AirPods Causing Tinnitus (600+ reports since 2019?)

There aren't actually 600+ reports in here, as the headline (currently) suggests. It appears over 600 people have pressed the "I have this question, too" button, but the number of people posting reports is much smaller. Keep in mind that Apple sells a massive number of AirPods. On the order of 100,000,000 units per year. The prevalence of tinnitus is estimated to be in the range of 10% of the population. It's also possible to impact earwax against the eardrum…

Hearing loss is very serious. You know your body better than anyone else so don't be afraid to be its biggest advocate and protector. Nobody else will. I once had tinnitus for a week after a concert and it was one of the worst weeks of my life, it felt like it would last forever (and for some people, it does). I had pristine, "golden ears" for audio engineering and was afraid about how much I'd be able to recover…

I wonder if it’s because the noise cancellation is muting sounds and when you remove them your body is readjusting to the normal world. Much like the phenomenon that users report: when they first get AirPods they think the noise cancelation is top notch. After a year or two they report the cancellation has significantly degraded. In fact, it was their mind’s expectations that changed rather than the noise cancelation hardware. Just suspicion. Not an expert in audiology.