[Trihexagonal]

I saw some on ebay and was going to ask if anyone used or had tried Bone Conduction Headphones but thought the sound quality must e sub-par. And rather than arouse the auditory anger of annoyed Audiophiles Googled it myself to save my asking.

However, turns out the properties of the noise cancelling sound could help people with Tinnitus find temporary relief. That science studies say earbuds cause deafness, and searched more sciencey statistical stuff than you could shake a slide-rule at.

That is about as much as I can manage writing and will provide some links in hopes of gaining enlightenment from those eager to enlighten everyone else.

I've had Tinnitus since 1987 and have learned to live with it, but my heart goes out to those who suffer from it and am always on the watch for news of a cure of some new treatment.

I've got some cheap Vivitar wireless Bluetooth earbuds I wear outside. They are good enough for my Tinnitus, have red and blue flashing lights like a squad car so I light up like The Man From Mars in the darkness and are more fun than the blinking red LED sunglasses Blondie and her band wore in Rapture allow.

Vanna, let's see those Art Link Letters and leave them alone:

https://audiocardio.com/tinnitus/3-types-of-headphones-for-tinnitus/

https://asiustechnologies.com/pages/technology

 

[blaked]

I'm intrigued but confused about what they're claiming. This "second eardrum" they mention seems like it would simply be attenuating the amplitude of the sound waves, possibly unequally across the audible spectrum. Wouldn't that be something that could also be accomplished with volume limiting and EQ? Or am I mixing up amplitude and pressure? I thought they were correlated.

This may be my ignorance talking, but I'm also confused about why they bring up noise canceling headphones. My understanding of active noise cancelation is that a sound is generated by the headphones 180 degrees out of phase from the detected nuisance sound. How does one do that for tinnitus when most forms are effectively neurological rather than otological? Does a sound purely heard in the brain have a "phase"?

I'm fortunate that my tinnitus is usually pretty quiet and easily masked with music, but I do worry that someday it might be different, so any time something like this is mentioned, it's likely to get my attention. But I would need to see/hear more about it and see what kinds of data they've reported, especially when dealing with anything medical/hearing health related. As it stands now, I'm skeptical.

 

[bigshot]

This is just a guess, but could the tinnitus be filling in the gaps when there is no sound and dial back when there is? That way, the "invisible" out of phase sound in noise cancelling headphones might count as sound and cause the tinnitus to dial back, even though the sound of noise cancelling isn't heard. Like I say, that is just a guess of a theory why noise cancelling might help tinnitus. (I'm not a doctor.)

 

[blaked]

This is just a guess, but could the tinnitus be filling in the gaps when there is no sound and dial back when there is? That way, the "invisible" out of phase sound in noise cancelling headphones might count as sound and cause the tinnitus to dial back, even though the sound of noise cancelling isn't heard.

But isn't the reason the noise canceling sound isn't heard due to the fact that there's a sound to cancel? If you play two copies of the same tone simultaneously with one of them 180 degrees out of phase from the other, they should cancel out. If you're only playing one of them, you would still hear the tone, regardless of which you played.

 

[bigshot]

Could the proximity of the sound source to the ear have something to do with that? The ambient sound might not switch off the tinnitus, but the cancellation sound right next to the ear might, even though it can't be heard. Like I say, just a guess assuming that lack of sound triggers tinnitus and noise cancellation helps.

 

[Steve999]

I saw some on ebay and was going to ask if anyone used or had tried Bone Conduction Headphones but thought the sound quality must e sub-par. And rather than arouse the auditory anger of annoyed Audiophiles Googled it myself to save my asking.

However, turns out the properties of the noise cancelling sound could help people with Tinnitus find temporary relief. That science studies say earbuds cause deafness, and searched more sciencey statistical stuff than you could shake a slide-rule at.

That is about as much as I can manage writing and will provide some links in hopes of gaining enlightenment from those eager to enlighten everyone else.

I've had Tinnitus since 1987 and have learned to live with it, but my heart goes out to those who suffer from it and am always on the watch for news of a cure of some new treatment.

I've got some cheap Vivitar wireless Bluetooth earbuds I wear outside. They are good enough for my Tinnitus, have red and blue flashing lights like a squad car so I light up like The Man From Mars in the darkness and are more fun than the blinking red LED sunglasses Blondie and her band wore in Rapture allow.

Vanna, let's see those Art Link Letters and leave them alone:

https://audiocardio.com/tinnitus/3-types-of-headphones-for-tinnitus/

https://asiustechnologies.com/pages/technology

As it so happens I was given a pair of shokz openrun pro headphones for Christmas, for kind of the opposite of noise reduction headphones reasons—you still hear stuff around you if you are working out or something.

I was and am extremely surprised how much I enjoy them. They are definitely the most comfortable headphones I have ever worn and I would put the sound quality at somewhere between mid-fi and hi-fi but in a very good way. The model I received is the higher end and newer model and they’ve managed to get more and better bass than previous iterations, from what I read. It really is kind of cool continuing to hear your environment naturally while you are wearing headphones. In a way it feels more natural to me that way. Great for working out or staying part of things around you while you are listening to tunes, IMHO.

The idea of measuring the sound quality of them seems mind-boggling to impossible to me, since it’s in some significant part traveling from bone to middle ear to nerves, but they sound pretty full range to me, maybe a little thin in the lower mids / upper bass. Very enjoyable to me though. I find them to be on the highly enjoyable end of the mid-fi spectrum.

I have what I would call mild intermittent tinnitus, I would say the idea that these headphones will make your tinnitus stand out a little less than other headphones seems plausible, because you have the environmental sounds going in through your ear holes unimpeded, so the tinnitus is not sort of sealed off from natural outside noise.

 

[blaked]

The ambient sound might not switch off the tinnitus, but the cancellation sound right next to the ear might, even though it can't be heard.

So if I'm following you correctly, you're suggesting playing a tone through speakers at the tinnitus frequency, then using ANC to cancel that tone through headphones to see if it relieves the tinnitus, yes? Assuming the ANC was working 100%, I would hypothesize that the tinnitus would still be heard but not the outside tone. But it could be interesting to try. That said, I'd be hesitant to do it without understanding things a bit better. If my hypothesis in another thread is correct and emphasizing frequencies close to the tinnitus frequency aggravates the condition, the result might be unpleasant (though probably only temporarily).

 

[bigshot]

No, not at the tinnitus frequency. I don't know how you'd determine that, and as you say, it is nerve sound, not physical sound. I'm wondering aloud if physical sound that can't be heard (i.e. the cancellation signal) might switch off the tinnitus, since tinnitus isn't as much of a problem when sound masks it.

 

[blaked]

Well, there is no cancelation sound without something to cancel. Then it would just be a tone, and the phase would be irrelevant.

As for determining the tinnitus frequency, you can do that with a reasonable degree of precision with a tone generator and simple matching. Mine hovers around 3800 Hz or so in both ears.

 

[bigshot]

I don’t think physical sound will noise cancel nerve sound, but since you know the frequency, you could try it.

 

[blaked]

I don't think so, either. That's what I was getting at in my first post above (second paragraph). I don't see how a sound has a "phase" if it's a neurological symptom rather than an otological one, so I don't see why the articles even bring up active noise cancelation.

 

[Trihexagonal]

So if I'm following you correctly, you're suggesting playing a tone through speakers at the tinnitus frequency, then using ANC to cancel that tone through headphones to see if it relieves the tinnitus, yes? Assuming the ANC was working 100%, I would hypothesize that the tinnitus would still be heard but not the outside tone. But it could be interesting to try. That said, I'd be hesitant to do it without understanding things a bit better. If my hypothesis in another thread is correct and emphasizing frequencies close to the tinnitus frequency aggravates the condition, the result might be unpleasant (though probably only temporarily).

I believe they've got Android apps that do exactly that. If I didn't mention it before it was because I got sidetracked and forgot about it.


I bought 3 pair of Radioshack/Optimus Pro 25 Titanium headphones over the past few days. They had the best sound of any headphones I'd heard back in the 90's, really enjoyed listening to them and had a few pair, eventually wearing out the foam cushions and replacing the whole thing.

Koss bought them out and I've been listening to the Koss KTXPRO1 Titanium diaphragm lightweight headphones that replaced them since then, but they were high when I looked recently and after looking found 2 new NOS and 1 slightly used pair of Pro 25 for my Christmas presents.

It was a long, hot Summer and I'm doing good to be alive, but only the strong survive and that gave me some solace I still deserve to be alive. So I was good to myself. Tinnitus be damned.

 

[ALRAINBOW]

i have this condition as well , it is low and louder , many things effect it . diet is key . low salt and caffine . what we eat the day before has an effect on what we wake to as well .
i think and low level sounds muisc or anything distracts us . so far i ahve tried may bone cond headphones . best audio so far is the bonetime . shokz is bad on sound quality .