I’m not talking about the sounds so pretend the sound is completely off for this question:
It seems when you wear headsets that completely covers the ear that it interferes with oxygen getting to the ears and wondering if it’s a problem.
What I notice is:
When I take them off, it feels like a “relief” inside my ear that oxygen can now get to it, even if the headset was off and has no sound (so it’s not a “sound” issue)!
I never have the same issue with small earbuds that people typically use with cellphones as that obviously does not completely cover the ear and interfere with oxygen.
So curious if cutting off air supply to your ear canal is an issue or not. Couldn’t find anything along these lines searching online so thought I’d ask here.
Thanks for any feedback or references!
I’ve been using Astro A40s with the sound isolating ear pads for years. I know that feeling you’re talking about, but it’s never been an issue for me. I use my headphones for all of my sound.
It might just be your personal preference, but I have found that my headset bugs my ears the most when they are dirty. If you haven’t cleaned them in a while, be sure to take a good clorox rub down on it, and then wear them.
Nah its fine, most likely that relief is just warm air getting out and being replaced with cold air. Ya get the same feeling when you leave a hot room
Your ears don’t really need oxygen like this. Your body oxygenates internally. Also, if oxygen in the ear canal was the issue, then earbuds would produce a similar problem since they occlude the canal (but not the pinna)
Probably, your headphones just trap heat and cause your ears to get really warm, or they’re the wrong size and aren’t sitting on your ears comfortably.
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I’d say that it’s more a matter of getting used to. And such headsets never completely cut off air supply either, nor do I think it’s actually a problem for the ears because your lungs govern the oxygen supply for the whole body.
People in construction works have been using ear protection that closes off the ears even better than headsets and they normally don’t have any problems.
If such thing would be dangerous, we would never be allowed to go swimming either, because, when you go under water, oxygen supply to the ears is actually completely cut off.
You may want to consider replacing the cushion of your Over-Ear headset.
There’s two type of cushion design:
- Breathable cushion
- Pros: Your ear does not get warm up/hot
- Cons: Audio leaks in and out of the headset
- Leather cushion
- Pros: Noise Isolation, so noise do not leak out of the headset as much.
- Cons: Gets warm fast, and produces pressure onto the ear cannal after a while, so you occasionally readjust it to release the pressure.
When buying headset, there are a few thinks you want to consider:
- Type of headset
- Noise feature
- Noise Isolation
- Noise Cancellation
- Type of audio codec
- Microphone Type
- Cushion cover to drown out background noise
- Stick
- Retrackable
- Dual mic to cancel out background noise
I consider gaming headset too heavy for me neck, so I use Bose Earbuds that I can use with phone, and a converter to use it on my PC when I play overwatch.
Unfortunately mic is disable if I were to use my Sennheiser BTNC 4.50 with cables.
Buy a headset without faux leather cups. That is the issue.
Find one that uses velour, cloth, etc.
It depends on your headset.
For me, i use a Corsair Void pro which is an open back i think.
But ive also worn headphones which are noise canceling for long periods of time.
The noise canceling ones feel like a relief to my ear when removing it, like a pressure was just released from my entire ear, not just general fatigue but on the inside as well. But with my Corsair Void i dont have that issue, just fatigue. Like the area around my ears tends to pain a bit, kind of like after you sleep in the car and your neck is cramped, but in this case you cant actually stretch it.
never been comfortable in headsets, even for short time. Can’t handle basically a hat on my head.
Headphones are bad for the ear if you have the volume too high. 
Also, if you wear them too long it causes the production of bacteria in the ear to multiply tremendously because of the enclosed warm environment, like by 700% or more. This too can cause ear damage, so don’t wear for more than 30 minutes at a time. Earbuds are actually worse than over-ear headphones in this regard.
you don’t breathe with your ears and your ears are internally connected to your nose anyways.
no all it does is make you sweat and have more moisture inside your ear, which is not really a bad thing on it’s own, but as @FledgeSRondo said, it’s a better environment for bacteria to grow. That requires bacteria to be there in the first place, though.