In-Cabin Noise Level of Wide-Body Aircraft — Airbus A380 the Quietest

[Alue]

How do you equalise pressure with foam earplugs during take off and landing?

It's never once been an issue. I suspect some air can pass through the foam earplugs, that or the space between the earplug and the eardrum just expands and contracts slightly during takeoff and landing.

I do yawn and my ears pop even with the earplugs in.

 

[Juan]

How do you equalise pressure with foam earplugs during take off and landing?

You can't. That's why you have to use earmuffs inside a plane, not earplugs.

That's why helicopter pilots use "earmuffs"... they have the radio incorporated into the "earmuff-like" headset.

 

[Taw]

That's why helicopter pilots use "earmuffs"... they have the radio incorporated into the "earmuff-like" headset.

They use earmuffs because they have active earmuffs, not passive ones. With batteries. You cannot achieve this with earplugs.

 

[RAA]

I don't use noise cancelling or any other type of headphones. Afraid of occlusion effect, plus headphones or earplugs/earmuffs don't protect against bone conducting vibrations anyhow.

Would never use earplugs myself either on the flight, and no fear of occlusion with my noise cancelling headphones - just use my work ones (Jabra Evolve 75) which are "open" rather than cupped. The noise cancelling are really good on them - don't block everything out but makes the cabin noise a lot more smoothed out/lower and comfortable.

 

[xyz]

It's never once been an issue. I suspect some air can pass through the foam earplugs, that or the space between the earplug and the eardrum just expands and contracts slightly during takeoff and landing.

I do yawn and my ears pop even with the earplugs in.

This combo of foam earplugs + noise-cancelling headphones works great for me when driving. For flying I am a bit sceptical on use of foam earplugs. But I will not fly anyhow until my hyperacusis has improved to a point where I feel confident in doing so.

 

[Alue]

This combo of foam earplugs + noise-cancelling headphones works great for me when driving. For flying I am a bit skeptical on use of foam earplugs. But I will not fly anyhow until my hyperacusis has improved to a point where I feel confident in doing so.

I have had multiple people tell me they are worried about foam earplugs during takeoff and landing, I have lost count of how many flights where I have worn them the entire time and have never had an issue equalizing my ears (except one time when I was sick and contested). If you are really worried about it, you can gently pull the earplug out for a second, yawn, then put it back in while the airplane is ascending or descending. I would just recommend pulling them out slowly.

You can't. That's why you have to use earmuffs inside a plane, not earplugs.

That's why helicopter pilots use "earmuffs"... they have the radio incorporated into the "earmuff-like" headset.

That's not true. You equalize through your Eustachian tubes, not your eardrum.

 

[Juan]

That's not true. You equalize through your Eustachian tubes, not your eardrum.

Well, I used earplugs once during the aircraft descent... I had a bit of a cold too. It was very painful. Never again..

Plus foam earplugs can wrinkle inside the ears and sometimes one does not notice that.

 

[Alue]

Well, I used earplugs once during the aircraft descent... I had a bit of a cold too. It was very painful. Never again..

Plus foam earplugs can wrinkle inside the ears and sometimes one does not notice that.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say it was more likely the cold than the earplugs.

 

[Ela Stefan]

They use earmuffs because they have active earmuffs, not passive ones. With batteries. You cannot achieve this with earplugs.

Can those earmuffs with batteries be bought somewhere?

 

[Ela Stefan]

My tinnitus is a loud buzzing, not a beep (although on some days I also have a beep).

When I drive for 5 minutes my buzzing goes crazy for a minute and then goes back to baseline.

I went to a party once with custom silicon earplugs thinking I would be ok, it made my tinnitus worse permanently. I guess the low frequency waves came in through bone conduction.

This intro to state that if anyone would have to be scared of planes it would be people with this type of buzzing tinnitus, that is made worse by loud low frequency noise like from airplane engines.

After 2.5 years of not flying because I was too scared I finally did it and it had absolutely no effect on my tinnitus.

Only thing I make sure of is to book seats in front of the engines.

How do you manage the car trips - which can be a basic need?

I have the same problem with continuous low frequency noise, though my tinnitus spikes from loud noise as well, and sometimes from everyday noise. My tinnitus has become more reactive over the last months. What changed, I needed more weekly car trips, one or two per week, 20 km each way. Now my tinnitus spikes from even normal conversation if there is some fluctuations in the voices.

Earplugs, earmuffs, noise-cancelling headset didn't help much in the car, neither separately nor together.

I really don't know how to manage this and I need to drive a car from time to time. A soundproof electrical car might help?

 

[Ben Winders]

How do you manage the car trips - which can be a basic need?

I have the same problem with continuous low frequency noise, though my tinnitus spikes from loud noise as well, and sometimes from everyday noise. My tinnitus has become more reactive over the last months. What changed, I needed more weekly car trips, one or two per week, 20 km each way. Now my tinnitus spikes from even normal conversation if there is some fluctuations in the voices.

Earplugs, earmuffs, noise-cancelling headset didn't help much in the car, neither separately nor together.

I really don't know how to manage this and I need to drive a car from time to time. A soundproof electrical car might help?

Yeah, I bought a new car specifically to have the option of more quiet rides (I researched on low cabin noise cars especially). There are also after market solutions to make the cabin even more quiet (dampening / isolating plates in the doors etc).

Yeah - forget about earmuffs and earplugs in the car if you have low frequency tinnitus. It does not work/help that way. Vibrations go straight through the bone into the ear. I'm even starting to think having earplugs on while driving even makes things worse.

Oh yeah - also: I have a hybrid now, so short trips are now running on the electric motor which is even quieter.

And - I drive slower.

 

[Ela Stefan]

Yeah, I bought a new car specifically to have the option of more quiet rides (I researched on low cabin noise cars especially). There are also after market solutions to make the cabin even more quiet (dampening / isolating plates in the doors etc).

Yeah - forget about earmuffs and earplugs in the car if you have low frequency tinnitus. It does not work/help that way. Vibrations go straight through the bone into the ear. I'm even starting to think having earplugs on while driving even makes things worse.

Oh yeah - also: I have a hybrid now, so short trips are now running on the electric motor which is even quieter.

And - I drive slower.

Yes, I felt the same with earplugs, they made my tinnitus worse in the car. But what do you do when you need to drive for, like, 2-3 hours?

I was thinking about electric cars as well, I don't know which have the quietest cabin though.

 

[SmallRonnie]

Yes, I felt the same with earplugs, they made my tinnitus worse in the car. But what do you do when you need to drive for, like, 2-3 hours?

I was thinking about electric cars as well, I don't know which have the quietest cabin though.

My tinnitus goes crazy when I drive with earmuffs on. I have a new sports car with a loud exhaust and I'm pretty sad about not being able to drive it. I will need to go electric I guess.

 

[Jeff M]

A few thoughts from someone with long-standing tinnitus who's been on well over a hundred flights around the world with tinnitus:

(1) Does my tinnitus get worse after a flight? Not noticeably, maybe for a little while because all loud noise, including plane noise, spikes my tinnitus for at least a little bit. But the tinnitus goes back to baseline before long.

(2) What about handling the flight noise in flight? I use noise-cancelling headphones. For large planes, the Bose line is excellent. For smaller plans, I find Sennheisers more effective.

(3) What about pressure? I usually don't have a problem with pressure, but there are several special earplugs out there that help with pressure quite a bit. You can find many options on Amazon or wherever. I used Travelon brand successfully.

 

[Ben Winders]

Yes, I felt the same with earplugs, they made my tinnitus worse in the car. But what do you do when you need to drive for, like, 2-3 hours?

I was thinking about electric cars as well, I don't know which have the quietest cabin though.

I just drive. No earplugs. Driving does not really spike me anymore.

 

[Ela Stefan]

I just drive. No earplugs. Driving does not really spike me anymore.

What about airplanes? No earplugs?

 

[Ben Winders]

What about airplanes? No earplugs?

Same there - no earplugs. I do however spend extra bucks to be able to have a seat in front of the engines.

First time after 2.5 years I sat on my first plane (first row on a Ryanair), custom silicone earplugs in my left pocket, foam 35 dB earplugs in the right, sweaty hands because of course you can't just open the door and get out if it's too loud: you're in for the entire ride

But then the engines started and I was like "is this it?"

Takeoff (when the engines have to do a lot of work) is a bit louder, but again, nothing that triggered a(nother) panic attack. I don't think it was too loud.

For me - this may be different for everyone - I know I've been exposed to "too loud" noise that may potentially make my tinnitus worse permanently if my tinnitus is gone for a couple of hours / days... that's never a good sign.

 

[JLH]

Same there - no earplugs. I do however spend extra bucks to be able to have a seat in front of the engines.

First time after 2.5 years I sat on my first plane (first row on a Ryanair), custom silicone earplugs in my left pocket, foam 35 dB earplugs in the right, sweaty hands because of course you can't just open the door and get out if it's too loud: you're in for the entire ride

But then the engines started and I was like "is this it?"

Takeoff (when the engines have to do a lot of work) is a bit louder, but again, nothing that triggered a(nother) panic attack. I don't think it was too loud.

For me - this may be different for everyone - I know I've been exposed to "too loud" noise that may potentially make my tinnitus worse permanently if my tinnitus is gone for a couple of hours / days... that's never a good sign.

After a long car ride or flight I notice my low frequency humming is sometimes suppressed for a day or two - do you think that means damage is being done / tinnitus will be made worse? I've been wondering that for a while now - I need to drive and fly for work so I've started wearing earplugs but not sure if that is helping.

I agree that most planes aren't actually that loud but the constant low frequency sound of the engine seems to suppress my humming tinnitus for a period of time.

 

[Ela Stefan]

After a long car ride or flight I notice my low frequency humming is sometimes suppressed for a day or two - do you think that means damage is being done / tinnitus will be made worse?

Wouldn't that be residual inhibition, same as when you do sound therapy?

 

[InNeedOfHelp]

After a long car ride or flight I notice my low frequency humming is sometimes suppressed for a day or two - do you think that means damage is being done / tinnitus will be made worse?

That sounds like residual inhibition (google it). In my non-scientific opinion it shows your tinnitus can be suppressed with sounds. This might help with any future sound treatments in the pipeline but I'm just speculating.

 

[JLH]

That sounds like residual inhibition (google it). In my non-scientific opinion it shows your tinnitus can be suppressed with sounds. This might help with any future sound treatments in the pipeline but I'm just speculating.

I don't know too much about residual inhibition but I didn't think it would explain tinnitus suppression over a period of days (I thought it was more temporary). A lot of people on this forum with low frequency tinnitus seem to have this feature where their humming noise can be suppressed after prolonged exposure to a certain type and volume of (typically low frequency) sound. I've sometimes wondered if I took a long flight or car ride at least once a week, if that would keep the humming suppressed most of the time, though that's not practical and the ear pain I sometimes experience afterwards makes me wonder if I'm actually doing damage.

Others on this forum have looked at this in more depth though. @Benjaminbb has a theory that it's a temporary threshold shift.

Any treatments in the pipeline you had in mind? I've been following the Susan Shore device trials but my concern is that it won't apply to this more unique form of tinnitus.

 

[Ben Winders]

I've been following the Susan Shore device trials but my concern is that it won't apply to this more unique form of tinnitus.

Not even Dr. De Ridder in Ghent (Belgium) knows what this type of tinnitus is, so I wouldn't dare to speak on anything Dr. Susan Shore is working on in terms of it working or not working. We don't even know if it will work on regular tinnitus. So let's keep our vision open.

That said - I'm pretty confident my humming tinnitus is a brother/sister of my high pitched tinnitus and 8000 Hz dip in my hearing diagram.

Yeah - on pretty much all occasions where my humming was gone for x hours after low frequency sound exposure such as a long car ride or loud party, my tinnitus became worse (I'm blaming the vibrations more than the actual sound).

In the beginning I could keep my humming tinnitus away all day by having my Google Home playing one of those "humming space cabin" videos on YouTube. I'm not doing that anymore now as I don't think it's beneficial to my healing, if healing is actually a thing.

Final note, and I mean this from the bottom of my heart as I don't take this topic lightly: after 2.5 years of fighting, I'm proud and happy that I did not kill myself and god, yes, there were many times I wanted to.

Keep fighting!

 

[JLH]

Not even Dr. De Ridder in Ghent (Belgium) knows what this type of tinnitus is, so I wouldn't dare to speak on anything Dr. Susan Shore is working on in terms of it working or not working. We don't even know if it will work on regular tinnitus. So let's keep our vision open.

That said - I'm pretty confident my humming tinnitus is a brother/sister of my high pitched tinnitus and 8000 Hz dip in my hearing diagram.

Yeah - on pretty much all occasions where my humming was gone for x hours after low frequency sound exposure such as a long car ride or loud party, my tinnitus became worse (I'm blaming the vibrations more than the actual sound).

In the beginning I could keep my humming tinnitus away all day by having my Google Home playing one of those "humming space cabin" videos on YouTube. I'm not doing that anymore now as I don't think it's beneficial to my healing, if healing is actually a thing.

Final note, and I mean this from the bottom of my heart as I don't take this topic lightly: after 2.5 years of fighting, I'm proud and happy that I did not kill myself and god, yes, there were many times I wanted to.

Keep fighting!

Thanks for these thoughts. Please continue to stay strong as well. How are you managing these days?

Do you avoid taking flights because of the noise and concern that it could make the humming worse?

 

[Ben Winders]

Do you avoid taking flights because of the noise and concern that it could make the humming worse?

Absolutely and categorically NO.

I did, for 2.5 years. But after I found out that taking a flight did not do anything to my tinnitus (long term at least), I'm taking flights again. I have only taken short 3 hour European flights for now, but soon Thailand. I went to the Ukrainian border to help refugees > it's things I do since I got tinnitus. I had to quit my job and I'm trying to help other people (and myself) now. I guess the only good thing to have come out of my tinnitus.

So in short: driving a car also spikes my humming for 2 minutes after I get out of the car, I don't think flying does even that. I'm still driving, I'm still flying.

Sometimes even riding a bike spikes me (caused by wind noise going into ears), so be it, let it spike, it'll come back down.

What's the alternative: sitting at home with foam insulation taped around my head? I'm still alive! I went through hell and back to get this far. I owe it to myself (and Avicii - sounds funny but I used to be a big fan and in my darkest moments I used to think about what a waste Avicii's suicide was) to ride this one out until I die of old age, not from tinnitus!

 

[Taw]

Can those earmuffs with batteries be bought somewhere?

Usually the same places where you buy the passive ones.

 

[rogerlee]

Hi, I have a couple questions about flying that I hope you experts can help.

I stopped flying after I got tinnitus and hyperacusis. I would say mine is pretty bad at times. However, I am stuck in an awful place and must make a 12 hours flight to reach a place that I should have never left.

My questions are:

1. I have both 3M Peltor earmuffs and noise-cancelling headphones. I use the earmuffs almost exclusively as they basically reduce 30 dB across most frequencies. For flights, it seems many of you are using noise-cancelling headphones? Can I ask what are the advantages of using noise-cancelling headphones over earmuffs?

2. For earplugs, I also have both foam earplugs and earplugs designed for flights. I hardly use the airplane earplugs in regular life but I think they are supposed to relieve a lot of pressure from the ears, especially during the ascent and descent parts of the flight?

3. Is there some way I can test the best combination of earmuffs/earplugs/noise-cancelling headphones before I get on the plane? I feel once I get on, it's too late to know what to do.

Thanks a lot.