Teams Meetings & Headphones — How to Avoid Making Tinnitus and Hyperacusis Worse?

Comrades,

For my job which involves a lot of Teams meetings and a lot of talking and listening, I have been trying to get away by not putting my earphones on my ears and only speaking through the microphone. Now this has some people complaining about echoes, which means I have to ask them to buy me a proper headphone;

Would you suggest using headphones (good quality noise-cancelling ones, etc.) for this case? If yes, then which headphones do not create tinnitus spikes and worsen hyperacusis?

I would be very happy to hear your suggestions.

Regards,
Fay

 

Hiya,

I’ve also been doing a lot of Teams calls since last March and I’ve been finding the Jabra Evolve 75 headphones very good. They are Bluetooth so you can keep them on while you’re walking around the house and they have noise cancelling but they sit on the ear rather than completely cupping and covering the ear. The mic is very good and if you flip the mic up it automatically mutes you on Teams. They are a little pricey but I got a 2nd hand pair on eBay for about half of the brand new price on Amazon.

Alternatively one of my colleagues who doesn’t like headphones has bought an external mic that he plugs into the laptop and his audio sounds fine, although I’m not sure which mic it is I’m afraid.

 

Are you working in the office or from home? If the latter, I'd try to use a speaker setup with a desk microphone. I've used that a lot and it has worked rather well. I've rarely had any complaints of echos and I believe Teams try to filter it out.

This is impossible to know because everyone's threshold is different. I have colleagues who has tinnitus and have used headsets for calls for years without it worsening. You'll have to test the waters and see what works for you. If you can mitigate headphone use in any way, then that would of course be best, but I understand that it's not possible in all circumstances.

Good luck,
Stacken

 

Is there a way to listen to speakers and talk by headphones?

That could be a solution... if it is possible.

 

You have noise induced tinnitus with hyperacusis. Using any type of headphones even at low volume you risk making both of these conditions worse. Some people with noise induced tinnitus are not affected by using headphones but many are.

Think very carefully about what I have said. If your tinnitus spikes or increases because of headphone or headset use, it may not reduce to its previous baseline level. Type headphones into the search box at the top of this page and read members' posts, who have used headphones and regretted it. Sorry to sound so sobering but just wanted to make you aware, of the risks involved when a person with noise induced tinnitus uses headphones, headset or earbuds even at low volume.

All the best,
Michael

 

Your standard laptop microphones suck. Get a conference microphone. You can get one on Amazon for < $30. Since my tinnitus started that's all I've been using with no complaints. Better safe than sorry in the beginning.

 

Stay away from headphones. Use a quality speaker with mic incorporated. Sometimes, I also keep the volume at minimum and kindly ask the host to enable closed captions. It's not perfect, but it works.

 

Thanks everyone for your responses. I really hope they do accept me not using headphones.

Does anyone have any suggestions on a microphone + speaker option?

 

I have tried this and there were complaints...

 

I totally agree with you! I remember I had a very low tinnitus, and by wearing headphones it became louder. Let’s just hope they agree to a speaker and microphone option.

 

I hope the speaker and microphone option works for you @Pharz, because tinnitus is not something to mess about with but know it's not your fault.

Best of luck and take care,
Michael

 

I would look into maybe getting a cardioid microphone. It might help cut down on a lot of echoing/ambient noise. That way you can be heard clearly without resorting to a headset.

 

That also looks very cool

 

Go to a very quiet place and use the headphones at the lowest possible volume you can hear and it won't damage your ears.

 

You can try noise cancelling headphones: the ANC will allow you to keep the volume low on your end, and your peers won't get any echo. If you're not in a noisy environment, you can try regular headphones, as long as you keep the volume down.

Talk to a few doctors if you have doubts about using headphones in that way. You're not asking to blast heavy metal down your ossicles.

Good luck!

 

I disagree, I read that some people got bad setbacks from listening to even low volume. I cannot bare any headphone even at lowest volume, either.

@Pharz, a cheap and good solution is Tribit MaxSound Plus. If you can afford, buy Bang & Olufsen BeoSound A1.

 

I use this which is from a Danish company here:

https://www.amazon.com/Jabra-Wireless-Bluetooth-Speaker-Softphone/dp/B071CGH8YF

It is pretty expensive but my employer brought them cheaper for us, and even though my tinnitus is so much better than last year I still prefer to use this than having headphones on all the time. The quality is really good especially on Teams where settings help mute out any background sounds other than you talking. It Is basically made for Teams.

 

Thanks for the suggestions!

 

Perfect, I noticed Jabra is very popular so it should be good.

 

I would try a pair of inexpensive over-the-ear headphones, not the closed-back type, not directly on your ears - but turned loud enough to be able to hear them from an inch or two away. This is not the best way to listen to music or the best looking way to use headphones, but it's fine for speaking voices and will probably be safe.

 

These kind of headphones do not irritate my ears, but I am one single data point.

 

Anyone tried bone conduction headphones?

I have a bit of an air bone gap so curious if that contributes.

No gap in my noise damaged areas.

 

I have, they did not annoy my ears, but I prefer regular cans.

 

If you got cochlear damage like many of us because of acoustic trauma, the sound still goes to cochlea.

 

I didn’t know such a device exists. I’ll check it out.

 

Yah I figure you are right, however if one were to filter the higher noise damaged frequencies out, and allow the low frequencies to transmit via bone conduction, when there's an air bone gap it might be useful to make up for deficits at a minimal volume. Something I've thought of trying, noise makes me a lot worse, so it'd be carefully.

 

If you have GTX / RTX Nvidia GPU then use RTX Voice.

If not, use Push To Talk and decent cardioid microphone.

I don't have any problems with echo from the speakers.