Tinnitus sufferers: Has it changed the way you listen to music?

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by GhostyTMRS, Jun 18, 2019.

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  1. GhostyTMRS

    GhostyTMRS Active Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    New Jersey
    I've had it for 6 months now. It was from a work related hazard not from cranking headphones.

    Obviously I have to keep the volume down, but listening to most rock music (especially on modern brickwalled CD's) makes my tinnitus flare up something fierce even with the volume down. Music I used to love now sounds like a cacophony, whereas I can only fully enjoy something with a sparse arrangement like "Cry Me a River" by Julie London without clawing my face off.

    Unfortunately the 24 hour a day hissing in my ears means the greatest mastering job in the world sounds like I'm listening to an old cassette.

    Concerts are also now out of the question.
     
  2. Dennis Metz

    Dennis Metz Born In A Motor City south of Detroit

    Location:
    Fonthill, Ontario
    I turn it up louder :righton::cheers:

    PS It sounds like your tinnitus is worse than mine
     
  3. Keith todaro

    Keith todaro Forum Resident

    Location:
    Shreveport
    Well.....42-year’s ago I fractured my skull and lost the hearing in my right ear. The fracture left a constant and LOUD ringing in that ear that never goes away and never gets any less loud.
    Has it impacted my enjoyment of music? You betcha...I miss some stereo effects and prefer “bright” speakers that are harder to find ever since the deep bass fad became de rigueur.
    That said, I soldier on until the other one fails me - then i’ll Sit around with a smile on my face not having to listen to the b.s. this world spews!!!!
     
  4. Chemguy

    Chemguy Forum Resident

    Location:
    Western Canada
    Yes. Amp at 8:30 to 9 o’clock only.

    Mine not as bad as the OP, though.
     
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  5. TS582

    TS582 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Central MA
    Oh man that sucks. Sorry to hear that. Mine is a high pitch squeal rather than a hissing sound, and it is from blasting headphones when I was younger. The big change for me obviously is to stay away from headphones. Even short sessions with low volume causes my ears to ring louder for awhile. Because mine is higher pitched it’s masked while I’m listening though.

    Good luck to you.
     
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  6. Dennis Metz

    Dennis Metz Born In A Motor City south of Detroit

    Location:
    Fonthill, Ontario
    Sounds like mine:cheers:
     
  7. Celebrated Summer

    Celebrated Summer Forum Resident

    Location:
    USA
    No. For some sufferers like myself, if you don't focus on it, you don't hear it. I've had it since 1990, so I've now lived with it more than half my life. Lifelong sinus troubles>massive ear congestion likely caused it. Mine comes in the form of a hiss that sounds like the noise made when you switched on an old television set. It has no "tone" and has not gotten louder in a quarter century, so I don't worry about it.

    Anyway, here is how I view this situation.

    Most times when we listen to music in our homes, we're not in a studio-quiet environment anyway. We get noise from outside bleeding through our windows, humming sounds from our refrigerators, wooshing sounds from our heating and air systems, and so on.

    All of these things are a bigger impediment of my enjoyment of music than my tinnitus. If I don't concentrate on the tinnitus I don't notice it. But there is no way to NOT hear annoying dogs yapping outside, neighbors on the sidewalk having their inane conversations, idiots who insist on revving up their engines at 11 p.m., etc.
     
  8. ronm

    ronm audiofreak

    Location:
    southern colo.
    My tinnitus is a boomyness on a lot of music.Accousticly poor rooms are the worst.Oddly enough turning it up helps a lot.I find now that I really like the dynamics of CVs and JBLs.Alcohol helps also.
     
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  9. craymcla

    craymcla Forum Resident

    Location:
    Nashville, TN, USA
    Wow. Aren't we a motley crew. I first noticed a ringing that would not go away about 20 years ago, and it's gotten gradually louder every year. It's a rather high pitched white noise sounding thing, although "squeal" may apply as well. The advantage of the high pitch is that other sounds kind of sail underneath and it hasn't (so far) affected my ability to hear other sounds. But it never goes way. I'm more or less used to it now, but I've no idea how loud it's going to get. I could be around for another 20 or 30 years.

    I have the same experience with headphones and earbuds making it worse, even at low volumes. I think I'm done with concerts as well, particularly electric music. Even at home I have to keep volumes low and use ear plugs when friends are over so we can at least crank it a little bit for them.

    Ear doctors are worthless. I've been to four over the years. The first two thought I was imagining it. Even though my hearing is otherwise good, they all want you to take a hearing test, and then tell you, "Sorry, I can't help you; you're out of luck." and still charge you for a worthless hearing test.

    Tinnitus is different for different people. The husband of a friend said his was like a roaring train in his head, so I feel comparatively lucky. Pete Townsend seems to have come up with a workable solution that I wish I could learn about, but his may be much different than mine.
     
    Last edited: Jun 18, 2019
  10. MARTHY

    MARTHY Forum Resident

    Anyone with tinnitus on blood pressure meds? My wife was a preschool teacher for years and always had children screaming in her ears. Since beginning to take blood pressure meds years later she determined that all that in-the-ear screaming has caused her to have tinnitus. Didn't have it before taking the meds. And she has checked, and that's one of the side effects of the drug. Since the meds she's on work perfectly for her, she doesn't want to go and screw up other aspects of her body by trying different meds just to relieve the tinnitus. So, bottom line, you might want to check your meds and their side effects.
     
  11. xilef regnu

    xilef regnu Senior Member

    Location:
    PNW
    Sympathies to all who suffer from this. I'm guessing "Tinnitus" would NOT make a good band name.
     
  12. mrwolk

    mrwolk One and a half ears...no waiting!

    Location:
    Ottawa, Canada
    I have learnt to live with it...as most things in life..could be better, could be worse.
    Doesn’t get in the way (so far) in my enjoyment of music or tv.
    I test drove a pair of hearing aids for a couple of weeks and i found the improvement negligible. I am certain that in the years ahead as my hearing diminishes more that advances in hearing aids will get better...hopefully.
     
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  13. 62vauxhall

    62vauxhall Forum Resident

    The piece de resistance for my tinnitus was a 10 day motorcycle trip in 2010. No ear plugs (never ever did wear them) with constant wind noise.

    Ears have been ringing ever since.

    System is in the living room but most of my listening is sitting in the kitchen.

    Probably caused my slobisim too. Or maybe coincided with it. Gear and speakers clutter the living room enough so that some effort is required to establish a listening position again.
     
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  14. micksmuse

    micksmuse Forum Resident

    Location:
    san diego
    had it for almost 20 years also. i turn it up even on brickwalled, trying to defeat it. just a stubbornness i guess.
    mine was from playing in front of drummers on small stages with the cymbals almost against the back of my head.
    i had read somewhere that for loudness to do real damage to your hearing it had to be sound that was unpleasant like industrial sounds etc.
    i choose to believe that, though i doubt the validity of it so i crank volume to compensate for hearing loss. losing battle i guess.
     
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  15. Brian Lux

    Brian Lux One in the Crowd

    Location:
    Placerville, CA
    Definitely, but then I also have hyperacusis. Some music increases my tinnitus so I'm thankful to have a receiver that has volume control on the remote. After my hearing became damaged, I couldn't listen to at least half my music collection. Now, having learned to not over-protect my ears (which was making things worse) and having the remote, I can pretty much listen to it all. The difference that remains and probably always will remain is that my listening sessions are shorter and live music is pretty much a thing of the past.
     
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  16. I have mild tinnitus brought on by a bad case of the flu of all things - a kind of high-pitched hiss that occasionally is more of a sensation than a sound. Most of the time I don't notice it unless I think to notice it, or if it's dead quiet. It hasn't affected my hearing much, aside from in noisy situations with a lot of chatter and crosstalk. The only ways it's affected my listening to music are, I'm mindful not to crank up the volume when listening on earphones or buds, and I never go to any kind of live performance without earplugs. Sometimes I end up taking them out, but I don't want to be caught off guard and have to stuff my ears with toilet paper or even leave.

    I also had a bout of Meniere's disease a couple of years ago, and that was really damaging to my enjoyment of music. It reduced everything in my right ear to a sort of trebly static, like listening over one of those cheap hand-held portable radios of the early '60s.
     
  17. GLENN

    GLENN Forum Resident

    Location:
    Kingsport,TN, USA
    I have it, and mine is that constant hiss/old TV being turned on sound. My mother had it so it might be somewhat hereditary but mine really reared it's ugly head when I started working in an environment with constant beeps, chimes, announcements and other sounds. This was also after moving to a higher altitude and a period of frequent headphone use, all of which may have contributed. I mainly notice mine when it is quiet, so music for the most part does not exacerbate the situation, but I usually don't "crank it" anyway.
     
  18. 62vauxhall

    62vauxhall Forum Resident

    I rarely use headphones but did a couple of weeks ago. Only to listen to something more loudly than speakers in a 2nd floor suite allows.

    Afterwards, it sounded like my clothes dryer was running. At least the noise was different for a while.
     
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  19. Bassist

    Bassist Forum Resident

    Location:
    London
    Sounds like you have it pretty bad.

    Mine stems from a soundcheck accident six years ago and is isolated to a loud whistle mostly in one ear but it is still ridiculously invasive for someone who lives for music.

    I am with the play-it-louder camp in that I have to play music loud enough to cover it in order to enjoy what I am listening to and will take my lumps in terms of what that produces the rest of the time. I know that does not work for all sufferers as I have a friend who had an ear stroke for whom that approach is a short cut to misery and near-madness.

    I am lucky in that I have trained myself (with the help of a specialist psychologist) to tune it out a lot of the time. So it only really bothers me in un-amplified concerts - classical primarily.

    I find all ambient noise (traffic, crowded bars, muzak etc) distressing and need to see people's lips move to know what they are saying. Especially women and kids as it is my highs that are most effected. I have also lost the ability to judge the distance sound is travelling from. Fleetwood Mac on Sunday was very strange as I could not really distinguish the relative volumes of the PA and the delay towers even though we were sat pretty close to the lip of the stage. I wont be doing stadium shows again I don't think.

    Silences are to my ears what floaters are to my eyes when staring at a clear sky. I try and avoid them at all costs as it just reminds me of the damage!

    Best of luck with it as it is a brutal condition and the health professionals I spoke to at the start were not at all equipped for it. I found the psychologist through a woman who offers physiotherapy for performers. I would recommend it even if you are NLP sceptic. It might help you get some relief.

    Oh and stay hydrated. I find that to be a huge factor.
     
  20. sparkmeister

    sparkmeister Forum Resident

    Location:
    Abergavenny UK
    My tinnitus comes and goes but touch wood, it hasn't materialised for a while now, propbably because I don't play music especially through headphones as loud as I used to.
     
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  21. Radio KTmS

    Radio KTmS i am a dj, i am what i play

    a slowly disintegrating disc in my neck has caused a bone spur,
    which in turn is pinching nerves and causing my body to do all sorts of new and interesting things...
    one of which is tinnitus.
    so i now play music when i sleep to balance out the constant hiss.
    perennial favorites include brian eno's ambient stuff,
    both blade runner soundtracks,
    and a custom pat metheny playlist,
    of all things.
     
  22. Maltman

    Maltman Somewhat grumpy, but harmless old man.

    Location:
    Vancouver Canada
    I didn’t notice it until I started reading this thread, but it’s there, hissing away. I’ve had it for a few years now, but it hasn’t really affected my enjoyment of music, I just tend to keep the volume quite a bit lower than I used to. I can’t stand loud noises anymore, like some guy on a Harley going by flat out, or the racket in crowded pubs. I put it down to a misspent youth of listening to everything at 11. I sat in the front row at a Yes concert at the Rainbow in London back in the mid 70s. The sound was actually physically painful and I had to get up and go stand at the back. I can’t imagine what it all did to the hearing of those musicians.
     
  23. kvsawilson

    kvsawilson Senior Member

    Location:
    Durango,CO
    I describe my tinnitus as constant crickets and the only good thing about it is that I no longer hear real crickets any more. Now and again, it will be like someone inside my head turns a knob and it becomes more of a squeal. I definitely don't listen to music as loud as I once would but still need it loud enough to hear over the crickets. And I enjoy music as it gives me something to hear besides the crickets.
    I did get hearing aids that have a music setting and was shocked to realize how much sounds had changed. I sort of knew that I wasn't hearing cymbals and bells very well but what shocked me most was hearing drums and percussion again with the snap back in it. They had just become a thud sound as my ears got worse. Unfortunately, the hearing aids did nothing for the tinnitus.

    K
     
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  24. GrahamBW

    GrahamBW Senior Member

    Location:
    Illinois, USA
    I suffer from tinnitus mostly in my left ear. It was caused by stupidy in basic training when I was firing my rifle without hearing protection in that ear so I could better hear my squadmates. After the first round fired, I thought, That was a bad idea.

    Throughout my military career, whenever I'd take my annual physical, I'd always show some hearing loss in the left ear. I had a profile in my medical file stating I was required to have hearing protection with sounds over a certain decible level (can't remember the level, now).

    The night before my final physical (about seven months before I retired), I went to sleep with my iPod playing in my ears. Those sixty-man rooms could get loud, and the ear buds would block some sound and the music would mask the rest. I had the volume as low as the iPod could go with it still being perceptible.

    The following morning, I passed the hearing exam. I explained what happened to the physician's assistant. He said "Congratulations, that almost never gets better." Then he removed my medical profile.
     
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  25. Brian Barker

    Brian Barker "No matter where you go, there you are"

    I've had it for about 23 years now thanks to a lady who tried to make a U turn AROUND my car on a 4 lane road while we were going 45 MPH. I saw it coming so I turned my head to the left...airbag sounded like a shotgun going off. I guess I'm lucky to have it, for about a week after it was much worse to the point of not being able to hear anything out of my right ear. Luckily, things sound normal, with a slight high pitched hum. It hasn't changed how I listen to music that much, normally. There have been a few times over the years where it flares up really badly. And I've never listened to John Harle's Terror and Magnificence (playing when it happened) since...
     
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