Anyone with tinnitus or hearing loss who is into "high-end" audio?

I have tinnitus and have also lost a significant amount of hearing in my left ear over the past year.  I find that I am focused less on soundstaging these days than I used to be, but still can focus on timbre, correct frequency response and musical nuance and performance.  So I do find that better equipment still makes a difference in those areas and is worth it to me.  My hearing aid helps in ordinary conversation, etc., but can't really replicate what I used to be able to hear when listening to my system.  I suggest that you focus more on the music than the system at this point, your system still can bring you great enjoyment.

We are all of us impaired, one way or another. My best friend through college had exceptionally good eyesight. I was constantly astounded the things he could see. Often times didn’t believe, until I got closer and sure enough. He had spotted what was a blur at best if not totally invisible to me. Doug went through Marine OCS wanting to be a pilot and flunked out because of his poor.... vision.

I nearly sold my rig a dozen years ago because of tinnitus. At first thought it was my system and went crazy trying to figure out was it tube ringing or what? When it eventually became apparent it was my ears I was crestfallen. Quit listening. For several years. Then, surprise! Quite by accident discovered it was caused by long term high doses of ibuprofen to cope with sciatica.

Once a Teeter, PT and weight loss eliminated the need for the pain killers the tinnitus gradually went away, well not completely not always but more or less gone.

The thing of it is, its like my buddy Doug. Compared to perfect you will always come up short. So why put yourself through that? Keep going that way, what’s the end game? Whatever it is you can be sure its pretty damn dismal- and then you lose. Or you can say hey, what I can hear, might not be what the next guy hears but it sounds pretty good to me.

Might as well. You do not want to be the next guy anyway. Trust me.

Thank you guys.  I guess this is the kind of stuff I need to "hear"!  When you first get tinnitus, for whatever reason, it can become very all-consuming.  My next step will be to go to a hearing specialist.  What I worry about the most is having the sound and music from my rig sound "unreal" when, and if, I need a hearing aid (primarily my right ear which has a very high frequency whine...sometimes less and sometimes really annoying).  But I sincerely find some solace in the above comments...you are  correct Millercarbon, I wouldn't want to be the next guy!

I have tinnitus, but no hearing loss. Worth going to a hearing specialist - at least once. Also worth figuring out what makes your tinnitus worse. But I have not lost any of my appreciation for music and I have made no changes to my rig.

I've had tinnitus for years, with intensity varying thru the day My hearing drops after 7khz.

Consultation(hearing aids) reading everything about it, and evaluating lifestyle to see if anything affects it seem to be the best you can do at the moment.

Compared to other conditions I live with, it's minor.