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by imnotreallynew 1256 days ago
Isn’t there an ongoing investigation regarding an influx of tinnitus related to the ANC feature?
5 comments

I'm not aware of any evidence of that, though for me I rarely notice my tinnitus unless I am in a quiet space. It is almost never quiet for most people in most cities, so I can understand someone noticing it for the first time while using ANC.
Not that I could find any news about. Someone did sue Apple back in May about hearing damage caused by an amber alert, but I can't see any progress on that since then -- and "someone has sued" is pretty weak evidence of anything, in the US legal system.

[1] https://www.engadget.com/apple-airpods-pro-lawsuit-amber-ale...

I haven’t heard that, but I’m curious to learn more since I use ANC a lot and would like to protect my hearing! Do you think the noice cancellation causes the tinnitus, or do people suddenly realize the ringing when the silence makes it more noticeable?
anecdotal, but I cannot use ANC while riding the NYC subway

the amount of air pressure I can feel in my ears when a train is coming into the station is definitely much larger than just letting the silicone tip do the little noice attentuation it can

the weird part is that it's not a sound I can hear, I normally have an ok range of hearing but this is just _pressure_

ANC gives me a whopping headache from the pressure, even since the early Bose days.
I can confirm anecdotally. Got ANC headphones for the first time. Developed tinnitus out of nowhere. Stopped using ANC. Tinnitus gone.

ANC might be a "huh cigarettes cause cancer, who knew" type thing.