What's new

Sony WF-1000XM3: vibration + physiological sound transmission

ka00

Patent Pending
Weird thread title, sorry. Wasn’t sure how to explain this. I just bought a pair of Sony WF-1000XM3 noise cancelling in-ear headphones. I’ve tried all the various ear tips, and of the ones that don’t fall out of my ears, I am left with isolation that is maybe too good? I can’t walk around without hearing deep booming vibrations travelling through my body. If I am in a quiet room, I can hear my heartbeat (or blood pulsing through ears), I can hear my neck muscles straining if flexed, I can hear my breathing.
Normally, I would just crank up the volume to cover up these sounds, but I have bad tinnitus that’s getting worse, and I bought these noise cancelling headphones so I could listen to music at lower volumes in order to preserve my hearing and not exacerbate my tinnitus.

I’m wondering if this sort of clogged ears feeling and picking up your own internal body sounds is normal with this model. It masks the low end of the frequency range and is pretty disappointing. I also have AirPod Pros and don’t experience this.

Are there third party ear tips I could try that would still provide good isolation and a good seal but not cause the issue I’m describing?

Thanks

PS: I signed up on Head-Fi.org yesterday to post this same question. So far no responses.
 
I just got these and hated all the supplied tips so replaced them with In-Airs tips, which I have previously used on other earphones. They are memory foam and provide an excellent seal with no discomfort (at least for me). Maybe worth a try?
 
I couldn't use any of the in ear canal earphones I have tried due to the way they transmit extraneous sounds as they sound almost microphonic.
These were just regular earphones so not noise cancelling.
 
Good to know, thanks! Their TrueGrip Pro tips seems to be the model I need to get. One guy said sometimes they detach from the rest of the headphone and get stuck in his ear. But maybe his was faulty. Will grab a pair.

Yes, they will detach if you attempt to defy physics and pull out a piece of expanded foam from your ear canal. My get-around is to use a twisting motion while removing them; takes practice and habit forming, but well worth it.

I am experimenting with other ear tips too, but comply seems to work best. And pro tip, you would need to change those tips often for hygiene and sound isolation reasons.
 
Top Bottom