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Why do headphones ruin my ears but earphones don't?

Posted , 2 users are following.

GodDamnit
GodDamnit

Hello,

I've had light tinnitus in my left ear for several years now. I listen to music around 12 hours a day.

The thing is, my tinnitus doesn't get any worse when I use earphones, but it does get worse and also my ear hurts after a while when I use headphones (noise cancellation on/off doesn't matter). If I lift the headphones just for a second then my ear immediately feels better. It's as if when the headphones are on then some pressure is pushing "the damaged part of the ear". If I stop using the headphones then after several days my tinnitus will return to its former, lighter state.

I was wondering if someone could explain this to me. I want to produce music and really need to be able to use headphones for more than 1 hour a day. Maybe there is something specific in headphones, like this certain pressure on the ear?

Thanks

0 likes, 2 replies

2 Replies

  • martin31040
    martin31040 GodDamnit

    Posted

    Any noise over 85 decibels risks ear damage, sorry to say, my advice if your suffering tinnitus don't use any type of headphones and avoid any noise above 70 decibels including music, I know this isn't helpful, but things can always get worse.

    • GodDamnit
      GodDamnit martin31040

      Posted

      Thanks for the reply. I certainly won't use headphones again, I'm only hoping to find alternatives. Although now that I look at it, I don't think anybody could answer my question except a doctor + music engineer combined...

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