Context
Maybe they where talking about the shape some cheap in-ears have? If headphones don’t fit your ears well, they’ll start to feel uncomfortable or even hurt after a while.
No he said the sound is so cheap it hurts on high notes and bass
Cheap earphones won’t hurt your ears. Volume is the only real source of damage to your ears.
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Hyperbole? In an audio gear review? Couldn’t be!
I’m only speculating here, but it could be that ultra cheap ones increase the treble instead of using larger drivers to get more bass. Net result is that it sounds just as loud, even when half of the spectrum is missing.
Heavy bass can sound muffled and undetailed Excess treble can feel piercing, grating, fatiguing. And of course excess volume causes hearing damage. Mawp.
I like the YouTuber DankPods he straight up bought some cheap ass headphones as a joke and was blown away by the sound quality of those, and sometimes even today he puts them on the ears on the stick for comparison with other, way more expensive headphones.
I can wholeheartedly vouch for Haylou earphones
Not an expert, but I know and have heard some things. I’m going to speculate that yes, they can hurt, but not necessarily the same earbuds or headphones will hurt everyone equally, nor for the same reasons.
-the physical fit of an earbud or headphones may cause discomfort or pain. Even prolonged use of a comfortable device can become painful
-the frequency response may be poor. Human ears tend to be sensitive to around the 3khz range, too much sounds “harsh” and could hurt
-some high frequencies (like the “mosquito noise” around 20khz) can give you a headache within seconds of exposure.
-it’s possible they were exaggerating and are being an audiophile/snob
-it’s possible they have some extent of tinnitus and are more sensitive to certain frequencies (speculating a lot here, based on someone I’ve talked to who has it) that those cheap earbuds have a lot of. (similar to the 3khz thing, but specific to their ears due to damage).
Not to mention that everyone’s ears are different sizes and hearing varies from person to person.
Edit: I think it’s unlikely that “being cheap” is the only factor in determining if the device is bad for your hearing. Loud volume for prolonged periods will do more damage than anything else I mentioned.
Was he selling earphones by any chance.
No he was mocking a site like wish
Ah, yeah they do get very shit at the bottom end (£2-5). But a cheap pair, like £30 or something - those can be really good now. Something about, uh, magnets.
If you use any kind of speakers in or near your ears, they can damage your hearing if they’re used to drown out sound from the outside.
If you turn them up to overpower other external background sounds, that can be damaging to your hearing.
To avoid having to do this, you need noise cancelling, preferably active noise cancellation. This is expensive, though.
So cheap, and even average or expensive ear buds/headphones can damage your hearing.
Also, generally, something that hurts your ears can damage them.
Nah. I think old way of building in-ear headphones is still fine. The ones with the flappy silicone thing around them. It filters out a good amount of noise, too, once you stick them into your ears properly.
And be a bit cautious. If it’s that loud around you that you have to turn it up really loud and have ANC, it’s probably really really loud there. Or you listen to classical music and want to filter out everything, which is fine. But then pay attention to not get run over by a car.
And the ANC headphones I tried, didn’t filter out everything. I don’t know if this changed since, but outside sounds were muffled and distorted, but I could still hear a distorted version of the train/airplane sounds and people talking. ANC is good, but I’m sticking with much cheaper quality headphones without active noise cancelling for now. The silicone around them makes the train noises and everything already so much quieter and I don’t turn the volume up too much so I can still hear if people yell at me or a car is next to me. I think it’s a good balance but YMMV. But you definitely don’t need ANC to listen to podcasts, pop and rock music etc on the train or walking through the city.
They’re probably imagining it. Bad maybe if you turn them super loud or they’re made out of toxic plastic and you continue using them despite having an infection inside your ear or something…
I’ve had earphones for like $3.99 and while they had a really bad fit and bad audio, they didn’t do anything to me in the few weeks I used them.
It’s not the cheapness, it’s the lack of isolation. Many people buy shitty headphones that don’t isolate them from their surroundings, which means that you may need to turn up the volume to damaging levels to hear your music over the background noise.
If you use them at home to listen to music, there’s basically no risk. If you use them in a crowded place, you’re going to damage your hearing.
There are cheap earphones that do put effort into sealing off your ear. The better the seal, the lower the volume you need, the less you damage your hearing.
Note that in ear/over ear doesn’t really matter here, it’s the fact that you need to boost the volume to drown out the background noise that’s the problem. Shitty over-ears will also cause damage if abused in the same way.
Are you familiar with grammar and punctuation?
