[gunwale]

So what happen is, my ear drums actually feels painful when i listen to songs at high volume.

After listening for long hours, my ears get numb and feels weird.

I think the pain has nothing to do with frequencies (not sibilant, just constant pain)

I noticed that it happens more often on earphones (not sure if it has something to do with https://www.64audio.com/technology)

I also get the same pain when i am listening to planar magnetic headphones (hifiman / audeze) at high volume.

Now the funny thing is some headphone / earphones does not cause any pain even at very high volume.

The higher volume it goes the better, sweeter and clearer the sound becomes.

for example, my ear drums were painful when i turn up the volume on shangri la but the he 1 was many times louder and yet i felt no pain at all.

I don't even feel that i am listening through my ears, the sound just appear out of no where or in my head / brain.

My ears wont get numb.

The problem is even though i dont feel the pain or numbness is it bad for my ears?

 

[Oscar-HiFi]

YES! Listening at high volumes will cause hearing damage, stop it.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/jan/26/will-headphones-damage-my-hearing

 

[ev13wt]

What you are doing is basically destroying your ears. If it hurts, and it is not physical pain from inserting earbuds, it is you brain telling you to stop.

Louder only "seems" to increase the sound quality. In reality, at level a bit above loud talking, your ears "close up" and you actually hear less. They do this to protect your hearing.


If you listen longer than one song, lets say "an evening", you really don't want to set the volume louder than "loud talking". Have someone talk loudly, then set your volume listening to one earcup only. Respond back here if that seems "loud" or "quiet" to you.


Its REALLY easy to destroy your hearing. And you will NOT notice it.

 

[ev13wt]

Maybe ear canal resonances? Play with the earphone positioning?


You need to try to describe it better. Right now it sounds like your brain is simply saying: "Stop man, this is more than enough for your ears!!!"

 

[castleofargh]

same as above.

if you feel pain, it's too late. if you feel it on a regular basis, stop listening to music so loud before you spend the rest of your regretting it.
nobody who doesn't hate you will say it's fine to listen to loud music. you can damage more than the eardrum. not all damages will create pain and not all damages will heal with rest. in short you're destroying your hearing!
I understand that "louder is better" feeling with music, but you have a very simple conscious choice to make like with eating, exercising, and everything else in life. just going to the max of what we like is almost always bad for us.

the human ear is cool up to around 60-70dB SPL. above that we have a muscle contracting the eardrum as a protection mechanism(sign that for the body, we're already pushing a little). that extra protection provides us for a time with some extra attenuation of sound. going even louder for a long period is wrong and probably damaging. see this

those are maximum recommended exposures.

 

[ev13wt]

Your ears are very sensitive and will "open up" or "close up". This takes a while. Listen to a song on the lowest volume level you can do. You can "barely" hear the music. Listen to another song at a tiiiny bit more. Feel your ears open up and try to listen "really hard". a third song now, with another very small volume increase. On your smartphone, simply listen to 3 songs on lowest or second lowest "click".


THEN listen to whatever you thought was "great" - aka full blast again.

Report back.

 

[ev13wt]

Another nice picture: This means "at your ear level". Like a lawnmower when you are RIGHT UP CLOSE to it, not " a lawnmower in the neighbors yard".

Source: https://noiselimiters.co.uk/

 

[ev13wt]

And you really need to get a hearing test done to rule out already destroyed ears.

If you already have hearing loss in the highs especially, its quite easy to listen too loud because "It only sounds right when you give it a ton of volume"

Do this test: https://www.phonak.com/us/en/online-hearing-test.html

Report back

 

[gunwale]

And you really need to get a hearing test done to rule out already destroyed ears.

If you already have hearing loss in the highs especially, its quite easy to listen too loud because "It only sounds right when you give it a ton of volume"

Do this test: https://www.phonak.com/us/en/online-hearing-test.html

Report back

thanks for the info i will try that later.

i just asked one of my friend and he told me that he had never felt any pain from his ear drums. (he listens to much higher volume than me)

so back to me.

i am someone that who has frequent ear pressure problem (https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/001064.htm)

so i am guessing when i plug an iem (not BA) into my ears, at loud volumes, the driver displaces more air and it pressurize my ear canal and that causes the pain on my ear drums? (like scuba diving theory )

the other thing that is weird is planar magnetic headphones actually has the same effect as an iem but an electrostatic headphone doesn't.

the electrostatic headphone can be so loud that it almost sounds like the music is coming from the phone's speaker and yet it wasn't really loud and i feel no pain when put it onto my ears

where else the planar magnetic headphone at high volumes, i feel pain and numbness on my ear drums and sometimes dizziness.

i think, maybe, the planar magnetic driver actually projects the sound directly into the ear while and electrostatic driver disperses sound and has no directions? (omni directional?)

 

[castleofargh]

I wouldn't jump on interpretations about the different types of drivers. each headphone you're talking about (models?) obviously has more distinct characteristics than just being planar or electrostat.

as for pressure issues, if it's more than a very occasional occurrence from sneezing, changing altitude or stuff like that, then you might want to see a doctor. in fact instead of reading us losers, I'd go see an audiologist, talk to him, get examined, maybe bring my gear to showcase how loud I listen. maybe you have pain for some benign reason like a block of earwax, maybe you're prone to some infections, maybe you need one of those operations where they put a little tube to do what the eustachian tube fails at, and maybe you did damage your eardrum... but unlike me, a professional most likely knows what he's talking about ^_^.
I wouldn't leave something as important as vision or hearing to chance.

 

[ev13wt]

thanks for the info i will try that later.

i just asked one of my friend and he told me that he had never felt any pain from his ear drums. (he listens to much higher volume than me)

so back to me.

i am someone that who has frequent ear pressure problem (https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/001064.htm)

so i am guessing when i plug an iem (not BA) into my ears, at loud volumes, the driver displaces more air and it pressurize my ear canal and that causes the pain on my ear drums? (like scuba diving theory )

the other thing that is weird is planar magnetic headphones actually has the same effect as an iem but an electrostatic headphone doesn't.

the electrostatic headphone can be so loud that it almost sounds like the music is coming from the phone's speaker and yet it wasn't really loud and i feel no pain when put it onto my ears

where else the planar magnetic headphone at high volumes, i feel pain and numbness on my ear drums and sometimes dizziness.

i think, maybe, the planar magnetic driver actually projects the sound directly into the ear while and electrostatic driver disperses sound and has no directions? (omni directional?)

You are mixing up some thing. Inserting plugs will put some pressure on your eardrum because you have a higher pressure beacuse you are compressing the air between plug and ear drum. BUT - the pressure equalization tube is between your eardrum and your inner ear. The over pressure from inserting will level out within 5 seconds.

If an elec doesn't create as much pain, what is different? It certainly is not omni directinal. Omni directional means " a sound source in some space, the source radiates waves (sound) in all directions equally. Maybe its the bass? If you have a problem with ear pressures, maybe your eardrum is already "off to one side" (like loudspeaker constantly move inwards but trying to play?) then bass, with its large movements, might try to move it "too far". That might hurt? Higher frequencies will do more damage to the inner ears little hairs at lower frequencies than bass.

As said, you really need to go get your ears checked out. Something ain't right.

 

[Sarnia]

I have a similar problem with my left ear. It feels blocked, at times a slight burning sensation and a slight ringing (tinnitus).

It happens with all headphones, but is made much worse bu IEMs and closed over-ear headphones. I listen at fairly low levels, max 75db but usually less.

I was very concerned I was damaging my hearing, so I went to an Audiologist who tested my hearing. It turned out to be, in her words, excellent.

I then went to see an ear specialist. He believes the problem is that my Eustachian tube has become blocked through irritation, which makes it impossible for my ear to equalize properly. Tomorrow he's putting a Grommet in my left eardrum, which in theory should fix it.

To the OP, if you are listening at really loud levels then you will permanently damage your hearing. You might not notice it straight away, but It'll happen. Your friend who listens louder but has no pain is very likely also destroying his hearing. You've been given some great advice above, you'll regret it later if you don't listen to it (pun intended).

 

[SilverEars]

Is there ways to find out what the loudness level coming out of your gear at different volumes? I uses in ear monitors specifically, and how do it get an idea to keep in check?

 

[castleofargh]

Is there ways to find out what the loudness level coming out of your gear at different volumes? I uses in ear monitors specifically, and how do it get an idea to keep in check?

a voltmeter a test tone and some male to male cable to measure the amplifier/DAP. ideally you'd measure with the IEM in the circuit so that the impact of the load on the output is seen. but it might not be worth the extra cabling and plug management unless you're looking for something really precise. else, even if the voltage was cut in half, that's only 6dB. what we're looking for here is a general idea of the loudness not something to 0.1dB as even the IEM specs aren't always that reliable(depends on the IEM's brand an model really). then once you have a reading of the approximate voltage rely on the sensitivity given for the IEM at 1khz to get the loudness at that frequency for a full scale signal. and then work out the other frequencies from the FR graph of the IEM if available.

a typical problem can be that your multimeter doesn't do so well with a low voltage 1khz tone. in that case you might have to try low freqs and work out the change in sensitivity from the FR graph of the IEM.

one extra thing that might be worth checking is that the a full scale test tone isn't clipped, ending up giving a wrong measurement. because I'm super lazy, I instead go with a test tone at -3 or -6dB and just add that to what I measure. in the end you should get a fairly good estimate of the maximum signal getting out of the IEM. for actual music it will usually be a little less(or a good deal less if like me you're using replay gain on pop music ^_^).

 

[gunwale]

it feels harder for me to insert my iem into my ears when there were wet like after shower.

somehow i can feel the pressure.