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Can't wear ANC headphones for long, weird feeling (alien.top)

submitted 1 year ago by PrivyPaul@alien.top to c/headphones@hi-fi.community

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Hi,

I don't know if its just my imagination or can active noise-canceling actually be felt in your ears? Like I get they cancel out soundwaves but it leaves a kind of pressure behind. After some time it stresses me out more than actual noise from traffic. Is this placebo or a real thing?

It feels like when you go on a airplane and your ears close because of the altitude switch, and I get the same reflex of trying to yawn to make it go away

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[–] c0ng0pr0@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You're experiencing ear fatigue. Your ear drums are getting exhausted from getting pummeled by the same sound frequencies for too long. Sounds are applying pressure to your ear drum, so the airplane feeling makes sense.

If you imagine the noise canceling sounds as hitting your ear drum, but not giving you any audible data to react to it can feel confusing the brain.

I did a couple of sound experiments with gamma frequencies back in 2015, and we found after like 15-20 minutes of using these low non-musical sounds there was ear fatigue, and even feelings of frustration until the sound was turned off. It wasn't too loud or anything stupid like that. Just the same frequency for too long.

If you're using ANC to block out city/life noises like many NYC airpod users I know, you should get some ear plugs from Alpine or some company that uses soft medical grade materials and have at least 10-15 decibels of sound filtering.

[–] pm_stuff_@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago

No its the lack if low frequency sounds that does it when it comes to anc. Anc removes sound by destructive interference it doesnt create extra sound that somehow fatigues your ears. It wouldnt make any sense for it to be fatigue either way since people tend to notice the effect as soon as anc is turned on not after a while.