Tinnitus and the Audio Addiction

[075Congo]

Turning just shy of 70 this year and been suffering from Tinnitus (moderate level) for over 15 years. Been involved in the audio-buying field since age 21 and really enjoy listening to all kinds of music. It always interests me that with the"SINGING" in my ears I can still appreciate recorded music of all forms .Went to a live Jeff Beck concert at the TIVOLI in Brisbane a few years ago and probably did more damage! An audiologist recommended I spend $10,000 on some devices but I gave her a blunt reply. I am told by another source that the whole issue of audiologists and "OLD"people will come up at the coming Royal Commission on Disability. Anyway is there any body out there?

[warweary]

Yeh, i too have that eternal ringing and shhhhh in my ears when I stop to notice.  Have discovered that there is an optimal loudness for listening that is most comfortable and hides the tinnitus well.

I avoid concerts like the plague can't handle an increase in discomfortable ringing.

[frankn]

another one hear (sic) with loud ringing for the last 6months...............

[cheekyboy]

Hello, Mick, I don't suffer from Tinnitus badly, but I do have a couple of mates that have severe Tinnitus and one is a member here too. He may pick this up, but I'll drop him a PM and see if he'd like to respond. 

 

Cheers,

 

Keith

[075Congo]

Be interesting to get my niece (the Audiologist) to join SNA and put in her two bits worth. She has Tinnitus as well and is amazing to have a bottle(or TWO) of wine with and do the DAC music thing with.

If I continue to spend large $$$ on HI FI gear am I a ............head?

[sloper]

Goodaye

 

l was shocked when a mate l went to school with told me he was nearly deaf, caused by driving trucks in the 80's and 90's.

Spoke to another similer aged driver and he also has problems, both of these guys blinged there trucks out with twin exhausts that were loud.

 

Me l have a little titinus in my left ear, not enough to bother me too much, its the voices that l worry about.

Proberly did it listening to pub bands in the 80's.

 

Wifes uncle has it badley and has tried treatment in Sweeden with no benifit.

 

regards Bruce

[awayward]

Over the last few years I get it on and off, and it varies in its severity, it’s been missing  in action for a few months now, it makes me wonder what factors actually  cause it or aggravate it. 

[sloper]

2 minutes ago, 075Congo said:

Be interesting to get my niece (the Audiologist) to join SNA and put in her two bits worth. She has Tinnitus as well and is amazing to have a bottle(or TWO) of wine with and do the DAC music thing with.

If I continue to spend large $$$ on HI FI gear am I a ............head?

Depends if you can hear the difference and can afford it, so there's a little bit of honesty with yourself.

l have resigned myself to the fact that a big $$$ system l wont notice the difference too much.

 

regards Bruce

[075Congo]

Interesting how it comes and goes! Mine stops altogether and then fires up big time when I focus on its absence. Talking to Doctors about Tinnitus is a ....not useful really!

[warweary]

Our systems need to be even more awesome to combat the tinnitus.

[Nada]

What does your tinnitus sound like?

 

 

[soundbyte]

I also have tinnitus in my ears, left all the time, right intermittently.

 

I have also noticed that I have gradually been losing hearing in my left ear, always thought I had "something" in my ear, doctor visits up until a month or so ago were not helpful.

Last month after a course of antibiotics for the "something" in my ear with little effect, I had an MRI and I have what is a called a Schwannoma growing inside my ear behind the ear drum, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schwannoma

 

I have an appointment with a neurosurgeon soon, that will tell me more hopefully.

 

If you have a feeling that there is something in your ear suggest that you get it checked by a doctor, it did needed an MRI in my case to find it though .

 

 

[agisthos]

I went to an Iron Maiden concert in 2011, and one of the stage speakers, a horn tweeter speaker, was beaming straight into my left ear.

Just from that single 2 hour experience, I have a slight intermittent tinnitus.

 

Imagine what everyday repetitive loud noise can do to your hearing!

Edited February 27, 2019 by agisthos

[Guest Terence Hill]

I have it as well in both ears and it is a real bother when I'm run down or got the dreaded flu.

Some music calms it a bit and some triggers it to increase.

It sometimes just stops for a few hours or flairs up for days or weeks.

Don't let hearing problems get in the way of enjoying the music.

 

[glenm64]

Ive been a fixed plant fitter in heavy industry for nearly 40 years. Mine is a constant ringing, and sometimes it sounds like the cicarda insects or crickets chirping. Its worst when its quiet. I can be camping sitting around the camp fire thinking what a beautiful sound the insects are making, but the wife tells me its dead quiet.
I work shift work, and when on night shift I sleep with ear plugs in. Strangely I dont notice it when I have the ear plugs in.
I normally have my music up a little bit and dont notice it. But Ive also got a bit of hearing damage too. Industrial deafness tends to affect the vocal ranges most, and I dont really notice it too much musically. Elaine just has to suffer louder music or t.v. volumes.
I heard a while ago that here in Oz there was a treatment that helped. It involved the patient wearing headphones that played certain frequencies over a period of time that neutralized the tinnitus. Havent heard anything about it since.

[cafe67]

And another here 

 

had ad it probably early 20's constant 24/7 escaping gas ssssssssssss sound rather than ringing sound. 

 

Genetiic my mum had it I have it, tho my older brother doesn't and I don't recall my dad having it. Tho riding motor bikes for the last 30 years probably hasn't helped. 

 

Its worse when I'm stressed either physically or emotionally tho sometimes it gets worse or less of its own accord. 

 

 

 

 

[mrbugeyes]

Australian Silicon Chip magazine has developed an electronic gadget to help people with tinnitus get to sleep at night.  Check there web site, it must be there somewhere. Cheers

[warweary]

An audiologist suggested those anti-sound white static noise generators. Apparently one tunes it by ear to the inverse of the frequency that's bothering oneself, thus neutralising the sound... unfortunately it makes hearing worse overall overtime.

[Ken]

SNA had a similar discussion a number of years ago, if I remember there was somebody doing PHD research looking for volunteers, I think it was at Curtin Uni in Perth. Did anybody take part?   

[audiofeline]

I'm also in the club.  Had it extremely mildly and rarely when I was young, probably inherited from my mother.  Possibly increased by listening to Dark Side of The Moon too loud on headphones in my youth when I had a lot of bad stuff in my life that I needed to drown out.  A number of years ago it became constant, and has been slowly increasing in volume. 

 

I could be bitter and angry about it, and complain about it to others, like my sister-in-law does with her tinnitus.  Complaining about it isn't going to improve it, and to my knowledge there isn't anything that can fix the cause - the only treatments seem to be masking the symptoms.  Focusing my attention is only going to train my brain's aural system to be more aware of it, so I practice acceptance.  It's there, I can't do anything to fix it, so I'll put my attention to other things and get on with life. 

 

In a way I am somewhat peeved because I'm at the stage of life when I've finally acquired a hifi of the quality I always wanted (but of course I'm open to upgrading it!).  When it got bad I was concerned about the effect on my audio/music appreciation.  One reassuring thing of going to the hifi show is despite the extra noise in my head, I can still discriminate the quality differences in different audio systems.  Good reproduction still sounds good to me, poor reproduction is still not acceptable.  Shure, I'm not hearing it the same way that I used to.  But I can still appreciate the audio quality, and more importantly, get absorbed into the music.  And for that, I'm thankful. 

 

 

 

[wen]

Have had tinnitus for over 20 yrs, both ears , different pitch in each ear, agree with@audiofeline acceptance is the only way to go, now have hearing aids as top end of hearing not there, but still listen to music every day, can tell the differences in quality sound, ie. i know what i like

[audiofeline]

15 minutes ago, wen said:

Have had tinnitus for over 20 yrs, both ears , different pitch in each ear...

I am grateful that my experience is a similar pitch and volume in both ears, but definitely stereo, not mono.  At my last hearing test I have some difference in feq. response in different ears. 

 

This can be annoying listening to mono recordings.  The different ear response-curves mean that when the mono music passages focus on different average frequency ranges correlating with the freq's with differences in my ear, the music will be perceived as a fake stereo effect.  In place of hearing a mono image dead-centre, it will appear to me to wander to one side or another. 

 

It was extremely annoying when it first happened, as I was trying to trouble-shoot my equipment to find the cause.  In the end I needed to trouble-shoot myself to find the cause! 

 

[Max054]

I have suffered from multiple hertz tinnitus since a car accident nearly 12 months ago I haven’t listened to my system since apart from GTGs when others tell me how good it is!

[t_mike]

I have it, 6 frequencies in the left ear, 8 in the right. Sounds vary, but in line with what others have described. 

[Al.M]

In addition to the tinnitus as we age our high frequencies reduce and threshold loss occurs dramatically to compound the issues as per graphs below. As high as 1 in 3 of us may be experiencing issues and people are scratching their heads why we are hearing or experiencing things differently when reviewing gear.

 

 

Edited February 27, 2019 by Al.M