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Comment by wyldfire | Hacker News Reader

> the ear pressure it creates is tolerable, but is an additional energy drain over long periods of time and eventually gives me headaches.

This is so noticeable to me (though I don't get headaches). Does everyone else who uses ANC headsets/earbuds not notice? Or they notice and it doesn't bother them?

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I’ve used Sony XM4s for the past year, and XM3s before that, and never noticed this. I tend to wear them for long hours, sometimes 12+ hours a day.

The worst problem I have is a bit of neck pain after waking up when sleeping with them on all night long!

That's is why I don't use mines for more than maybe one hour per week with the NC on. In fact, a few years ago there was a tone of complaints regarding a supposed noise reduction decrease set by a new version of the firmware of different brands (iirc Sony and Bose) and I wouldn't be surprised to learn it was an attempt to reduce this kind of secondary effects.

edited for correcting my English.

For the about first month this was very noticeable to me. It's been about two years since and now I don't notice it at all.

It was extremely uncomfortable to me when I first started using them. I was surprised how much and how quickly I was able to get used to it - it only took a week or so of frequent use.

I notice the pressure and exhaustion over time, but both exist somewhat with any set of headphones. Noice cancellation almost completely negates my tinnitus, so I don’t mind the trade in comfort for that temporary relief from noise.

Noise cancellation makes my tinnitus far more obvious. When the outside noises are gone it's all that's left.

oh gods. glad I've always turned it off, this sounds horrible.

I felt this very strong in multiple generations of the Sony headphones. I own Surface Headphones 2 and they don't cause such effect on my ears.

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