My experience: AirPods Pro and Menieres

[DennisdeWit]

So, today my AirPods Pro came in. I have Menieres Disease for eight years already and talked with the doctor. He told me the AirPods are not too far in the hearing canal and are OK.

I have the AirPods 1 and AirPods 2nd generation. They are fine. I have absolutely no problems with them. So the Pro’s were my first ever noise cancelation in-ears.

My experiences: the sound is much better if you never owned anything like the Pro’s before. However, I have Menieres Disease and I have a lot of problems with pressure in my ears. I even have T-tubes in my eardrums. The problem is the fact your ears are sealed and noise cancelation is general.

After playing a song with some bass (Aluna George / Duke Dumont - Your Drums, Your Love), I started to feel sick and nauseous. I had to grab something in order to not fall down. I got warm and had to sleep some hours because I had a Menieres attack.

Conclusion: if you have Menieres Disease or a different vestibular disorder with your ears, don’t buy the AirPods Pro. I also checked with the Menieres group and many people have these problem with this kind of in ear speakers. I called Apple and they have let me return the AirPods Pro.

If you do want AirPods, buy the first or second generation. If you want headphones, buy the Beyer Dynamics DT770 Pro. I have them for years.

I am not here to talk bad about the AirPods Pro. I am very sure this project is great for a lot of people. It’s more to share my experience if you suffer from this condition too.

 

[turbineseaplane]

Good report -thanks for posting..

You ever use/recommend any open back headphones at home?

 

[DennisdeWit]

No, I don’t. I have used the DT 770 Pro for many years now and I have zero problems with them.

 

[TorontoSS]

Thanks for posting - it's important information. I think maybe because of the way noise cancelling works, it may not be best to purchase something that has that function? The way noise cancelling works, is that it listens to what is happening outside, and sends an opposite signal to your ears to "cancel" the signal. Therefore what you listen to isn't lack of noise, like it isn't "blocked" but rather "cancelled". If that makes sense. This process makes the little hairs in your ears move and can make you dizzy and nauseous.

I know very little about Menieres Disease but I do know that even people without it used to experience dizziness and nauseousness after using noise cancelling with some earlier models of Bose headphones (probably some do now too) because it oddly gives them motion sickness.

Glad the airpods 2 work for you. That's probably the design to stick to!

 

[raymond042668]

Hi everyone,

Today I bought the new Airpods Pro in order to test them and experience the hype of it. I’m going to start saying that after test them and analyze the different sound spectrum, I have to say that Apple did in fact a terrible job with these headphones. The sound at high volumes tends to distortion greatly with high frequencies and is lacking good deep lows.

I’m the type of person that loves to hear different types of music specially Jazz which is the type of music that usually sound experts tent to listen when they are testing new sound equipment. For years, I have rely on Bose for perfect harmonization of frequencies specially when it comes to deep sorround sounds. For some years now I’ve been using the Bose Sport Pulse which are Bluetooth ones.

Today I tested both with same songs at the same volume levels in the same room and have to say that Bose really beat the Airpods Pro by far sound wise. I do honestly understand that the Airpods Pro count with noise cancelation and it really works but when the frequencies are well harmonized you actually don’t need it.

Another plus thing with the Airpods is the battery capacity although I’m the type of person who is not constantly using earphones all day since I only use them for the gym.

I strongly suggest that before buying the Airpods you should test the Bose Sport Pulse or the new ones which are completely wireless in ear phones.

This is my two cents on the Airpods and with much respect to other people.

 

[KMarie*03]

dennisdewit: I had very similar experience. I've had Menieres for about 8 years. Even had surgery in 2012 for endolymphatic sac decompression which worked miracles. I"ve not had an issue in 8 years. Got airpod Pros two weeks ago. immediately with the noise reduction on I felt such pressure in my head, immediately got headache, and dizzy after 10 min. Tried again for about 20 min. few days later with same impact. Within days I had the worst Meniere's attack i've EVER had. Ended up in hospital for 5 days. Finally feeling human and i'm sure it was a number of factors (allergies, stress, fluid build up) but after reading your post there may be something to it. I wonder if we can use without the Noise reduction and be ok? Anyone have thoughts? Thank you for sharing Dennis! -Kim

 

[DennisdeWit]

dennisdewit: I had very similar experience. I've had Menieres for about 8 years. Even had surgery in 2012 for endolymphatic sac decompression which worked miracles. I"ve not had an issue in 8 years. Got airpod Pros two weeks ago. immediately with the noise reduction on I felt such pressure in my head, immediately got headache, and dizzy after 10 min. Tried again for about 20 min. few days later with same impact. Within days I had the worst Meniere's attack i've EVER had. Ended up in hospital for 5 days. Finally feeling human and i'm sure it was a number of factors (allergies, stress, fluid build up) but after reading your post there may be something to it. I wonder if we can use without the Noise reduction and be ok? Anyone have thoughts? Thank you for sharing Dennis! -Kim

Hi Kim,

Sorry for the slow response. You could try to put on transparency mode. Also AirPods Light without ANC are rumored, so who knows. My doctot had nothing against the form factor of the AirPods Pro. Just some studies revealed ANC seems to be the problem.