I Can’t Hear You
And I don’t want to.
I’m quite sensitive to unpleasant sounds and I will do my best to avoid them. Chewing noices, especially cruncy ones, the vacuum and hair drier for example make me basically want to stab the person inflicting those sounds into my delicate ear canals. Hearing certain sounds, especially suddenly and isolated from background noice feels the same as hitting my funny bone on to something.
Apparently most humans are unbothered by such sounds and don’t have to actively plan their life in a way that they can avoid those sounds and in turn not be sentenced to life in prison for murdering someone for chewing.
Aaaanyways, long story long; I have headphones on a lot of the time.
I don’t like the big ones because those hurn my ears, especially when wearing glasses, and they don’t suit my style. My favourites for three years strong have been the basic Airpods because they just fit my ears well, have long battery life, fast charging and are discreet. Do note that I am no audiophile, and most of the time I’m listening to either a book or a true crime podcast.
I am one of those rare individuals who has managed to keep the same pair of Airpods and their case for years already, and I’ve been very happy with them. The only thing I felt I was missing at times was active noice cancelling ability and while Apple released their Airpod Pros a couple years back, I was happy enough with my original pair.
Quite recently I started working part time at a very noisy environment where you really should wear some ear protection. The proper ear muffs are very uncomfortable so I’ve been just wearing my Airpods which makes the days go nice but are just an added noise on top of everything else. Not very healthy for the hearing.
So I finally bit the bullet and got me the Airpod Pros to wear at work. It’s not perfect but I think they’ll protect my hearing enough and I’ll still be able to listen to books while I do the same exact thing 200 times in a day.
I only got them new little sound machines yesterday so haven’t gotten a chance to fully test them in a work environment. My ears are really small so from the few hours I’ve been wearing them around the house I can feel the pressure on my tragus. Most people say after I while they can’t feel them at all but I can only hope my body adjust to the new technology and accepts it like a good cyborg.
What I can say from the sound quality is that it’s pretty much the same as in the original Airpods, but with added benefits. Obviously thrusting something pretty much inside the ear canal you already get some sound proofing, but the difference is huge when you turn on the noise cancellation. It made my vacuuming day a lot less irritable for sure. The transparency mode will probably become really handy at work when I have to talk to someone and can just press the stem to hear throug better. I say ”huh, come again?” hundred times a day because if I’m not actively listening, I won’t understand you even if I hear you. Transparency mode might help with that a bit because it sounds like it enhances sounds from outside, though I am not a fan of hearing my own voice.
I’ll still be wearing the original Airpods in conjunction with the new Pro’s so my ears can have a rest when I don’t actually have to block out sounds from outside. I also go to sleep with one Airpod on most of the time so the OGs are definitely better for that.
I also have the problem with certain sounds. I thought I was just insane until I read about Misophonia.
I can never be around people who are eating, and barking dogs are the bane of my existence. With some people, it's literally every sound they make. Those people tend to be disgusting pigs though...
Headphones and isolation are the only things I have ever found that help. It did make me feel better when I heard that this 'neurological condition' has a name, and I am not the only one who is like this.
It's also funny that hair dryers and vacuum cleaners have that effect on you. I actually use vacuum cleaner videos on YouTube to drown out barking dogs and snoring!
Misophonia is a strange thing.
Ah yes indeed the condition we are suffering from does have a name, misophonia. Have you noticed the unpleasant sounds are easier to tolerate if you are making the sound yourself too? I find I can just about eat in company without stabbing the other person with a fork but if I’m not eating myself we are in dangerous water. The condition is also greatly heightened if I’m tired.
My partner has a dog so I now live with a dog and while she was adjusting to the new house, I nearly lost my mind when it kept barking at night and she has a very high bark. I can tolerate the barking outside at daytime because it’s muffled enough to soften it.
It would be interesting to know if we could somehow determine the exact range of noises that hit the spot.
My sister is the same with me, brother and dad sometimes too. Mom is totally clueless and thinks that we are all probably cray cray for getting so extremely irritated by sounds.
It would be interesting to see the range of noises.
I would also like to see the palms of people with misophonia. It really should show up on the hand somewhere.
I’ll gladly be a test subject if you decide to start a research project on the matter 😁
I'm the same but opposite.
I find that I can't make out voices when there is a lot of background noise, so I end up spending most of the conversation trying to read lips or saying "huh, come again?"
But, I can't stand having anything in my ears, so I wear around the ear, noise cancelling headphones (BOSE QC35's in the office and 3M "WorkTunes" in the shop).
If you do a Google search for. "Custom molded in-ear monitors", you should get hits on companies that will create custom moulds for your ears. Musicians use them all the time when performing. On stage, they are usually surrounded by 120dB speakers/monitors and need to hear themselves as well as the band in order to perform. As such, the in-ear monitor all have rated noise reduction.
Here's one exmample. https://pro.ultimateears.com/. But I'm sure if you search, you can find some in Finland - maybe not the far North though.
Oh for sure it’s harder to understand someone speaking if there is background noise.
How fantastic is it that we can have a conversation online and not have to ask someone to repeat themselves over and over!? Maybe that is partly the reason I’ve always felt at home in social media.
So many problems can be solved with money 😁 I’m not that anal about my hearing devices that’d I’d need custom order some, and I especially don’t want to hear myself 😝
Same here. For me it's people talking on the train. There's always just one person shouting into a cell phone, or some chatty office worker who wants to spend the entire hour unloading office politics on the person next to her.
Or worse, someone watching a television program on a tablet without wearing headphones.
And once I hear it, I can't think about anything except for what they're saying and how much I want to murder them.
Fortunately I found a decent pair of $20 earbuds. They've lasted a year and work well enough, and they'll be cheap to replace when they fail. I use a white noise generator app called "My Noise" to drown out the background. It's kind of strange but I just don't feel the need to listen to music or podcasts anymore; I just want an hour of silence!
Glad to hear the new job is working out!
Ugh that is the worst! Especially if it’s a long journey and there is no way to escape the sounds. It should be forbitten to have phone calls other than ”yes my train is there in five” or have any sounds on on your mobile device without having headphones on in public transportation.
I think someone playing a game or watching tiktoks is the worst because the sounds vary and are unexpected so they push through your own headphones too pretty easily.