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Bose Hearphones

hearphones.bose.com

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Re: Bose Hearphones

#381

Post by goldenkek »

nilkn wrote: post #138
boobsbr wrote: post #77

Wow, this address a major problem I have. I have decent hearing, but when I'm in a noisy environment like a bar, I can hear but can't understand what other people are saying. It's why I don't like going to bars/pubs with live performances or ambient music. People think I'm bored or brooding because I'm not talking to anyone, but I just can't understand anything anyone says, so I can't participate in a conversation.

I have the opposite problem. I can understand people fine in noisy environments, but I can't speak loudly enough for other people to understand me. The end result is pretty much the same, though. I end up not really talking to people much in super noisy environments because it's too much of a struggle for me to try to talk loudly enough.

Just grow a pair and talk louder.

Re: Bose Hearphones

#382

Post by solarmist »

randlet wrote: post #101
boobsbr wrote: post #77

Wow, this address a major problem I have. I have decent hearing, but when I'm in a noisy environment like a bar, I can hear but can't understand what other people are saying. It's why I don't like going to bars/pubs with live performances or ambient music. People think I'm bored or brooding because I'm not talking to anyone, but I just can't understand anything anyone says, so I can't participate in a conversation.

Are you sure you have decent hearing? I thought I could hear what people were saying in noisy environments, but couldn't understand anything. This was one of the major symptoms for me before I was diagnosed with moderate/severe hearing loss. It's very isolating. No problems now with a decent set of hearing aids. Have yourself tested! The quality of life improvement from a set of hearing aids is incredible! edit: I wa…

I have been tested in the past and I have very little hearing loss (other than some tinnitus), but I have trouble with the same things. If I'm in a bar or club if I'm not watching a person's lips I have trouble following the conversation.

Re: Bose Hearphones

#383

Post by webmaven »

bogomipz wrote: post #337
flatpointer23 wrote: post #301

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, that's the implication. Age-related hearing loss is called presbycusis; it's quite common. Some of it can be attributed to being exposed to loud noises throughout our lives.

That makes sense. Thanks. I wonder what thing will be like after people have had 10-15 years of daily music listening through earbuds.

Hard as it may be to believe, earbuds/earphones/in-ear headphones were not invented with the iPod, or even the MP3 player. ;-)

Today, many adults already have significant hearing loss from having regularly listened to loud music on portable players like the Walkman starting 30+ years ago. The first research on this seems to have been done in the mid-80's.

Re: Bose Hearphones

#384

Post by ghshephard »

manyxcxi wrote: post #351
NovaS1X wrote: post #346

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I so happy to know there are other people that experience this. When I try to explain to people that I can hear a CRT TV with with no sound/muted just because it's on they think I'm crazy.

I was 26 before I realized the whole world couldn't hear CRT screens.

I find that hard to believe (that the whole world can't hear CRT screens) as the capacitor or whatever it was, winds up/down - it's pretty loud. I think it's the case that there are a lot of older people that can't hear that high pitched scream, and its only younger people who can hear in that high frequency.

Re: Bose Hearphones

#385

Post by webmaven »

codazoda wrote: post #266
boobsbr wrote: post #77

Wow, this address a major problem I have. I have decent hearing, but when I'm in a noisy environment like a bar, I can hear but can't understand what other people are saying. It's why I don't like going to bars/pubs with live performances or ambient music. People think I'm bored or brooding because I'm not talking to anyone, but I just can't understand anything anyone says, so I can't participate in a conversation.

I... Uh... Doesn't everyone have this problem? Maybe this is another reason people think I'm brooding. I can only hear the people directly next to me in a noisy environment; not the people on the other end of a table for example. I typically assumed they couldn't hear me either, but now I'm wondering.

Your description marks you as about average. What GP is describing is not being able to hear/understand people that are right next to them in a noisy environment, unless someone is literally talking directly into their ear.

That said, yes, it is entirely possible that someone at the other end of the table could hear and understand you.

Re: Bose Hearphones

#386

Post by koalaman »

Isamu wrote: post #88
boobsbr wrote: post #77

Wow, this address a major problem I have. I have decent hearing, but when I'm in a noisy environment like a bar, I can hear but can't understand what other people are saying. It's why I don't like going to bars/pubs with live performances or ambient music. People think I'm bored or brooding because I'm not talking to anyone, but I just can't understand anything anyone says, so I can't participate in a conversation.

You get no sympathy from people who can hear what's going on. They simply will not understand why you are so withdrawn. Oddly enough, my wife has somewhat degraded hearing but she hears a lot better in noisy environments than I do. Must be like applying a filter to the noise, maybe she is losing the frequencies that cause confusion for me. This will be an interesting product to try out - I hope there are more in the…

It's hard to express sympathy when you can't be understood. :)

Re: Bose Hearphones

#387

Post by kriro »

I have Bose noise cancelling headphones...possibly the best purchase I have ever made since they allow me to basically turn off the environment when on a train (or plane but I commute about 1h each way daily via train so that's where they shine). My soundy friends tell me Bose sound quality is not in the upper echolon (my hearing is not fine grained enough to hear a difference so I don't really care) but the filtering is really amazing. Not surprised they improve on that and branch out a bit. I usually listen to stuff without vocals (X meets metal: https://www.youtube.com/user/331Erock) when reading as I can't concentrate if there's lyrics.

Re: Bose Hearphones

#388

Post by torrent-of-ions »

calebm wrote: post #287
AceJohnny2 wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a known condition, apparently, called "Hidden Hearing Loss" and was covered here a couple months ago: http://www.wsj.com/articles/cant-hear-in-noisy-places-its-a-... (if the direct link from here gets you to the paywall, it looks like a referral thing. Oddly going to it form Twitter worked, though Incognito and Web didn't: https://mobile.twitter.com/Jieqian_Zhang/status/780613322097... ) HN comments: https://…

When I've described this problem to people in the past, I used my own term: "deconvolution issue". My mother and grandfather apparently have it too. Cool to see it's being researched.

I think of it more as a "demultiplexing" difficulty. I can hear the sound coming from their mouth, I just can't separate it from everything else and decode the language. I know that my hearing is good, even above average, and I don't suffer from tinnitus. I used to notice that I would have to ask people to repeat things a lot, and that other people didn't seem to have the same problem. I've found that watching the speaker's lips helps to some extent.

My own theory is that nobody can, in fact, hear everything that people say in such situations. But their mind does a great deal of work filling in the gaps. Our languages are surprisingly redundant, and quite often you can pick up everything you need to know from broken audio and other input like facial expressions and gesticulation. I think that my brain is worse at filling in the gaps.

Re: Bose Hearphones

#389

Post by tim333 »

boobsbr wrote: post #77

Wow, this address a major problem I have. I have decent hearing, but when I'm in a noisy environment like a bar, I can hear but can't understand what other people are saying. It's why I don't like going to bars/pubs with live performances or ambient music. People think I'm bored or brooding because I'm not talking to anyone, but I just can't understand anything anyone says, so I can't participate in a conversation.

Possible fix:

I suffer a bit from tinnitus and as a result have taken to carrying earplugs for noisy environments. I find in addition to protecting my ears I can hear conversation better. I think basically the ears work better in the normal db range and don't function so well if overloaded. My kit, approximately:

Holder: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Large-Emergency-Cash-or-Pill-Keyri...

Wax ear plugs: http://www.boots.com/en/Boots-Muffle-Wax-Earplugs-5-Pairs-_1...

Wax is quite good because you can adjust the effect - put in loosely they don't block much, squish them down and they do. I also chop them down to fit which the packet advises against. I recommend for tinnitus avoidance if nothing else.

Re: Bose Hearphones

#390

Post by pmarreck »

boobsbr wrote: post #77

Wow, this address a major problem I have. I have decent hearing, but when I'm in a noisy environment like a bar, I can hear but can't understand what other people are saying. It's why I don't like going to bars/pubs with live performances or ambient music. People think I'm bored or brooding because I'm not talking to anyone, but I just can't understand anything anyone says, so I can't participate in a conversation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensorineural_hearing_loss
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