Is there an audiologist in the house? Earbuds and headphones problems

Post date: 2020-08-09 05:35:58

I work in an office and like to listen to podcasts and occasionally music and both earbuds and headphones hurt my ears over time. Not sure what to do.

I like to listen to mostly podcasts and occasionally music at work about half the time on & off usually at the lowest volume. I noticed the earbuds that came with my old iphone bothered my ears so got some bose wired earbuds but still had problems. Got some apple airbuds, same problem. It feels like theres pressure in my ear canal and after an hour or so the inside of my ears hurt. I became concerned about hearing damage-even if its the lowest volume, if my ear canal is sore that worries me. So I got headphones, small ones that are little discs that don't sit inside the ear. I'm the receptionist so I can't wear big bulky over the head style headphones. Earbuds and small disc headphones are unobtrusive under my longish hair. I wish the airpods didn't bother me because they have such nice user friendly features like tap on and off etc.

I really liked the headphones at first. There was a massive reduction in the feeling of pressure and I thought okay great, problem solved. Then covid hit and I was sent home for the summer and didn't use them at all. Am back in the office this week and loaded some podcasts and went to work while enjoying my podcasts. By Friday my ears were getting sore again. I'm not feeling the pressure sensation but my ears definitely hurt. I don't want to hurt my hearing! I wear foam earplugs at concerts or sporting events, in fact I always carry them and use them if am in a loud place. I worked in a factory in my 20's (am 53 now) and I was careful even then to use hearing protection. In my teens I was dumb and would have ringing ears the day after concerts but not too often. I wised up hopefully in time to prevent serious damage. I don't have problems hearing speech or in everyday life.

So now I'm back trolling the web for a solution and am eyeing jawbone headphones but am leery. I've had problems with both cheap and spendy listening tools and and am several hundred dollars deep and ready to buy more damn headphones but worried they'll sit in a drawer with the others.

Okay enough of my headphone saga and on to my questions.

Do some people just have sensitive hearing? I'm really not bothered by most sound in life except earbuds/headphones.

Is it possible its just the pressure bothering me or am I damaging my hearing? I'm not noticing ill effects after use like I've been to a concert or similar w/o protection. Soon after removing them I'm fine.

Can others hear the bone style headphones? My boss is approx 20 ft away and its a pretty quiet office, nobody listens to music or talk radio w/o earbuds plus I like political podcasts and we're a divided office in that respect, I don't want to add fuel to that particular fire.

Should I just give up on listening at work and load ocean sounds or some unobtrusive stuff so I have some sounds to enjoy for part of the day? I think I could play that on the phone over air for part of the day w/o bothering others, volume can be low but I don't have to strain to hear words so its fine if its quiet. Lastly I really want something wireless, the disc headphones I have are wired and I'm a tangled mess with my mask ear elastic. They were a cheap pair-maybe quality is low and a better pair wouldn't have the same result?

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