How Do You Play Video Games without Hurting Ears?

I like to play with headphones, but not with my left ear ringing, and loud sounds making it worse.

I'm concerned playing with headphones might be bad.

Maybe headphones AND earplugs?

Any advice would be great.

Want to play video games to distract me from the tinnitus, but also without making it worse. Thanks <3

 

Watching video games is the visual equivalent of listening to headphones with tinnitus.
If you go over to the cross eyed sub forum, you will learn that most there became cross eyed from watching video games for too long.
Don't make matters worse. Choose botany.

 

How does that make sense. Are you talking about video games in general, or specifically people with tinnitus who play video games?

 

Hi Joshua, I recently asked a similar question in another thread and got some feedback that might help. Here it is: https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...plugs-under-the-headphones.36222/#post-460915

 

My tinnitus is the same and I'm not cross eyed. I wear Astro a50s and only use them with the volume very low. Doesn't seem to make my tinnitus spike, but you have to use them lowwww.

 

I play with headphones and keep the volume low. All my doctors told me it was ok, as long as the volume remained reasonable. If I felt any discomfort at any point, I'd obviously stop.

Ironically, using earplugs under headphones may be worse than without earplugs.

Good luck!

 

A50s are expensive and have very clean sound so they work well at low volumes and you will still be able to hear people creeping up on you.

 

What happened to living in the real world?????

 

What is the real world? Just kidding, I really just wanted to say how happy I was to see big bird. What a great show... I’m not a gamer.... so adios amigos.

 

Why don't you play without headphones? The noise would never go above 70 dB. When I play on my TV with normal volume, sometimes it sounds loud but when I check it's around 55 dB...

And in the case you use headphones to avoid annoying your girlfriend or someone else, maybe you could play in another room?

 

It just isn't done. Playing video games without headphones is like trying to swimming across a lake wearing a mink coat...or like trying a fly an airplane without a fuselage....or like mending a fence with knitting yarn.

 

As tinnitus sufferers we have determined that living in the real world is for sissy's.

 

I am talking about...if you stare at a flat screen too long your eyes will cross and if you listen to Michael, wearing headphones with tinnitus will cause your tinnitus to worsen and you will begin to speak in tongues.

Sorry to make folly of your question. I was joking of course.
There is nothing wrong to listening to music or playing video games with headphones as long as you keep the volume down. Cardinal mistake with headphone usage is cranking the volume. Eardrums can't differential sound source and btw the reason that audiophiles listen to both headphones and loud speakers. Both have a gratifying sound signature representative of the music.

Btw, I build gaming computers. Ryzen FTW.

 

Hey don't be so extreme. Some people enjoy video games without putting any sound at all. You can have fun without blasting your ears from your headphones. I am not sure to understand why it changes the experience so much anyway. Is it more immersive because it's louder? Or is it just for the quality of the sound?

 

Loudness has nothing to do with it other than loudness of any sound source isn't good for 'anybodies' ears, tinnitus or not.

It is more immersive because headphone usage is more exclusionary of other ambient sound. Of course one can play video games with remote speakers or no sound. You can also play video games at 720p or 4K and 20 FPS.

 

As usual, my joke went way over your head.

 

I still play games with my buddies. WoW, Fallout 76, Siege, etc..

I usually just keep sound reasonable and have limits to how high they can go. No issue at all for me.

 

Oh, okay, I get it, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAA awesome joke. I think I just peed a little.

 

You are weird bible thumping internet guy. Every forum has one. Law of probabilities.
Worse than tinnitus noise. Hopeless.

 

You know that you can also control volume with headphones... such that "the noise would never go above 70 dB."
There is nothing magical about headphones that prevents them from playing sounds at low volume.

In some ways, headphones with good sound isolation (such as those with noise cancellation features) allow you to lower the volume even more because your sound of interest does not need to compete with external sounds, so you can play it at even lower volume than if you were routing the sound out of your TV speakers.

 

Alright, makes sense

 

Back in our day, we spent afternoons looking for a mythical mammouth and talking to a green, hairy man living in a garbage can.. And THIS WAS NOT A VIDEO GAME! Video games cheat people out of creating their own imaginary world. No wonder movies suck these days.

 

Signed BB

 

To be competitive you need to hear footsteps and gunfire.

 

If you don't use a mic you could just use speakers on low volume.

 

This is what I do but I have to constantly mute my mic because I know the echo gets annoying.

 

There must be a mic that does that for you automatically.

 

Sorry to reply to an older thread - I was just wondering about video games without headphones. I’m playing on super low volume, no head phones but just wondered if the sounds of the shots could possibly be harmful? Have you ever had any issues with this?

 

Hi @astaff14 . I usually play on my TV. I wondered if the gunshots or explosions were actually loud, I measured with a physical db-meter and it read something like 50 dB... (I play at normal volume). I would not worry