I have had hearing tests done and never had tinnitus before.
I also recently have got Airpods 2 for the last few months. Two weeks ago I started to get tinnitus. I thought it might be the sound canceling on the AP2 so I stopped using them. The tinnitus reduced.
AirPods causing tinnitus?
171–180 of 200 posts
Re: AirPods causing tinnitus?
#172Earlier quoted context omitted.
My ENT recommended white noise long term especially for sleeping which I’ve been using for months. Based on everything I’ve googled the last few months this is the first time I’m reading the claim that “ breakdown of the ears’ and/or brain’s noise filtering and suppression mechanisms.” so I’m a little skeptical in what you are saying. My understanding is that tinnitus is the damage to the hairs in the cochlea. Which…
I’m not a doctor and your ENT is, you should listen to them and not me. I shouldn’t have said “Prevailing theory”, that gives the wrong impression. Makes it seem like “this is what doctors think” when it’s actually just what I think. I’ll edit that. I did have a semi-automated method for causing those noise jumps, I’ll see if I can find it for you. Well, I looked, and can’t find it. It’s on a lost machine. One should…
Sounds good. I can write a script to do that. I’ll give this I try. Appreciate it. Might try to see if eqMac has AppleScript support. Hang in there. Hopefully one day hearing damage can be cured.
Re: AirPods causing tinnitus?
#173Earlier quoted context omitted.
My ENT recommended white noise long term especially for sleeping which I’ve been using for months. Based on everything I’ve googled the last few months this is the first time I’m reading the claim that “ breakdown of the ears’ and/or brain’s noise filtering and suppression mechanisms.” so I’m a little skeptical in what you are saying. My understanding is that tinnitus is the damage to the hairs in the cochlea. Which…
I've only heard or read various sources referencing the nerve / hair damage that you mention, with the audible noise being sometimes associated with the auditory system increasing its sensitivity in those frequencies in an effort to hear something from the damaged sensors.
Makes sense.
Re: AirPods causing tinnitus?
#174Earlier quoted context omitted.
I’m not a doctor and your ENT is, you should listen to them and not me. I shouldn’t have said “Prevailing theory”, that gives the wrong impression. Makes it seem like “this is what doctors think” when it’s actually just what I think. I’ll edit that. I did have a semi-automated method for causing those noise jumps, I’ll see if I can find it for you. Well, I looked, and can’t find it. It’s on a lost machine. One should…
Sounds good. I can write a script to do that. I’ll give this I try. Appreciate it. Might try to see if eqMac has AppleScript support. Hang in there. Hopefully one day hearing damage can be cured.
Thanks. It doesn’t bother me as much as my comments make it seem it does, I learned to live with it long ago. But there are people who are bothered by their tinnitus and they suffer immensely, and it’s not very empathetic to say “learn to live with it, I did”, so I don’t.
Re: AirPods causing tinnitus?
#175I 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.
I'm convinced that this is it. The DSPs and speakers aren't fast enough to instantly create a counterwave, so I guess sometimes it will amplify the external sound, even in some kind of distorted manner since even the amplification-component won't be identical to the incoming external sound.
Why would this be specific to AirPods? I've never heard of Bose-induced tinnitus, and if it were a thing you'd think it would be well known by now.
Re: AirPods causing tinnitus?
#176A popular YouTube channel recently recommended wearing Airpods with noise cancelling on the London underground because sounds routinely exceed 100 decibels sometimes. Unless my understanding is flawed but the mechanical / energy potential is still reaching your ear drums, cochlear and in turn the hair cells. How would equalising the sound with an opposite sound help reduce the damaged caused here?
Airpods Pro are not exclusively reliant on active noise cancellation to reduce noise alone-- the tips seal in your ear canal and provide passive isolation as well, similar to how earplugs or conventional IEMs (in-ear monitors) work. AirPods are not rated as earplugs and I wouldn't suggest relying on them alone to prevent hearing damage in loud environments (buy real earplugs for that), but they will provide some redu…
Is it possible that for brief moments (on the order of one oscillation, so for 10kHz it'd be on the order of 0.1ms) the noise canceling messes up and is in phase with the incoming sound, blasting your ears with double the amplitude before correcting itself? It could be for such a short time you don't consciously hear it, but it could still be enough to damage your ear.
Re: AirPods causing tinnitus?
#177I 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...
You can turn these off in the US, although not in some other countries (like Canada). Go to Settings -> Notifications, scroll down past the long list of apps, and then disable (as of this writing) AMBER Alerts, Emergency Alerts, Public Safety Alerts, and Test Alerts. That said, I live in a part of the country where the government won't be able to tell you that a horrible disaster is coming (earthquake country). If I…
But I don't want to turn it off. We got a useful warning about a nearby fire causing soot (this is in The Netherlands), allowing us to close our windows timely.
Re: AirPods causing tinnitus?
#178Earlier quoted context omitted.
Airpods Pro are not exclusively reliant on active noise cancellation to reduce noise alone-- the tips seal in your ear canal and provide passive isolation as well, similar to how earplugs or conventional IEMs (in-ear monitors) work. AirPods are not rated as earplugs and I wouldn't suggest relying on them alone to prevent hearing damage in loud environments (buy real earplugs for that), but they will provide some redu…
Is it possible that for brief moments (on the order of one oscillation, so for 10kHz it'd be on the order of 0.1ms) the noise canceling messes up and is in phase with the incoming sound, blasting your ears with double the amplitude before correcting itself? It could be for such a short time you don't consciously hear it, but it could still be enough to damage your ear.
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Re: AirPods causing tinnitus?
#179This is my biggest reservation against using (any) noise cancelling headphones. IIUC, they work by emitting the same frequency sound, a bit delayed, which cancels the sound in the targeted place - but doubles its amplitude in vicinity, because this is how waves work (feel free to correct me if I'm wrong). I can't imagine being blasted with a loud sound in the vicinity of our hearing organs is very healthy. Instead, I…
Early forms of active noise reduction did create the comb filtering effects that you describe, but these were never inaudible. Modern noise reduction is much better about this, however, and higher level products are actually used for hearing protection - this is used in headphones for fighter pilots. The problem isn't the noise cancelling as much as people turning up the volume in loud environments, since earbuds don…
> Early forms of active noise reduction did create the comb filtering effects that you describe, but these were never inaudible. Modern noise reduction is much better about this, however, and higher level products are actually used for hearing protection - ...
But surely the physics is the same, is it not? The only thing they can improve is timing and where the doubled waves go. Unless they work by using some other principle?
Re: AirPods causing tinnitus?
#180Tinnitus can be caused by so many reasons, and affected (i.e. amplified) by a plethora of other factors. Considering the scale at which AirPods are sold, I doubt they're a direct reason but might amplify something people have already had.