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I have a very mild form of it, too. And it definitely was my fault, turning the volume up too high, listening with ear speakers.
Did you try methods that help you to ignore it?
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William Shatner is a famous example of a tinnitus sufferer. He did habituation therapy. I'm not sure exactly what it involves, and Thor may have more information on the topic, but I do know it's basically training yourself not to hear the tinnitus. I have much empathy for anyone suffering from tinnitus, an inescapable affliction.
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Posted: |
Jun 3, 2013 - 2:02 PM
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By: |
MMM
(Member)
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Giving the ears a rest is not a solution. The main cause of hearing loss and tinnitus and sound sensitivity is damage to the hair cells in the ears. Once you damage those cells, they aren't replaceable, and taking time off from listening won't do anything in that regard. The only thing you can do is to not listen to music too loudly. That is one of the main causes of these hearing problems, although not the only one. Stay away from headphones, and if you're in a really noisy environment, cover your ears and get out as soon as you can. But thinking that you can take a few days off from listening after the fact is incorrect. Once the damage is done, it's done. Period. There are other ways of trying to help you deal with pronounced hearing problems, but that's for some other discussion. If you have really mild tinnitus, you'll get used to it over time, and when you do hear it, use that as a reminder that you need to really protect your ears in the future.
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Posted: |
Jun 3, 2013 - 7:20 PM
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By: |
Jon Lewis
(Member)
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My wife and I both have it. My wife has had it for many years, me for less than a year. Hers is much more severe than mine: she describes it as sounding like someone using a vacuum cleaner in the next room, while mine is exactly like Thor's description: "I hear it every waking second (the sound is akin to the sound you hear when you turn on old televisions)".
From reading I've done online, I am inclined to attribute mine to the Koss closed cans I was using from late last year to around March of this year. Apparently closed cans are more aggravating than open-air cans, and before these Koss (whose sound I loved loved loved) I had used Sennheiser HDs and Grados (I was not aware of it, but both of these are open-air). My ringing really ramped up after I had been using the Koss for about 6 months. I've switched back to open air Grados now and while, of course, the ringing has not gone away, it's also not been aggravated and mostly occupies the background of my aural consciousness again.
BUT there's a new catch which is quite depressing to me: I can no longer listen to solo piano music at any volume on any type of phones. Something about the timbral character and dynamic shape of the struck piano note really aggravates my ringing almost immediately, and the worsening effect doesn't wear off for several hours. At first, I thought only modern, hi fi, stereo piano recordings did it and mono piano recordings were okay. But it became evident that even old Schnabel and Kempff recordings still exacerbated the ringing. So I've had to give up my beloved Beethoven and Schubert sonatas, Schumann fragment-cycles, Debussy pieces and George Crumb experiments completely. This is probably my single favorite area of music full stop, so I'm pretty sad about it.
It's all about the orchestra now. And, curiously, pop and rock recordings, most of which don't aggravate my tinnitus-- unless they feature a lot of spotlit piano.
PS-- "why don't you quit using headphones?" you ask. My only available time for listening to music is while at work at my desk, so it's headphones or nothing at all...
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Posted: |
Jun 4, 2013 - 6:57 AM
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By: |
pp312
(Member)
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From reading I've done online, I am inclined to attribute mine to the Koss closed cans I was using from late last year to around March of this year. Apparently closed cans are more aggravating than open-air cans, and before these Koss (whose sound I loved loved loved) I had used Sennheiser HDs and Grados (I was not aware of it, but both of these are open-air). My ringing really ramped up after I had been using the Koss for about 6 months. I've switched back to open air Grados now and while, of course, the ringing has not gone away, it's also not been aggravated and mostly occupies the background of my aural consciousness again.
BUT there's a new catch which is quite depressing to me: I can no longer listen to solo piano music at any volume on any type of phones. Something about the timbral character and dynamic shape of the struck piano note really aggravates my ringing almost immediately, and the worsening effect doesn't wear off for several hours. At first, I thought only modern, hi fi, stereo piano recordings did it and mono piano recordings were okay. But it became evident that even old Schnabel and Kempff recordings still exacerbated the ringing. So I've had to give up my beloved Beethoven and Schubert sonatas, Schumann fragment-cycles, Debussy pieces and George Crumb experiments completely. This is probably my single favorite area of music full stop, so I'm pretty sad about it.
There's a couple of interesting points here. It's possible the closed Koss cans built up air pressure within the ear and accelerated the onset of your tinnitus. There's been quite a lot of discussion about tinnitus at Head-Fi, another site I visit, and many theories have been advanced, but interestingly, especially given that Head-Fi is a headphone site, nothing has been said about closed cans v. open ones. It makes sense though to suppose that closed can would cause more pressure on the eardrum and the hairs that act as the conduit for sound. Well, something to think about, anyway.
As for the piano thing, I don't know if you're the same, but I often get an "echoey" effect with piano music, coupled with slight distortion, as if my headphones had a bum driver. They don't, and this only started as my tinnitus got progressively worse, so I take it as just another symptom of a progressive deterioration. It's all rather depressing, but since I've been listening to headphones for over 40 years, at realistic levels, not altogether surprising. As great as the music of Rozsa, Tiomkin, North, Bernstein, Goldsmith etc is, like every other pleasure it comes at a price.
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I also have it, it's constant. Sometimes I hear it louder than others, but I'm pretty used to it. It doesn't hamper my enjoyment of music and I've reconciled myself to it being there forever.
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) and made everything I listened to sound like I had cotton balls stuffed into my ears. The doc took out the wax, and I haven't had a major blockage since, but what was left behind was a chronic, high-pitched whine that I'm listening to right now. 
