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Am I hearing things (you don't) ????

About 5 years ago I started to notice a ringing in my ears. This is not a debilitating condition and I have learned
to tune it out. More disturbing however is an inability to tolerate high frequency "Noise". An example would be
the sound of plates clanging against each other as you remove them from the dishwasher. This type of sound
feels somewhat painful. At the RMAF last month after day one I found I could no longer listen to anything and enjoy it
as my ears felt fatigued. ( stayed too long at Raidho). I had a pair of ear plugs but failed to employ them at all times. Normally I listen at an average of 70 db. per my free phone app readings. 
I seem to notice during quiet moments a very low frequency off and on rumble sound. I thought it might be a piece of equipment in the home so I shut everything down, walked outside around all sides of the home thinking it might be emanating from a neighbor. No go. Its in my head. 
At age 60+ I have probably been subjected to my share of excessive noise but have never been an artillery man or Navy Gunner for example. 

Anyone else have similar experiences?
128x128firstnot
prof
3,469 posts
 
 Geeze..who is making posts that have to be removed, in a thread on this subject???
Post removed 
djones51
4,947 posts
 
I removed my own post. I need to use the preview before posting it was a little to personal. I'm having a hard time dealing with this issue. Sorry. 
Post removed 
prof
3,469 posts
 
Oh, I see.

Yes it’s understandable to not want to feel one is exposing too much.

It does feel a bit odd to talk about "hearing health" issues on an audiophile board. Some people could possibly be d*cks and try to put a negative spin on that.

But these issues ARE a concern for people, and one would think especially audiophiles, and since the issues naturally crop up now and again, I think it’s helpful to share what information we can.

In my case, if there is a silver lining to having had Tinnitus since the late 80’s, it’s that it got me protecting my ears early, and hence my audiogram is actually very good and hearing tone tests are excellent for my age - it’s more like the hearing of someone 12 years younger (I’m 54).

My audiologist was going through very minute adjustments of the white noise for my treatment, through the earbuds. When he’d adjust I’d tell him "you just slightly increased the sound around 4K."

He expressed amazement as he said he was adjusting by 1 or 2 dB increments, and no one had ever remarked on hearing the difference.
Fortunately I have good hearing and I do this for my living. I'm increasing various parts of the frequency range in a wide variety of sounds, by 1 to 3 dB all the time.

Now, I just want my hearing to get LESS sensitive :)

But as for hearing loss, as people have said, a large proportion of audiophiles are over 50 and definitely would have lost high frequency hearing, especially if you are more towards 60 and beyond. (My wife is 55 and did not live a life exposed to tons of loud sound, yet her hearing caps off somewhere around 10Kz or below). So many audiophiles can only brag so far about their hearing. But given much of what our brain cares about is actually below the frequency of age-related hearing loss, we can all still enjoy music and evaluate most aspects of high end gear.


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