Any "audiophiles" with hearing loss?

I am finishing up my first month with a hearing aid in my right ear. The loss was extreme and was due to a number of factors; fevers as a child, many, many concerts, and 20+ years in the road construction business. I'm enjoying the benefits the hearing aid provides. I'm able to have a normal conversation again without leaning into the speaker with my good ear and asking for a repeat about half of the time. Music sounds much better although I have to take the hearing aid off to use most headphones. The tinnitus is still very bad although my doctor says it may improve some over time. She encourages me to use the "zen" setting on my device. It sounds like gentle new age music with white noise in the background. We shall see.
 
If you are an adult and have experienced life, not being sequestered in a small room, I guarantee we all experience some type of hearing loss. That said if you have trained yourself to know what real instruments sound like, by participating in music concerts , having taken music lessons, or by being a connoisseur of live concerts in all forms, then there is no reason you can't discern faithful music reproduction.
 
I was really excited to get back into the mid-fi-Hi-fi world, and enjoyed hitting the garage sale-thrift stores looking for treasures.

Then Meniere's disease set in, and with the tinnitus and loss of lower frequency response in my left ear, I said "What's the point?" and just dropped the whole thing.

Eh.... now I miss it. I can still enjoy music, and I can still tell bad sound from good. It's just that my diminishing returns curve flattens out faster than most.

Anyone else in that boat? I'm curious what you get out of the audio bug.

I have tinnitus (G above high C, 24/7) but no hearing loss. The tinnitus is annoying when I'm listening to something soft, but I still appreciate good sound presence.
 
I came down with the Russian flu back in 1972-73 Temp of 103 for 2 days fried my nerve in the left ear completely dead. So that was the end of stereo for me mono is my world. However I am able to discern a sound stage between two speakers by swiveling until the sweet spot is attained. But as a result of the loss in the left ear like all senses my right ear became extremely sensitive so I can actually hear above normal in it. I was ripping my library into two sets one mono for the POD and stereo for the home system. But actually you can hear some very cool arrangements when listening for instance early Beatles you might get nice guitar on the right side reverse the headphones and some nice vocals on the other. I've learned to live with it and am overly protective of my right ear. If that one goes so does my music that would be a hard pill to swallow for sure! :music:
 
I hear y'all!

As it happens, I have a profound sensorineural hearing loss, with a cochlear implant in one ear, and a hearing aid in the other. I have enjoyed music almost all of my life. A few years before I got the implant, I sold off my Marantz 2335, thinking it was something I couldn't really enjoy. After getting the implant, I rushed out and bought a whole bunch of vintage Sansui gear, and I enjoy music more than I ever did now.

The cochlear implant does a pretty good job of sending the high-frequency info to my brain, and the hearing aid takes care of the lows. The brain combines the whole thing into a great experience.
 
To tell you the truth....

Noise has always bothered me and I've never been able to listen to music very loud, always sat all the way in the back during concerts. I even carry Army ear plugs with me like some nut. I get my ears tested at the VA and you don't want to know the results and I'm sixty years old. It's not about age, it's about exposure... Most of my time was spent outside as an obsessive mechanic. Now my body is severely worn out and it's a pain to change records....like severely, with my anxiety disorder music is what keeps me alive. I don't know what I would do if I lost my hearing....
 
I was reading a thread somewhere and there was mention of when this guy smoked a little weed his Tinnitus went away?

If the ringing in your ears seems to lessen after consuming a cannabis product, you have high blood pressure. Ringing in the ears due to high blood pressure does not effect hearing.
 
Sorry if you're offended being classified as an audiophile. You are what you are regardless of your refusal to admit to the truth. As I previously posted, posting to a forum and/or thread mostly about gear is a certain indicator that you are an audiophile. Those who are nothing but "music lovers" rarely if ever post to any site that is audio related. If you doubt this check out the Just Jazz website or any music related site.

IME true music only lovers rarely if ever post to any site that has anything to do with the gear. I know several "music lovers" all of them without exception couldn't care less about the gear used to reproduce music. One of them is a DJ for a local college FM station. At home he plays any of his 3000+ LP's on an old Zenith tilt down player. I've demonstrated to him the better sound available more than once. I've even offered to give him better gear. Regardless, he has refused my offer multiple times and continues to use his Zenith.

See...

That's the difference between a stereophile and an audiophile. The audiophile is using an ancient Zenith tube tilt down console and probably did some tube rolling to get the sound right. While the stereophile thinks better equipment makes better sound by way of being rational. But both are sitting in front of equipment listening to music.
 
Now that the causes of hearing loss has been mentioned - I do not believe there is a firm causation between exposure and hearing loss, but I know that statement needs alot of qualification. Some of it is anecdotal, but here goes.

My Father worked in machine shops most of his life. He lived to be 69 and never had significant hearing loss. He had abused his body with high living and heavy drinking and eventually had a stroke. He did however have tinnitus for many many years, but he had high blood pressure. He knew of the connection between tinnitus and high blood pressure.Sometimes he would salt each forkful of food !

My Mother usually worked in offices where it is much quieter. She has never been to a rock concert. When she got to her 60s she got pretty bad hearing loss. I mean, she has never had a stereo over 25 WPC. She never cranks it anyway. But still she had to put thousands off bucks in her ears to be able to understand people talking. Even an adult male with a fairly deep voice, like me.. Butt never abused her ears, in fact probably hasn't heard more than a half dozen gunshots in her life. (more on that later) Never drank heavy or any of that. Always ate alot of carbs though.

I, on the other hand have listened to headphones at 130 dB. Folks, when you do that you must take it gradually, and in fact even anticipate the end of the song and start turning the volume down because an abrupt ending leaves your ears pounding. I did this for years and suffered no hearing loss. I would go to work and could still hear a TV set running because I could still hear 15.7 KHz. In my 40s. Easily. In fact it was a troubleshooting aid, I could tell right away if it had HV trouble because it didn't sound right. I could also tell if the frequency was too high or low.

My hearing loss did not even start until the black mold. That wrecked my body. I am sure it damaged my inner ear because my equilibrium is also very poor. It also wrecked my eyesight.

Sorry if I mentioned this before, but I say this, correlation is not causation. What I really think is happening to most people, sans the black mold of course, is that their bodies are getting low on essential minerals. Mineral deficiencies are why you get gray hair and lose your teeth. seems like as we get older our bodies can no longer absorb the essential minerals from food, if it is even there. Much food is really low in content because of advanced farming techniques. They get more tonnage but the essentials are diluted.

The problem is there is no easy to test this. Those minerals do not belong in your blood, they belong in your organs. They can't really just go cut out parts of you pancreas to find out if you are deficient enough in chromium or vanadium to become type two diabetic now can they ? So there is no comprehensive test.

Aging affects different people differently. Hearing is just one of them. I did alot of research into this, and I mean for decades. Even at that, I do not know what kind of mineral you need for hearing, I think tin might be one of them but that doesn't mean go out and buy tin supplements. You have to have all of them. For example if you get too much calcium and not enough manganese, magnesium, whatever, you become susceptible to stones in the kidneys or gall bladder. You can't just overload your body with one mineral or two.

So there really is just about nothing we can do about it. Just eat the best you can and/or use a comprehensive colloidal mineral supplement. Might work, might not. In some cases the damage is done and all you can do is forestall further loss.(of whatever, not just hearing)

But for now, I am still able to use an equalizer and sufficient power to enjoy my tunes. I don't know what the future holds but I am not dumb enough to think it is going to get any better. Since I usually listen alone, I can EQ it any way I need it. People walk in I am sure they think is has too much high end.
 
If the ringing in your ears seems to lessen after consuming a cannabis product, you have high blood pressure. Ringing in the ears due to high blood pressure does not effect hearing.
The masking effect may do so while it is occuring.
 
To tell you the truth....

Noise has always bothered me and I've never been able to listen to music very loud, always sat all the way in the back during concerts. I even carry Army ear plugs with me like some nut. I get my ears tested at the VA and you don't want to know the results and I'm sixty years old. It's not about age, it's about exposure... Most of my time was spent outside as an obsessive mechanic. Now my body is severely worn out and it's a pain to change records....like severely, with my anxiety disorder music is what keeps me alive. I don't know what I would do if I lost my hearing....

I have not liked the movie-house and indoor pro sporting events, do to the sound systems being turned up to loud for me as of late.
The Chicago Bulls intro is crazy loud!

Best-

Boozehound
 
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I've developed tinnitus in the last year or so. Interestingly, it's mostly in my left ear, which was always the ear AWAY from the drummer.
 
There's that sound-proofed room I've read about on the net that'll supposedly drive people crazy if they stay in too long. I say, sign me up.[/QUOTE

It's called an Anechoic chamber.
A decoupled and isolated internally built room that is completely devoid of reflections ie a totally "dead" room.
If you like absolute still quiet then this is the room for you!
After time all you can hear is your heartbeat.
They have an excellent one at the University of Auckland.
I went there once when they'd just set up an array of small speakers in an almost 360 degree in all directions overlap during play back.
Sitting inside the chamber they engineer played us outdoors recordings made using an omnidirectional array of high end microphones with each mic corresponding to a particular speaker in the room.
The result was amazing ... Walking through a park - You could hear everything in every direction. Birds flying past and into the distance. Peoples conversations as "you" walked past them. Kids playing in the distance.
The detail and "soundstage" was incredible and the sense of "being there" in the park was complete and total. We had all the lights off so total darkness. It was quite disorientating at times especially as the mic array was arranged to mimic the human ear ... So whenever the array turned the "world" would revolve around you in the chamber. Most certainly the most accurate audio you will hear - in the most accurate of spaces.
Its what all the 5.1 and 7.1 guys are after - but could never possibly achieve!
Close but no banana ...

Not really HIFI related but interesting all the same ... And my first post here! Cheers!
 
There's that sound-proofed room I've read about on the net that'll supposedly drive people crazy if they stay in too long. I say, sign me up.[/QUOTE

It's called an Anechoic chamber.
A decoupled and isolated internally built room that is completely devoid of reflections ie a totally "dead" room.
If you like absolute still quiet then this is the room for you!
After time all you can hear is your heartbeat.
They have an excellent one at the University of Auckland.
I went there once when they'd just set up an array of small speakers in an almost 360 degree in all directions overlap during play back.
Sitting inside the chamber they engineer played us outdoors recordings made using an omnidirectional array of high end microphones with each mic corresponding to a particular speaker in the room.
The result was amazing ... Walking through a park - You could hear everything in every direction. Birds flying past and into the distance. Peoples conversations as "you" walked past them. Kids playing in the distance.
The detail and "soundstage" was incredible and the sense of "being there" in the park was complete and total. We had all the lights off so total darkness. It was quite disorientating at times especially as the mic array was arranged to mimic the human ear ... So whenever the array turned the "world" would revolve around you in the chamber. Most certainly the most accurate audio you will hear - in the most accurate of spaces.
Its what all the 5.1 and 7.1 guys are after - but could never possibly achieve!
Close but no banana ...

Not really HIFI related but interesting all the same ... And my first post here! Cheers!

Binaural recordings played back via headphones come very close to the sound you heard in that anechoic chamber.
 
G'day all, I was the oldest grandchild in my family and was free farm labor at the age of 8. I am now 60 and have tinnitus for 52 years. Back then we had no cabs and no hearing protection. It is worst when I am trying to sleep so I always have to utilize a form of back ground noise. I now use a really great air purifier that masks the problem. When I go to concerts I have to use ear plugs or I will pay for it all night long. But, I still go and still enjoy live music.

I am in the process of setting up the system of my youth and still enjoy vinyl. I hope to have my system running this summer so I am stoked. I have not had my hearing checked for many years so I am not sure the extent of my hearing loss.
 
I really appreciate this thread and hearing about other people's experiences. The topic feels timely for me.

I'm 48 years old and I have enjoyed accurate and quite full-range hearing through most of my life. But age and cumulative exposure seem to have taken a toll. A couple years ago when I was running frequency sweep tests on my system I noticed I had a strange hearing dropout at about 14 kHz. But I could hear 16 and 17 kHz above that.

Then a couple months ago, after a (superb) Tedeschi Trucks Band concert, I noticed a continuous, soft, very high-frequency ringing in my head. Tinnitus, it must be. It's in the top octave, somewhere around 12 or 14 kHz I'd guess. Especially when I first noticed it, this really bothered and scared me. I know there's no cure for tinnitus. Having my senses in good shape means a lot to me, of course, and I began to regret attending that last concert, not putting in earplugs more often at live shows, etc.

As I've done more informal testing since then, I seem to no longer perceive much above 12 kHz. Although I've enjoyed live music of many genres, including some loud concerts over the years, I've generally been careful about volume levels at home, on headphones, in the car, etc. So I couldn't understand why all of a sudden I was experiencing this. But for about five years, ending not long ago, I played bass in a garage band with some friends. We'd practice rock and blues every week or so in a basement room with cement floors, wood and glass walls: a very live room. The drummer played an electronic kit, and I stood pretty close to his drum amp. I also remember asking the guitarist more than once to turn down his amp because it was too loud for me. In retrospect, almost certainly those rehearsals did some damage to my ears. But I had so much fun with those guys. I would spend two or three hours not thinking about work or anything else except the music we were playing. It was lifegiving, but apparently with a long-term cost to me.

I'm less concerned about losing top-octave hearing. That happens to most people with age, and it's primarily overtones up there anyway. But the tinnitus is more obvious, something I'll have to work to make peace with. Already it's becoming a new normal for me. I notice that if I'm focused on a conversation or a task I might not notice the ringing for quite a while. I'm most conscious of it in a very quiet room or when I lie down to sleep. I continue to listen to lots of music but I'm even more careful about volume levels, and when I'm running a lawnmower, power saw, etc. I always put in earplugs.

Good things I've noticed: 1) The tinnitus doesn't seem to be getting worse. 2) The great pleasure of music is still with me! All the rest of my hearing seems to be intact and detailed — below those extremely high frequencies I still can hear everything easily. I detect subtle timbre differences, I can tell when a tweeter cuts out, I hear quiet details in nature and in music, I hear conversation over background noise, and so on. Well-recorded and well-reproduced music remains immersive and compelling for me. 3) This new experience of tinnitus has made me FAR more attentive to safeguarding my hearing. I'm hopeful that by being gentle on my ears I can keep this status quo for a good while.

So, friends, please be careful with your ears!
 
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I definitely have hearing loss, ringing, and sensitivity. I definitely listen at higher than recommended levels. BUT - I think most of my damage can be attributed to live concerts, both attending and performing. Any damage from the home hi-fi is secondary and probably relatively negligible.
 
My tinnitis has been related to exhaustion, so I guess I'm lucky that a good long nap will sort it.
The left ear is going, but as long as I can hear a violin concerto at all, or any good music, I don't mind so much if it isn't perfect. It's still wonderful.
 
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