[elai]

Seeing how people here are raving about the RP-21s as a great "low cost" headphone, I bought a pair online. I got mine in the mail today and tried them on. They sounded decent out of the box, but after a while I got this indescribable pain/irritation that seemed to be coming from inside my eardrum area. Almost as if some inaudible sound energy that was way to loud was assaulting my ears. I've worn them several times today and the same pain buildup happened each time I've never had this happen to me before and I'm wondering what it is? Any ideas?

 

[ranz_blacker]

try back ur older headphones again.. does it still happen??

 

[elai]

No, compared to my other (cheap) headphones, I don't get this pain. I even tried wearing them after I got these ones. I tried ripping out the foam inside the RP-21s and this reduced the pain significantly, leading me to believe that this is an air pressure thing. Somehow. But now by removing the foam insert, the sound is modified and the "soundstage" feels like it's reduced. Any suggestions?? Or anyone willing to summarize the results of the equation headphones megathread??

 

[ericj]

Some people seem to have inner ears that are especially pressure sensitive. Typically, these people hate wearing any closed headphone.

Have you worn other closed circum-aurals that didn't give you this discomfort?

 

[Al Paccioli]

Perhaps an SR-80 or Goldring DR150 would suit you better.

 

[elai]

I've never really worn other closed circum-aurals before. I've used a pair of silver sonys that went on the ear. And I've had IEM headphones before too. I've never had these kind of problems before.