

I need earplugs that won't amplify my tinnitus. Or, better yet, cancel it.

unfortunately masking peripheral stimuli won’t necessarily do much for reducing central percepts of non-peripheral stimuli. Tinnitus isn’t a sound, exactly…

While tinnitus ringing isn't a result of vibrations activating the hair cells in the cochlea, the hair cells are still the reason the ringing occurs. If I recall correctly, it is still possible to exhaust these ringing-inducing hair cells to gain temporary relief. I wonder if you could somehow mask in a constant ringing that would exhaust these specific hair cells at some frequency for extended relief?

Re: New earplugs won't amplify the sound of your own voice

#17
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

unfortunately masking peripheral stimuli won’t necessarily do much for reducing central percepts of non-peripheral stimuli. Tinnitus isn’t a sound, exactly…

While tinnitus ringing isn't a result of vibrations activating the hair cells in the cochlea, the hair cells are still the reason the ringing occurs. If I recall correctly, it is still possible to exhaust these ringing-inducing hair cells to gain temporary relief. I wonder if you could somehow mask in a constant ringing that would exhaust these specific hair cells at some frequency for extended relief?

We've discovered that people can still experience tinnitus if their cochlear nerve is severed for whatever reason. There's a lot of causes- personally I think they all lead to neurons in the auditory processing part of your brain going wee-woo, sort of a localized epilepsy.

Re: New earplugs won't amplify the sound of your own voice

#18
post #16

This is actually what I enjoy most of my Sony ANC headphones and this is what makes them so much better for noise reduction compared to simple earmuffs: they also cancel your own sounds.

I have two Sonys and never noticed that. Do you hear a difference when comparing to Bose or Apple ANC?

My impression is that all earbuds I’ve tried suffer from the occlusion effect equally.

Re: New earplugs won't amplify the sound of your own voice

#20
post #16

This is actually what I enjoy most of my Sony ANC headphones and this is what makes them so much better for noise reduction compared to simple earmuffs: they also cancel your own sounds.

I have two Sonys and never noticed that. Do you hear a difference when comparing to Bose or Apple ANC? My impression is that all earbuds I’ve tried suffer from the occlusion effect equally.

Sorry, I'm not talking earbuds but closed headphones. I have the WH-1000XM5, and I immediately notice that I hear my own voice/noise way more as soon as I turn them off.
Post reply on HN