Tinnitus Brought on / Made Worse by Noise Cancelling Headphones - QC35's

jason101 on 06/03/2018 - 13:34
Last edited 06/03/2018 - 13:53 by 1 other user

Hi all,

I'm lying in bed last night thinking I am getting old as my ears are ringing (tinnitus) then it occurs to me that it only happens at night time when it is quiet and immediately after I have been using my QC35's. Given there are probably thousands of Ozbargainers out there who have these or similar headphones I thought I'd put the word out and see if anyone else suffers from this annoyance which is potentially caused by the ongoing inverse pressure on the ear drum (or other component of the ear).

Googling around it appears to be a somewhat common concern/issue

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  Third_Gear on 06/03/2018 - 14:03

  I have pretty bad tinnitus in my left ear (louder than the volume of someone talking to me) and have found noise cancelling makes no difference either way. Loud noises in general seem to set it off even worst though. Do you listen at a loud volume? Have you had your hearing tested lately?

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  Cyphar on 06/03/2018 - 14:11

  +10

  It could be that it isn't made worse by the NC headphones, more like because it's cancelling out the external sound, you're actually hearing how bad your tinnitus really is.

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    PLA74 on 06/03/2018 - 14:32

    Agreed. OP notice any difference if you play around the NC level like low NC or high NC? You should be able to modify the NC level in the Bose app if you've got the headphones paired.

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      jason101 on 06/03/2018 - 14:41

      Thanks will try this

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  [Deactivated] on 06/03/2018 - 14:26

  I wear mine all day, every day and no issues.
  I've had QC25s pretty much since the day they were released, then got the 35s and updated to QC35iis recently.

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  EightImmortals on 06/03/2018 - 14:34

  +2

  I was wondering that same question a few weeks ago actually. I still can't get to a conclusion though, the tinnitus is pretty constant but I can distract myself from it with normal day to say noises but when using headphones, NC or otherwise it does seem more pronounced, as others have suggested, probably because all of the background noise has been eliminated. I am working on reducing the tinnitus as a separate project though. A year or two back I was very focussed on cutting out processed sugar and cleaning up my liver and ruing that time there was a nice prolonged period of a few months where the tinnitus went away completely, but then as bad habits snuck back in the tinnitus came back with them. It was a clue methinks. (was also a clue that the the problem wasn't caused by ear damage I guess.)

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    jason101 on 06/03/2018 - 14:45

    Thanks - makes for interesting further research

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  Ryanek on 06/03/2018 - 14:40

  +1

  Having tinnitus myself, It makes no sense buy noise cancelling head phones. I LOVE ambient noise.

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  JimmyF on 06/03/2018 - 15:32

  then it occurs to me that it only happens at night time when it is quiet and immediately after I have been using my QC35's.

  So try not using them one night and see if its better/worse.

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  idonotknowwhy on 06/03/2018 - 16:45

  Ear Plugs are the worst. If you put them in and block out pretty much ALL external sound, the ringing sounds really loud.

  I don't know why you'd want ANC with tinnitus.

  But yeah, it's most noticeable at night when there's no background noise in bed.
  Your ANC headphones wouldn't be making it any worse than other over-hear headphones.

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  brokenglish on 06/03/2018 - 20:01

  It could be your volume level was too loud or you were using headphones for a very long time.
  I used to experience ringing in ears every Sunday, I thought it was because I didnt go to church LOL

  Turned out it was because I always played CSGO every Saturday from morning till bedtime. I raised the volume to hear my enemies footsteps.

  As soon as I play less, it all went back to normal and no more ringing.
  Dont blame your headphones.
  There is a reason why human has earlobes, not just a hole that you can cover with headphones…

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  Dsquall on 12/12/2020 - 15:09

  I love DIY science/physiology but no, not how it works.