Ears vs brain re hearing loss.

[Wombat]

https://www.urmc.rochester.edu/news/story/735/when-the-brain-not-the-ears-goes-hard-of-hearing.aspx

 

[Blumlein 88]

This is interesting. I think the effect has been known for years though normally considered an again inner ear problem. I find as I am nearly 60 that going to events with large noisy crowds makes it hard to hear conversations. Not so many years ago no problem. Now at something like a football game it becomes an over-bearing mish-mash of sound.

 

[Wombat]

Glass/chrome/marble/tiled eateries and gathering spaces are problematic for me. Too many loud reflections.

To make it worse there is often music playing so voices are again raised accordingly.

 

[Frank Dernie]

Glass/chrome/marble/tiled eateries and gathering spaces are problematic for me. Too many loud reflections.

To make it worse there is often music playing so voices are again raised accordingly.

We have stopped going to restaurants with minimal furnishing because of the noise. One place near here is an ancient coaching Inn with good food. They give a choice of the old dining room or a (fairly) newly covered ex-courtyard atrium. The food is the same but the dining room is about a million times more pleasant to be in because of the carpet and (perhaps) uneven ceiling.
Going deaf is clearly a nightmare for the music lover but slow loss of high frequencies is, for me, no problem for enjoying music, and trying to compensate in the hifi is pointless unless there is a way of compensating for real life sound as well, which there obviously is not without hearing aids which makes everything sound screechy according to my wife.

 

[Blumlein 88]

Glass/chrome/marble/tiled eateries and gathering spaces are problematic for me. Too many loud reflections.

To make it worse there is often music playing so voices are again raised accordingly.

Yes, that too. Reminds me of Johnny Rockets. 50's style diner. All chromed metal, tile floors, big glass front and sides with metal roof. Popular with kids too. A cacophony when busy.

 

[NorthSky]

Wars must be tough on the ears, eyes and brain.

 

[Natchie]

Thanks for the link to the article. Would love to see an update on that research.

 

[Soniclife]

We have stopped going to restaurants with minimal furnishing because of the noise. One place near here is an ancient coaching Inn with good food. They give a choice of the old dining room or a (fairly) newly covered ex-courtyard atrium. The food is the same but the dining room is about a million times more pleasant to be in

One of our local pubs has added acoustic panels to the ceiling to help, seems to make a minor difference.

I've never been good at this sort of filtering, I expect it's going to get worse soon.

I've long suspected the worst spaces are deliberately like that to drive old people away, same as some clothes shops play horrible loud music to keep the old out. It's particularly annoying in restaurants as one of the main reasons to go is to talk to people, and if you can only hear the odd word it's pointless.

 

[Hipper]

One of our local pubs has added acoustic panels to the ceiling to help, seems to make a minor difference.

I've never been good at this sort of filtering, I expect it's going to get worse soon.

I've long suspected the worst spaces are deliberately like that to drive old people away, same as some clothes shops play horrible loud music to keep the old out. It's particularly annoying in restaurants as one of the main reasons to go is to talk to people, and if you can only hear the odd word it's pointless.

And to keep young people out you play high pitched sounds (18-20kHz) which us old farts can't hear.

There was an attempt to do this locally some years ago to deter vandals. Vandals are thought to be mostly young. Of course us old vandals could have afield day!

 

[Soniclife]

And to keep young people out you play high pitched sounds (18-20kHz) which us old farts can't hear.

And then the kids recorded it and used it as a ringtone their teachers could not hear.