Tinnitus suffers! Are still able to enjoy music? Do you go to concerts?

[stunta]

Lately the only time I hear my very high pitched Tinnitus is when I read about Tinnitus! Like right now!

I signed up for the new dual sensory treatment. Will see if I ever get to the front of the line and who well it works (sadly they don't have a lab in our state).

How do I sign up? Thanks

 

[vco1]

1. Yes
2. I'm very, very hesitant. Definitely no arena-size concerts anymore. Perhaps smaller gigs, but only if I expect the music not to be very loud. I learned my lessons (the hard way).

As a sidenote, last year I went to a conference. Couple of hundred visitors. The foyer had such bad acoustics that the noise hurt more than at most concerts. And the people were just talking.

 

[Thelo80]

As a sidenote, last year I went to a conference. Couple of hundred visitors. The foyer had such bad acoustics that the noise hurt more than at most concerts. And the people were just talking.

That is what I have experienced. The lobby of my office building (very high ceilings) or Whole Foods (very high ceiling) I shop increase my tinnitus sound a lot. I don't know why. But NYC subway is not a big deal. I went to a school Carnival party of my daughter's school, the sound level of the noise was very intense, but I was surprisingly good.

 

[Chrispy]

Yes, have had it a coupla years now altho not a particularly bad case (a high pitched whine, most noticeable in quiet environment and can be exacerbated if I'm really tired/lacking sleep). If I go to a concert I bring ear protection these days, but was doing that before the tinnitus too, particularly large venue rock shows. Smaller clubs/pubs not so much.

 

[little-endian]

Lately the only time I hear my very high pitched Tinnitus is when I read about Tinnitus! Like right now!

However I guess it is yet another difficulty and importance to distinguish between additional tones (in harmless and only temporarily annoying cases as many probably experienced them during slight sudden hearing losses, which often go together with more or less a pure sine-like tone, considered to be pretty normal and independent of age but may persist in not so great cases) and the regular "idle background noise" which, according to experiments, absolutely everyone has, at latest when put into a soundproof chamber for a while.

I'd claim that to some extent, just like with visual (retinal) noise, it is perfectly normal to always hear something if the surrounding SPL is only low enough as any physical system will exhibit noise which in everyday's life is mostly filtered out of the perception.

Your very high-pitched one "sounds" quite familiar and known since forever in my case.

In general, I comfort myself with the fact that noise actually has advantages (as used in dithering), just like you mentioned in one of your review videos. Not only may noise "simulate" higher resolution / sharpness; in terms of quantization, it actually removes any stairsteps by spreading the error into randomness and thus decoupling it from the input signal (with images, it prevents banding).

 

[Peterinvan]

This is a good way to mitigate the loudness. You can buy special ear plugs that have a flat frequency response.

Etymonic musician's attenuators:

https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B0044DEESS/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[MattHooper]

Lately the only time I hear my very high pitched Tinnitus is when I read about Tinnitus! Like right now!

I signed up for the new dual sensory treatment. Will see if I ever get to the front of the line and who well it works (sadly they don't have a lab in our state).

First, sorry that you have Tinnitus Amir!

Do you have any more details on that treatment?

As I've mentioned, I had a treatment for my hyperacusis, which was based on TRT (Tinittus Retraining Therapy) which is a type of "noise therapy." The treatment for hyperacusis and Tinnitus is similar, both involving wearing little noise generators in the ears, like hearing aids. The sound is tailored after having a full ear exam to see what notches you have in your hearing as well as what frequencies are most bothersome. By starting with very light white-noise-like (tailored) sound constantly in the ears, the idea is it re-trains your brain to get used to sound, stop freaking out as if sound is a danger or painful. Seemed to work over time.

The TRT uses noise as well, played at a level just below your level of Tinnitus ringing (or whatever noise you hear). The idea being that it doesn't mask the tinnitus because you still want to be able to hear it, but it's reduced in level relative to the noise so your brain starts to push it in to the background. Then, I believe, the noise is gradually lowered in level over time until your brain is no longer focusing on the Tinnitus. (William Shatner, who had been in agony due to an FX explosion on the Star Trek set setting off terrible Tinnitus, had this therapy).

 

[Deleted member 48726]

1) Yes. @stunta said it perfectly, that the music masks it.
2) No. But not because of the tinnitus.

I believe my tinnitus is very mild though. It's very high in frequency and I can normally only hear it when I'm home alone in the house (noise floor ~ 26 dBA) or at night when going to bed.
It worsens with lack of sleep and is a great indicator of being too busy as well. I actually used it as a tool to cut down work hours before stress symptoms would show up when I was doing larger projects. Just call it a bio-hack!

 

[Deleted member 48726]

Pro-tip:
1. If you smoke / vape or other wise indulges in nicotine one way or the other, -quit it! -Nicotine worsens blood flow to the ear and worsens tinnitus. Don't believe me. Quit it for two days and see it get better.
2. Exercise. -This makes blood flow better. A ^-1 of the above.

 

[cavedriver]

The loudest place I ever worked was a wood shop that had large planers running. We wore ear muffs over ear plugs, so supposedly about 45 dB of noise reduction. It was almost impossible to talk or communicate to each other because you couldn't yell over all the muffling, but at least I don't think it was what wiped out my high frequency hearing. What probably did do it was a) rock concerts, especially over-amplified systems with lots of distortion like in one club I remember, b) power tools, especially a chain saw because I didn't wear hearing protection on 2 occasions, and c) impact drivers - apparently most impact drivers include a significant high frequency component that is so short you don't realize that it's doing damage. As others have said I try to always bring earplugs now to concerts and wear them if the sound system is too loud. Buy good earplugs, the super cheap ones don't go in easy (there's a trick though) and the better ones will give you consistently good protection. If I were going to more concerts I would buy the Etymotic ones, they make great products.

 

[Dialectic]

I had tinnitus when I was a classical musician (my "career" ended in 2004). It returns when I'm exposed to loud noise.

Recently this happened when I left my RME ADI-2 DAC in high power mode with my Sennheiser 600s (I also use a pair of insensitive planars), and I inadvertently switched from a quiet Morton Feldman piece to recently recorded pop music. That was painful. Still hearing the high pitched noise now while cooking dinner.

 

[Sgt. Ear Ache]

When my Tinnitus became alarmingly loud in the late 90's I was somewhat stubborn. I didn't want to start using any noise masking machines by the bed or whatever because I didn't want to feel dependent on them. I did a fair amount of traveling and didn't want to haul around or depend upon such things to get to sleep. It worked out fine for me as I learned to ignore the ringing and usually slept fine.

When I did a noise therapy for my hyperacusis condition, one requirement was a white noise machine by my bed (part of "re-training" my nervous system to accept constant noise - avoid silence). While many find white noise soothing I found it hard to get used to. It was distracting. Eventually I got used to it and since the therapy lasted a couple years I still have it on by the bedside.

I don't like white noise myself. Too harsh. I like brown noise...something with a little less high freq energy, or an actual fan which is a necessity in the summer in my place anyway. I also like to put on a youtube audiobook for sleeping - with the volume low enough that all I hear is a muffled voice but can't actually hear any specific words.

As far as tinnitus goes, I've gotten pretty used to it, and mine may have somewhat improved over the past few months, but it always waxes and wanes. I can definitely still enjoy music and I still like to pump up the volume a fair bit but I am cautious about it.

I don't go to concerts very often, but that's not really due to the tinnitus. I just can't be bothered with the whole live show experience ftmp. It's too expensive, too annoying (the crowd/parking/late night etc) and generally not worth it for me. I have friends who get excited to go see their favorite acts if they come through town but I just have no interest in dropping hundreds of dollars watching geriatrics roll out their golden oldies.

 

[Ncesar]

Yes, i have tinnitus and i enjoy music a lot.
In fact I'm lucky to be able to have a stereo setup at my workplace.
I dont ear music very loud on headphones, just loud enough to mask the tinnitus. Less that half the scale on my smartphone.
During the day at work or in Street i barely notice. But at night is worse, at the point of not being able to sleep. If that happens I just put my earbuds at low volume, so my brain can distract from the tinnitus.
When i go live concerts (Black & Death metal fan) i always use ear plugs,and also when riding my motorcycle.