Are hifi products a complete waste if you have tinnitus?
Aug 17, 2019 at 4:42 PM Thread Starter Post #1 of 25
aliquis

aliquis

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Hi. I like to compare what I head and enjoy and engaging sound.

However through my 20s I got ringing in my ears after being in clubs for instance for obvious reasons. I especially remember one place which was absolutely crazy loud and hurt already back then and I told them about it but they didn't lower volume at all though there's regulations for sound pressure.

In my 30s I haven't been out much but I've used headphones while on the bicycle at wind or near busy roads or just enjoying music which haven't been good for the ears either. Ended up with DT 990 for a short while which I tried for games and used waaaay too loud volume too (since people say they are hard to drive and they didn't sounded the way I was used too so I kinda tried to compensate for low mids / voice in game with higher volume but bass and treble become very loud resulting in ringing for a long time (days-weeks.)

Anyway when I shut things off and try to sleep I have quite a bit of background noise. I have no idea how loud. But like when you look at stuff with high SNR and such I assume that if you have say 30 dB of ringing in your ears all the time it become very irrelevant?

Can one appreciate "details" anyway as in accuracy or is that lost too really? Also of course my treble hearing range is crap too and I feel like above 13 kHz I don't think I hear anyway.

Is eq / ok frequency response kinda "enough" for people with ruined hearing at my level? Anything else wasted as my own biological equipment is so crap by now? =P
 
Aug 17, 2019 at 11:52 PM Post #2 of 25
aliquis said:
Hi. I like to compare what I head and enjoy and engaging sound.

However through my 20s I got ringing in my ears after being in clubs for instance for obvious reasons. I especially remember one place which was absolutely crazy loud and hurt already back then and I told them about it but they didn't lower volume at all though there's regulations for sound pressure.

In my 30s I haven't been out much but I've used headphones while on the bicycle at wind or near busy roads or just enjoying music which haven't been good for the ears either. Ended up with DT 990 for a short while which I tried for games and used waaaay too loud volume too (since people say they are hard to drive and they didn't sounded the way I was used too so I kinda tried to compensate for low mids / voice in game with higher volume but bass and treble become very loud resulting in ringing for a long time (days-weeks.)

Anyway when I shut things off and try to sleep I have quite a bit of background noise. I have no idea how loud. But like when you look at stuff with high SNR and such I assume that if you have say 30 dB of ringing in your ears all the time it become very irrelevant?

Can one appreciate "details" anyway as in accuracy or is that lost too really? Also of course my treble hearing range is **** too and I feel like above 13 kHz I don't think I hear anyway.

Is eq / ok frequency response kinda "enough" for people with ruined hearing at my level? Anything else wasted as my own biological equipment is so **** by now? =P
Click to expand...

If your goal is absolute fidelity then the tinnitus will make that a waste.

If your goal is just something that will have a smoother response than crap audio equipment in more objective terms or on a specific application (ie some headphones like the LCD-2 are stronger from ~1000hz down to 10hz than above that range, which even for people who don't have tinnitus is a benefit as it compensates for the lack of the whole body sensation for perceiving the beat which is usually in the lower freqs.
 
Aug 20, 2019 at 7:34 AM Post #3 of 25
As a tinnitus sufferer (I have a 14k ringing in my ears at about 40db the whole time) I would say indulging in hi-fi isn't a waste of time. I tend to prefer a brighter more analytical headphone as I simply can't hear a muted treble. But the details in the mids come through and obviously I have a preference with bass too.

I probably hear headphones "differently" to most people - treble in particular goes from muted to painful with a very small sweet spot but I can hear a difference between each of my sets. I can also hear the difference between CD and vinyl and between flac and MP3. Losing a large part of my hearing has made the rest more sensitive.
 
Aug 20, 2019 at 10:18 PM Post #4 of 25
Probably most people’s hearing is compromised to some degree. Nonetheless it’s about maximizing the enjoyment of hearing in the range you CAN hear vs worrying about the range you can’t. In which case having high quality head gear etc will always be worthwhile!
 
Aug 23, 2019 at 6:44 AM Post #5 of 25
If Hi-Fi headphone makes me enjoy an excellent music experience, then I think it is not a waste.
maybe most people's ears may be damaged by the influence of noise without hearing more details of music, but now most people are pursuing spiritual enjoyment.
 
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Aug 31, 2019 at 9:56 AM Post #6 of 25
Tonymac136 said:
As a tinnitus sufferer (I have a 14k ringing in my ears at about 40db the whole time) I would say indulging in hi-fi isn't a waste of time. I tend to prefer a brighter more analytical headphone as I simply can't hear a muted treble. But the details in the mids come through and obviously I have a preference with bass too.

I probably hear headphones "differently" to most people - treble in particular goes from muted to painful with a very small sweet spot but I can hear a difference between each of my sets. I can also hear the difference between CD and vinyl and between flac and MP3. Losing a large part of my hearing has made the rest more sensitive.
Click to expand...

I couldn't agree more. I'm far from having a perfect hearing capacity since I'm 42 years old and like half deaf under ~30 Hz and above ~16 kHz. However I'm perfectly able to hear the difference between a Strat type guitar and a Les Paul, or a cranked Marshall type amp and a Fender Tweed, or between lossy and lossless music. Just enjoy the music!!
 
Aug 31, 2019 at 10:25 AM Post #7 of 25
DaniRojo said:
I couldn't agree more. I'm far from having a perfect hearing capacity since I'm 42 years old and like half deaf under ~30 Hz and above ~16 kHz. However I'm perfectly able to hear the difference between a Strat type guitar and a Les Paul, or a cranked Marshall type amp and a Fender Tweed, or between lossy and lossless music. Just enjoy the music!!
Click to expand...

I wouldn't call that "half deaf". That's a normal range of hearing for anyone older than a teenager.
 
Aug 31, 2019 at 1:18 PM Post #13 of 25
It would be nice to have the hearing tested. Unsure whatever Swedish health-care would have any interest in doing that just for "fun to know"-reasons nowadays. Guess one can complain about the rining and find out.

I want to make the joke that people bother me and that as such I assume vocal/mid range is what I should filter out ;D
 
Sep 1, 2019 at 12:01 PM Post #15 of 25
I have tinnitus since I knew what is tinnitus but I can't hear it unless the room is very quiet ~30dB or when I use my IEM, but when I play very quiet music I don't hear it at all even with IEMs, so for me it's nothing to worry about.

But I read online that some tinnitus are loud enough to hinder listening to normal conversation but yours is not like this so don't worry about it just don't stress your ears at loud volumes.

About above 13khz it's not important at all, most what you need is up to 10-12khz anyway and even old folks with damaged hearing can listen up to that. Anything above 10khz is just ~3% of the total sound we hear so it's not like 10k-20k is 50% the 20-20khz of our range it's just ~3%.
 
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