brad1138
Active Member
I have loved music my entire life. I have spent my entire adult life building my home stereo/theater, continually upgrading and improving this or that, I'm a self professed audiophile. (http://audiokarma.org/forums/index....-listening-space.130581/page-817#post-9861888)
One of my issues is I like loud music. About 3 to 4 years ago, I had more or less achieved what I had been striving for, for so long. The Mirage spks with Citation Amp & Lexicon Preamp (etc.) Sounded so good, it literally brought tears to my eyes. After only a couple months of enjoying my "dream system", I had a week off and a lot of stuff to do around the house, so I spent a lot of it with the system cranked up as I milled around. Towards the end of the week, I woke up one morning with a ringing in my left ear and everything above about midrange, nearly gone... (in my left ear )
My ability to enjoy my greatest passion, crushed. Everything I had spent 20+ years building, a cruel reminder of my significant hearing loss. It was extremely difficult to sit and enjoy music, stero imagine was basically gone, every high sound (above 2 kHz or so, I think) coming from the right ear and sounding muffled like my left ear was significantly plugged or there was cotton in it. The high pitch ringing was there all alone in my left ear. Also, the entire range was down a bit relative to the right ear.
Over the last 3 or so years, I have tried to get used to it, and to some small degree I did. I could enjoy concert blu rays, the surround sound helped mask the issue.
I went to the Doc, not long after. They did some test, and thought it was a bit odd to lose that much hearing like that, but nothing they tried worked very well. I had noticed that pressure changes, like when I come down from the mountains seem to change the "muffledness" over the years, but that didn't really help anything. 3 years is a long time, I had resigned myself to my hearing loss.
I beat myself up countless times for not taking better care of my ears, and not knowing what you have till it's gone had never been more relevant.
Last weekend I was on a 500 mile drive to a friends house. As I was driving over some mountains, I noticed the subtle changes in my left ear I had notice before. I decided, to clear my ears by plugging my nose and blowing. As the pressure built, it felt like it has before, but then all the sudden, the volume of the radio (in both ears) sounded like it increased 20 dB (not your normal clearing of plugged ears increase). As I held the (medium) pressure the increased volume persisted, then when I released the pressure, the increased volume when away, but I could tell something was different. I knew it would be hard to assess with the hills/mountains still on my route, so I figured I would see how it was in the morning.
I woke up next morning and 90-95% of the hearing that had been gone in my left ear for over 3 years was back!!! I couldn't believe it, the left speaker now sounded normal again, stereo imaging was back. I still have a little tinnitus in the left ear, but with the highs being back, it is easy to ignore, and a lot of the time, I can't even hear it.
I spent a lot of today, really hearing my system for the first time in a long time, it brought tears to my eyes again . I have a doctors appt Monday to discuss it, the problem is likely Eustachian tube related, and some of the things that helped, but didn't fix it originally, may help me get all the closer to 100% back.
I am beyond lucky, I have a new appreciation for my hearing, and it's fragileness. Be careful with your ears, they will eventually fade, do what you can to push that day off. For a music lover, losing your hearing really sucks, trust me.
Take care all
One of my issues is I like loud music. About 3 to 4 years ago, I had more or less achieved what I had been striving for, for so long. The Mirage spks with Citation Amp & Lexicon Preamp (etc.) Sounded so good, it literally brought tears to my eyes. After only a couple months of enjoying my "dream system", I had a week off and a lot of stuff to do around the house, so I spent a lot of it with the system cranked up as I milled around. Towards the end of the week, I woke up one morning with a ringing in my left ear and everything above about midrange, nearly gone... (in my left ear )
My ability to enjoy my greatest passion, crushed. Everything I had spent 20+ years building, a cruel reminder of my significant hearing loss. It was extremely difficult to sit and enjoy music, stero imagine was basically gone, every high sound (above 2 kHz or so, I think) coming from the right ear and sounding muffled like my left ear was significantly plugged or there was cotton in it. The high pitch ringing was there all alone in my left ear. Also, the entire range was down a bit relative to the right ear.
Over the last 3 or so years, I have tried to get used to it, and to some small degree I did. I could enjoy concert blu rays, the surround sound helped mask the issue.
I went to the Doc, not long after. They did some test, and thought it was a bit odd to lose that much hearing like that, but nothing they tried worked very well. I had noticed that pressure changes, like when I come down from the mountains seem to change the "muffledness" over the years, but that didn't really help anything. 3 years is a long time, I had resigned myself to my hearing loss.
I beat myself up countless times for not taking better care of my ears, and not knowing what you have till it's gone had never been more relevant.
Last weekend I was on a 500 mile drive to a friends house. As I was driving over some mountains, I noticed the subtle changes in my left ear I had notice before. I decided, to clear my ears by plugging my nose and blowing. As the pressure built, it felt like it has before, but then all the sudden, the volume of the radio (in both ears) sounded like it increased 20 dB (not your normal clearing of plugged ears increase). As I held the (medium) pressure the increased volume persisted, then when I released the pressure, the increased volume when away, but I could tell something was different. I knew it would be hard to assess with the hills/mountains still on my route, so I figured I would see how it was in the morning.
I woke up next morning and 90-95% of the hearing that had been gone in my left ear for over 3 years was back!!! I couldn't believe it, the left speaker now sounded normal again, stereo imaging was back. I still have a little tinnitus in the left ear, but with the highs being back, it is easy to ignore, and a lot of the time, I can't even hear it.
I spent a lot of today, really hearing my system for the first time in a long time, it brought tears to my eyes again . I have a doctors appt Monday to discuss it, the problem is likely Eustachian tube related, and some of the things that helped, but didn't fix it originally, may help me get all the closer to 100% back.
I am beyond lucky, I have a new appreciation for my hearing, and it's fragileness. Be careful with your ears, they will eventually fade, do what you can to push that day off. For a music lover, losing your hearing really sucks, trust me.
Take care all
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