I had this feeling aswell, but the noice reduction was worth it for me. After a week or two of much usage at the office the feeling went away. So, atleast for me, getting used to them helped.

This is a pretty common complaint, I've seen numbers as high as 18-20% feel some sort of pressure, and upwards of 50-60% of those people feel enough discomfort that they don't use ANC.

I feel pressure almost immediately but it doesn't the level of even mild discomfort until 7-8 hours of continuous use (my employer provides a pair that have an ANC option). Even then I can deal with it for longer if I'm watching a movie or something after work.

For a long time I thought that this was the case for me too and stuck with passive noise cancelling headphones. Then I tried the Sony 1000MX3s and didn't experience that issue, and I realized I had only really ever tried the Bose QuietComforts before. If you haven't already, it could be worth trying different brands to see if the issue persists across different noise cancelling systems!

But if the issue is only a technology or firmware issue what exactly causes it? Is it like a standing wave of pressure below or above hearing range? The mistery bothers me as much as experiencing it.

I did some reading on this before I bought my last headphones and AFAIR , the cause seems to be that not all frequencies can be canceled to the same extent. It’s not actual pressure on your eardrums, but the effect triggers that feeling. Different headphones have different characteristics, so it’s worthwhile trying different models.

Yes it happens to a lot of people (but not all).

If you fall into this camp, then passive isolation is the only viable choice for you.

The following article goes into the technical details of this phenomenon. TLDR: it's harmless, caused by an unnatural increase in volume as you move across the frequency spectrum (from great noise cancellation at low frequencies to nearly none at mid-frequencies).

https://www.soundstagesolo.com/index.php/features/178-eardru...

Earbuds don't tend to exhibit it nearly as much as headphones.

Thanks for putting an end to the mistery! Great write up!

yeah, I find active noise cancellation bothers my ears too. Back when going to offices was a thing, I would keep multiple sets of headphones at my desk: an open-back headphone for really clear sound quality that lets sound through so that I could hear people if they tried talking to me (I like the AKG K240 MKII's for this but beware you need a headphone amp for these), and closed-back headphones when I'm finding the external noise distracting. For passive isolation I use Vic Firth's isolation headphones, they're designed for drummers to use for monitoring while recording drum tracks. https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/IsoHdphV2--vic-firth...

also if you already have earbuds that you like but they don't give you enough isolation, you can always wear earbuds under construction earmuffs, which is what I was doing before getting the Vic Firth isolation headphones.

I have the same issue. I pretty much only use the noise cancellation on planes where it doesn't have that effect for me.

That’s a common experience. I could only wear Bose QC on a plane, where the trade of was worth it.

Interestingly the AirPods Pro are explicitly engineered to avoid this, and I don’t have this problem with them.

I wonder what the deal is with the Airpods Max?

I get the same feeling with Bose QC IIs, but on planes it's worth the quiet. That being said IEMs and actual earmuffs work pretty well too if you don't mind looking a bit silly.