Do you have tinnitus?

My dad had it, it drove him nuts.  Considering the most common cause is noise induced hearing loss....  time to lay off the IEM's for a while.  Sometimes it goes away on its own, sometimes drugs like qiuetus will help.

Yes, I have a small case of tinnitus in my right ear....

One morning after several years on this planet I woke up about 3am to a ringing noise in my right ear, It's sounds very similar to the 'sound of silence' at the time it was rather loud and very annoying. I thought it was just an ear ache or something and tried going back to sleep. Only to find when I woke up in the morning it was still there, I became very worried. After a few days nothing changed and I had major problems trying to sleep at night. It became very bothersome when I was in quite environments.

Several months later it's there all day every day but not as bad as originally, sometimes it has bad days and becomes rather obvious but honestly, I feel I've become accustom to it. it's just like an everyday thing that I really have to listen for. Your brain adjusts and blanks it out for me, however I can see people with weak concentration skills being drawn in by it and have a Chinese water torture effect or similar. For example now typing thinking about it, I can hear it louder then usual.

Remember this is just something that happened over night and was far before I began using any IEM's. It doesn't effect the listening experience as I feel my case is rather minor though I don't want to get any louder. But again...this was something that flared up from absouktely 0% just over night.....
Edited by H20Fidelity - 11/15/12 at 4:02am

I have it intermittently in my left ear. I can ignore it until someone asks if I have it.  It usually occurs after I fall asleep on the sofa in a slouching position. Perhaps I have a pinched nerve.

I get it in my right ear if I use my IEM's for two or more days in a row in the bus, and I always listen at low volume levels. My Ety's now stay in a drawer since I'm a bit paranoid about it and I don't want to hurt my hearing, I don't want it to affect my listening pleasure with my main headphone setup. So I don't listen to music on the bus anymore.

 

I can listen to a headphone for days on end without feeling anything, I also listen to low volume levels with my headphones. However I do turn the volume up a bit somethimes since music just sounds better when it is a bit louder than my normal listening levels, if I do this I sometimes feel it again in my right ear at night or the following day, very frustrating to be honest.

 

I sit in the bus for about 2,5 hours a day and there are always a few people with regular earbuds blasting hip hop and techno music at insane listening levels, so much that I can hear every word of the song while sitting several seats away!! I just can't imagine the damage they are doing to their hearing. I suspect that the audioligy and hearing aid business will be very profitable in about 20 to 30 years time...  

Edited by spickerish - 11/16/12 at 2:12am

My head-fi name. Nuff said...

I have always wondered If I have it. Not really sure what it sounds like. In complete silence I have always heard something. Not really a ringing but just something really low. Maybe this is just the "sound of silence" someone spoke of? I dont know. If I plug my ears will the sound still be there if its tinnitus?

Yes, but trust me you'll know if you have it...

Ok thanks, I'm afraid of having it happen in the middle of the night now 0_o. I'm only 21 but I did shoot a lot of weapons when I was younger.

Eh. Lifes to short to worry about things like that. Get a good nights rest. Tomorrow's another day...

You know if someone lets a really loud fire cracker off next to you and your ears start ringing for a while? That's what It sounds like, but constantly, without a break. One long continuous ring. Sometimes you just wish it would stop for a spilt second to give you a break.

Over ten years of volume control abuse, sporadic ringing for brief periods. Or maybe I'm just dying.

I've always felt like I have had a mild case of it, but have never gotten it checked out. Can you have tinnitus but the ring be extremely subtle? As in, when I am in a very quiet place (library or bedroom late at night), I can hear it slightly. It is something that is always kind of there if I listen for it, but it's never really noticeable until it gets really quiet. Even then, more than half the time I don't notice it.

Edited by treal512 - 11/16/12 at 3:57pm

I have a constant ring in both ears. It is like a 18KHZ tone. Makes it hard to test my hearing because it drowns out the higher tones on low volume.

Another weird thing is it turns out I can still hear almost up to 20KHZ in my left ear but no higher than 17 in my right (16Khz is supposedly normal hearing for someone nearing 40.). Conversely i can hear tones around 15Khz louder in my right ear than my left although I can hear it easily in both.

The Tinnitus is irritating in dead silence. When listening or through a normal day I don't think of it.




^ hilarious

I have constant tinnitus in both ears. I've had it for at least 15 years. It sounds like a combination of a ringing and whistling. I have learned to put up with it, but true silence is never there. I'm listening to headphones now and can focus on the music, but the background noise is still there.