This feeling makes my Bose unusuable unless I'm listening to music. They always default to noise-canceled enabled when you turn them on. So every time you turn them on, you have to disable noise-cancelling in the app.
I ordered some AirPods Pro, so hopefully that feeling doesn't exist while using the noise-canceling. At least you can disable the noise-canceling without opening an app.
If you have the 35s you can rebind the side button to change the level of noise cancellation. It will still default to full but you can switch it to half (which gets rid of the pressure imo) or off by pushing the button once/twice.
While I don’t suffer the pressure problem in any modern products (though I did in much older products) I still regularly use the QC35 half mode because
— It’s not affected by wind noise, whereas the full mode is. So it’s great when walking outside.
— It’s also less affected by rubbing and scuffing against the external microphone, so I use it when trying to rest on flights.
— And sometimes I prefer having that little bit more ambient sound, like when walking in a shopping centre. Too much noise cancellation can result in too little awareness of surroundings.
I ordered some AirPods Pro, so hopefully that feeling doesn't exist while using the noise-canceling. At least you can disable the noise-canceling without opening an app.