Asymptomatic

I really dislike the shape of my ear. It makes it difficult for me to use earbuds like I assume normal people do. The cartilage in my ear doesn’t allow enough space for the earbud to sit properly. So, anytime I put an earbud in, it doesn’t seem to fit the way it’s supposed to. Apple AirPods, which have a large body and seem to shape the speaker to point a bit more forward, don’t sit very well in my ear at all. There’s nothing in my ear to hold them in place. The little bits of cartilage that it seems like normal people with normal ears have either don’t exist in my ear or are pointed in a different direction, making Apple EarPods not fit and sit properly.

Traditional earbuds, like the ones with tips you insert into your ear canal, also have difficulty fitting normally. My right ear has a smaller ear canal than my left ear, so I have to use totally different ear tip sizes, and they never fit quite right. The AirPod Pro earbuds that I have probably fit the best out of all the earbuds I own, but only because I use aftermarket foam inserts that conform to the shape of my ear. Each one is a different size, and even then there’s some kind of gap around the one for my left ear which messes with the noise cancellation and makes it less effective than it should be. I’m constantly having to adjust them because the cartilage in my ear does not hold the pods properly, and there’s always a drag pulling them down even though they’re more firmly affixed with the foam than with silicone tips.