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I recently bought this Corsair Gaming Headset. I also wear glasses, which have thick library temples. It sometimes feels a bit uncomfortable when I'm wearing the headset, and the glasses' temples burrow into my head a bit.

Is there a good way of preventing/avoiding this? That is, short of tilting the glasses so the temples rest above the headset, 'cause that causes distortions and kinda defeats the purpose of me wearing the glasses in the first place. Also, while retaining the best sound experience the headset can possibly give me.

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  • I have 2 headsets myself. One i bought, another i got as a Christmas gift. The one i bought is amazingly comfortable and loose, but a built in adjustable elastic band stretches over my head and keeps it up. The other is very tight and it only takes an instant for the pain to set in, though its bearable for at most an hour or two. My suggestion, Find a larger headset next time if possible. few headsets are width adjustable.
    – Ryan
    Aug 24, 2016 at 17:02
  • I experienced this on getting glasses. After a few days of fretting over how to fix it, I realized that I didn't notice it as much anymore anyway.
    – Sidney
    Jan 3, 2017 at 19:04
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    Late comment but using contact lenses might be a viable alternative. It also makes you feel much better.
    – xji
    May 30, 2017 at 18:25

12 Answers 12

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I've been an eyeglass wearer and headset (as well as hearing protection) user for about thirty years. Here's what I've learned:

Frame thickness

Everything depends on the thickness of the arms of your glasses. Thus if you have another set of glasses with thinner frames, you might want to wear those with the headset. Otherwise, of course, this point isn't much of a lifehack.

Headset tension

The tighter the headset "squeezes" your ears, the more painful it will be. Do what you can to adjust your headset so that the top of your head bears most of the force, so you can relax the grip on your ears somewhat.

Position

Again, adjust the headset so that the earpiece foam doesn't ride on top of your ears. The earpieces on the headset you linked appear to be large enough for that, but I could be wrong. Still, try repositioning them forward and up somewhat—small amounts until you find the most comfortable spots.

Give your ears a break

This is doubly true if you have the volume turned up, but that's another topic! Take your headset off periodically such as in-between rounds (if you're gaming), and get into the habit of just moving it around slightly every few minutes, before it really starts to annoy you. That will let the circulation back into the parts of your ear that have been put under the most pressure, which will make a big difference. Our ears don't have much bloodflow to begin with, so they can always use a little help in that department.

Another way to give your ears a break is to simply slide one earpiece off of one of your ears, and then switch ears. Obviously you bought a stereo headset for a reason, but if you don't need positional audio or stereo sound at the moment, this can be another handy trick to add.

So what's the "best" strategy?

All of the above. The Stack Exchange way is to have a clear answer, and my clear answer is, the more different ways you can take a little bit of stress off of your ears, the better you'll feel. Like I mentioned, our ears aren't particularly good at pumping blood, which is why moving the pressure points around is the right answer, in my opinion.

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I actually slide a single piece of folded tissue between my frames and my head. works great, and I don't have to have a loose headset.

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If you have other glasses, this may be your solution: Remove the screws from both temples and set aside. Using the hinge on the glasses as an anchor, replace temples with elastic cord cut-to-size to wrap around your head. I used a croaky cord attached with thread through each temple hinge. It works great and I am very comfortable.

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  • You are suggesting to break down expensive glasses for a test? I would understand if you had suggested using a previous pair or cheap reading glasses but not his glasses.
    – Willeke
    Dec 31, 2016 at 23:31
  • @Willeke Says other glasses.
    – L.B.
    Jan 1, 2017 at 16:34
  • I have edited, after that has gone through I can take away my downvote. I did not see that part of the answer.
    – Willeke
    Jan 1, 2017 at 22:29
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    @Willeke Not suggesting damage; remove temple screw and set aside. Using the hinge attachment as an anchor site, thread elastic cord.
    – M.Mat
    Jan 2, 2017 at 21:17
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    I did this on my 150$ glasses, works amazingly well with the bonus of now being able to just shove the glasses off my face when I don't use need them. Expensive glasses or not, we're talking about 2 screws here... it's not a nuclear missile.
    – Manumit
    Jan 31, 2018 at 11:48
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I cut small holes in the pleather that holds the pads onto the cans and slip the arms in there so that the arms are between the pads and cans rather than between the pads and my head. This means i have to put my glasses into my headphones and then my headphones onto my head, but it also means i can wear them for hours with no discomfort or distortion while maintaining isolation. the arms of my glasses do get spread by this but they have hinges that allow this.

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  • I tried this, it didn't work very well. Either the rim is pushed on the top of the ear, or u have you to slip ur ear under it while the headset is on, which is a solution, but now the weight of the headset pushes down on ur ear with the glasses.
    – Manumit
    Jan 31, 2018 at 11:15
  • Thanks for this; it's working nicely for me! It does take some getting used to. Instead of sitting on top of my ears the arms of my glasses are held entirely by the headphones, but I can feel the arms touching the outsides of my ears. It's not uncomfortable, just different. There is also less weight on my nose. I'll note that my headphones are big enough that I didn't have to make "exit" holes. The ends of the arms fit inside the circumference of the headphone pads.
    – Jesse Hallett
    Nov 8, 2021 at 15:47
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I have found that if you put the temples between the ear and headphone it is not as uncomfortable as when the temple is between the head and the ear with the headphone pressing on the ear.

So it's headphone|glasses|ear|head instead of headphone|ear|glasses|head

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I have the same problem with my Sony MDR 7506 headphones and I solved it my just bending the headpiece (gently) so that the headphones are wider and the head set partly rests on the top of my head. Problem solved. I don't know if that will work for all headsets, you might break it but it worked for mine.

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Tilt your glasses up a bit so that the sides rest on top of the headphones. This relieves the pressure while only tilting the glasses a bit.

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  • It also distorts my vision a bit... :\
    – JNat ♦
    Feb 13, 2017 at 9:21
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  1. Pad the temple covers with a foam pad intended for that purpose, or with a foam rubber pen cover. BTW, I find wearing the temples over my ears for a while gives a break from the constant pressure on the head itself.

  2. You might get an inexpensive second pair of glasses and bend the temple pieces so they can be attached to the headset frame or cushions, perhaps with glue.

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I move the headset back slightly so that the pressure goes to the ear lobe which hurts less and also i slightly tilt my frames

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I'm glasses and headphone wearer myself, my temples are quite thick, but it never annoys me when wearing my headphones. This is because I wear over-ear headphones with nice and soft cushions!

Over-ear headphones don't press on your ears. The headphone cups will still press on temples of your glasses a little bit, but it is not annoying or hurtful if the cushions on the cups are soft enough.

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Put padding behind the headphone pads except for the temple arm area. That will give them an area to relieve pressure.

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easy:

0) remove both headphones and glasses. 1) wear your headphones. 2) slid your glasses just above the headphone pads so nothing is pinched. the glasses just sits there.

enjoy wearing headphones as any other non-glasses people do!

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    Surely if you do this then the glasses are tilted forward, impeding your vision. The arms of the glasses have to be raised well above their normal position.
    – Chenmunka ♦
    Jul 31, 2017 at 8:27
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    Yeah, as the comment above notes, this will mean the position of the glasses relative to my face is not the intended one, thus causing distortion.
    – JNat ♦
    Jul 31, 2017 at 9:43

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