What Noise-Cancelling Headphones / Earbuds Don't Have Insanely Loud Low Battery Warning?

[jdjd09]

I have AirPods Pros. They are great for most everything, but if you connect them to a Windows PC and the battery goes low, the beep is INSANELY LOUD. Like dangerously so, not just paranoid levels. Like you could literally hurt your hearing if it happens enough times in a row.

This is non issue IF you have these headphones hooked up to an iPhone or an Apple Mac. They just "happen" to have this issue when not connected to an Apple product. People have complained about this issu on Apple's website, and they don't take action. Which tells me this is being done on purpose. It probably will take a lawsuit to make it stop or get fixed.

Either way, I'm done with these headphones. I need a different pair to avoid this issue if I am ever hooked up to a PC.

Does anyone have noise-cancelling headphones / earbuds that are high quality and don't have this loud low battery notification? Price is a non issue, I am just looking for a high quality one that doesn't have this notification volume issue and is high quality.

Any suggestions? Guessing someone else has figured this out.

 

[Ace]

I have heard really good things about the Sony WH-1000XM4, but I have not tried them myself.

A friend of mine told me "I remember you saying conduction was the problem when it came to using earplugs or other headphones, but when I put these on, it's like magic. It eliminates bass and low mids completely and makes my voice sound like it's being piped in through a radio."

 

[tiniturk]

I have been told that using headphones is not advisable when suffering from tinnitus, of course this is always your own choice

Before I had tinnitus, I used the Sony XM4 headphones. Very good sound and the sound of the low battery notification (which is a female voice telling you your battery is low) was on the low side. Of course I would first try it out before buying it because it is not cheap.

 

[jdjd09]

Thanks for all of your input. When you say the volume is low for the notification, do you know how low? Did it just match the volume of things it was set to?

I can't really test out this low battery indication in the story. The headphones are always charged and I cannot sit with the headphones for six hours waiting for them to discharge and then risk getting blasted with the loud notification.

 

[Nemoriri]

I have the Sony WH-1000XM3 and I can turn off all audio notifications so I don't have this issue. And the noise cancellation is really nice. However, they can get really loud otherwise, at least connected to my iPhone. I use them on the lowest setting, but accidents can always happen and I don't think the limiter works so well, so that's a downside with them.

 

[xerpes]

Thanks for all of your input. When you say the volume is low for the notification, do you know how low? Did it just match the volume of things it was set to?

I can't really test out this low battery indication in the story. The headphones are always charged and I cannot sit with the headphones for six hours waiting for them to discharge and then risk getting blasted with the loud notification.

Based on my experience with Sony earbuds, the BATTERY LOW should be at the volume level you have set. I used them with tinnitus, and never found "BATTERY LOW" to be very loud or a problem, but I understand your concern. Don't worry!

 

[orenge01]

For me the XM4 Sony headphones I'd say was the main cause of my tinnitus because of a malfunction in the noise cancelling, and then they gave a loud feedback, like a really LOUD beep noise and my hearing was completely messed up after that. But I'd still say it was partially my fault since I had them make the noise before but that time I was far away from them, still I chose to keep using them not knowing the damage they could cause.

So just a heads up, if anyone buys them, they should be careful about that malfunction. I've read it can happen because of moisture that can get into the microphone inside the headphones and, if it happens, don't take a risk like I did, just return them if you still have warranty.

For what I understand from my research, this same issue has happened in all products in the WH1000XM lineup.

 

[Jonno02]

I have been told that using headphones is not advisable when suffering from tinnitus, of course this is always your own choice

I asked my audiologist about this as I've seen it a lot on here

Her response: a decibel is a decibel. If it's 50 dB in your ears, it doesn't matter if it's speakers or headphones.

 

[Jupiterman]

I think this one calls for @Michael Leigh.

 

[Michael Leigh]

I asked my audiologist about this as I've seen it a lot on here

Her response: a decibel is a decibel. If it's 50 dB in your ears, it doesn't matter if it's speakers or headphones.

With all due respect, your audiologist might be very good at her job but that doesn't mean she has an in-depth knowledge of tinnitus. To understand tinnitus, one has to live with it and preferably have experience of it being mild, moderate and severe, especially noise-induced tinnitus, then she will have some idea of the risks one takes using any type of headphones, even at low volume, with this condition.

Last year I was fitted with two new Bluetooth Oticon white noise generators. I was seen by two audiologists. One has tinnitus and works with tinnitus patients, offering CBT, TRT and counselling. The other one told me she has limited knowledge about tinnitus and works purely as an audiologist, performing hearing tests on patients and identifying hearing loss and other disorders within the auditory system, fitting hearing aids to patients and, when required, she has fitted white noise generators to tinnitus patients.

Michael

 

[GregCA]

Her response: a decibel is a decibel. If it's 50 dB in your ears, it doesn't matter if it's speakers or headphones.

That's what all medical professionals told me when I asked them (I asked my neurotologist, various ENT doctors, a few audiologists). It also makes sense from a pure physics perspective.

 

[ECP]

I asked my audiologist about this as I've seen it a lot on here

Her response: a decibel is a decibel. If it's 50 dB in your ears, it doesn't matter if it's speakers or headphones.

I am not an audiologist or a healthcare professional of any kind, but on a purely instinctive level, I doubt that your audiologist was right when she said that "a decibel is a decibel." My ears react very differently to sounds, depending on whether they are coming from near me or far away, and whether they are coming from speakers or headphones or a person's mouth or some other source. Pitch matters too. I tolerate low-pitched noises very well. High-pitched noises, not so well.

Different types of sounds may register at 50 decibels by the time they hit my eardrums, but every 50-decibel sound has its own unique quality. A texture, if you will. It's a bit like smelling three different perfumes or colognes, all equally strong when you smell them from an identical distance, for example six feet. But even if each of the three scents reaches your nose with the same number of olfactory "decibels," some will be pleasant to you, others will be unpleasant to you, and others will seem neutral. Significantly, it's not just a matter of personal taste that will determine your reaction to the fragrance--it's a matter of biological responses that you have zero control over. If you're the kind of person who has chemical sensitivities, you may feel physically ill if you smell a perfume that other people find perfectly tolerable, even if they are smelling the same fragrance at the same number of olfactory "decibels."

Scientists specializing in audiology still don't understand why certain sounds are triggering to people with tinnitus or hyperacusis. I recently downloaded a copy of a research paper called, "Exploring the middle ear function in patients with a cluster of symptoms including tinnitus, hyperacusis, ear fullness and/or pain," by Philippe Fournier, Dany Paleressompoullea , Marie-José Esteve Frayssec , Fabien Paolino d, Arnaud Devèze d,e , Frédéric Venailf, Arnaud Noreña. In the paper, they say that they don't know why typical kitchen sounds, such as dishes and silverware, are so painful to some people, and that this is a question that deserves more research:

"Why these sounds are considered so uncomfortable for patients with TTTS symptoms and for first time hearing aid users should be investigated further."​

Again, I'm not a credentialed expert on the subject of audiology or otology, just a sufferer or tinnitus and hyperacusis like all of you on this board, but I say that if a certain type of sound coming from a certain type of medium at a certain distance is bothersome to you, you should pay attention to that. Your subjective experience of pain is valid, and you should not let a credentialed expert sway you into thinking that the pain was all in your head.

 

[Jonno02]

That's what all medical professionals told me when I asked them (I asked my neurotologist, various ENT doctors, a few audiologists). It also makes sense from a pure physics perspective.

I agree with this.

Everybody has their own experiences and as they're the only person that can undergo them, nobody else can refute them.

That being said, from a physics perspective, a decibel is indeed a decibel. The comparison above about perfumes is null as that's a chemical interaction, not vibrations hitting your nose.

Others will disagree, which they're entitled to, but I don't agree that a 50 dB TV is any different than 50 dB through headphones. When I first developed my loud tinnitus, I stopped using headphones for months as I feared they'd make it worse. I came to the realisation that tinnitus triggered a sort of instinctive preservation in my brain that wanted to protect my hearing at all costs, and headphones felt like a bad choice as they were attached to my ears.

But slowly I realised they were no different than listening at the same volume through my phone, TV etc.

Then again, no two types of tinnitus are equal. There's a huge psychosomatic element which affects everybody differently. So it's probably up to the individual to decide if they find headphones comfortable or not, a blanket 'this is my experience so it'll be yours too' probably doesn't work.