[RobertR]

I have been surfing the threads on tinnitus and noticed how many of you are affected by the ringing or high freq. whine in the ears.
I have the same problem but have learned to ignore it especially when listening to my ER4's.
But I don't think anyone has described what music sounds like for those with tinnitus.
Are my ety's too revealing when I hear raspiness or distortion of high freq. or is this a symptom of tinnitus.
Are most cd's badly recorded. I plan to audition a sacd on the sony if possible and see what happens.

 

[moose]

now I'm no expert on the matter, but...I do own a pair of ER4s and what you're describing sounds to me like you have a bad recording. Unfortunately, a lot of CDs are poorly recorded. Perhaps you could share some of the CDs and tracks on which you hear the raspiness and see what people using a similar setup with the same music have to say. And good heavens, be carefull with your ears! Tinnitus is a dose related phenomenon, meaning that the more that you listen, the greater your risk. Also, people who have had it once are more susceptible to having it again.

Best of luck.
M.

 

[Eagle_Driver]

Robert Radina, that symptom is more than likely caused by craptacular mass-produced recordings, played on a mostly mediocre front-end. Most pop and rock recordings are so sucky (sound-quality-wise) that you might as well listen to them on *cough, cough* crapola Sony Street Style headphones!

 

[kelly]

People who have had anything once are more susceptible to having it again. It only takes one person to get it twice to slant the odds. This is one of the oldest statistics tricks in the book.

It's unlikely that tinnitus is effecting your perception in the manner you described. I agree that you'd be better questioning the recording itself but it could easily be symptomatic of your CD player too.

In answer to the question, no, I don't think the Etymotic is "too revealing." I actually find them a bit on the soft side compared to the Stax and a lot of speakers I've heard. In general I don't find the highs to be as harsh as on the Sony 7506 for example.

Listening straight out of the headphone jack of my PC at work's onboard sound is probably the worst source I have access to now and even with that when playing mp3s, I didn't find the ER-4P to be harsh in the least. It was pretty sensitive to the noise, though, which was expected.

 

[violeta88]

From the time I was a young child to my early teens I had occasional episodes of ringing in the ears. What you describe does not sound like a real case of tinnitus. An episode of ringing in the ears, like mine, can be related to tinnitus. Whenever I started to hear the ringing, I went deaf. I could only hear the ringing sound, nothing else. Occasional episodes are normal for everyone, but frequent episodes can be a symptom of a more serious problem. I believe my frequent episodes of ringing of the ears are the reason why I don't hear sounds as loud in my left ear as I do in my right ear. This all happened before I started listening to headphones. So, I am really careful to stay at that 80db or below mark with my listening. I listen loud, but I don't blast my eardrums out. And I'll never use canalphones. Too close for comfort.

 

[sTaTIx]

About tinnitus: I've had slight ringing in my ears before, and I was told that it was due to a cold, or allergies, or some other slight ailment. I've had ringing in my ears for no apparent reason before. I've had ringing in my ears before I ever owned headphones. Now, I have very sensitive ears, and I don't turn my volume knobs high by any means. Could a cold or a fever cause ringing in the ears, like some have suggested? Am I more susceptible to hearing damage, even though my ringing is clearly not caused by loud noises?

 

[gloco]

I wonder if it has anyone to do with wax buildup, cuz u know wax wont be the only thing stuffed in there, dust, hair and other things may get trapped in and play havoc with your ears. Get checked out and see if you see to get your ears flushed out.

 

[violeta88]

To be on the safe side get it checked out, but it probably is just due to colds or ear infections. When it becomes a problem is when you have had hearing loss before, in my case probably due to early childhood ear infections, and when you have frequent ringing. The ringing is caused when the tiny hairs in the ear that vibrate and send the sound signal to the brain die. Each ring is one hair dying. It's common to have some occasional ringing, especially when you have a cold or an ear infection, but if you have frequent ringing, you need to see a doctor right away. Tinnitus due to headphone use is caused by the hairs being overloaded and dying due to shock. It's amazing what you can find on the internet about tinnitus nowadays. But, if it was just a couple of incidents of ringing due to colds you're probably safe. Just to be on the safe side, always keep the volume under 80db. 80db is loud, just fight the urge to turn it up a little more. Happy listening!

 

[lee.watkins]

my sinuses get stuffed up all the time and when they do sometimes I get a ringing in my right. Now I can't hear stuff quit as lound in that ear, but it's only very slight and hardly noticable. Getting you ears cleaned out makes a huge difference, or at least it did for me. I was in India over January, and they have these professional ear cleaners who stand outside the temples. With special tools they delicately clean out your ear cannals and they scoop out a rediculous amount of stuff. It really is amazing how much crap can get jammed up inside your head. Afterwards I could hear so much better it blew me away, and I didn't even think there was anything wrong beforehand. It's something you'll never notice until after you get it done, and be like "OH!, wow!"

 

[dknightd]

Quote:

Originally posted by kelly This is one of the oldest statistics tricks in the book.

Did you know that the "average" person has less than 5 fingers, and less than two functioning ears <- keeping on the headphone topic

Not to mention 2.3 kids

 

[pedxing]

When I get sick, drink too much caffeine, or experiencing too much stress, my tinnitues can get really really really loud.

While wearing your Ety's in a relatively quiet environment, listen to your ety's without any music but with the amp on. Then remove the ety's from the source, not connected to anything and then try listening again. If the ringing disappears, it might be interference from the source. Also, if the ringing only occurs while you are listening to music, it is probably a bad bad bad recording (yes, i have to use repitition for emphasis

).

 

[RobertR]

Thanks to all for your insightful comments and concern.
When I get back home I'll get my ears checked out by a dr.
I still feel that the ETY's`are doing something to the high freq. because the graininess or raspiness is not as evident with the Sony V6 or Portapros.
Maybe my ears have become over sensitive to the extended response of the ety's. However there are times when the sound is magical and I cannot go back to my old cans.

 

[dlow]

Do people hear high-pitched tinnitus like ringing when you're near televisions? Especially near lots of TVs, like the electronics section of Walmart or a Radio Shack store. When I ask people that are with me, they don't seem to hear anything out of the ordinary.

 

[Vertigo-1]

It takes a trained ear to hear that...and I can imagine most audiophiles have no problem hearing that TV whine if they listen for it. I can hear it myself if I zone in on it, but out of the blues I probably wouldn't hear it.

 

[RVD]

Quote:

Do people hear high-pitched tinnitus like ringing when you're near televisions? Especially near lots of TVs, like the electronics section of Walmart or a Radio Shack store. When I ask people that are with me, they don't seem to hear anything out of the ordinary.

I hear the same thing from my tv and I thought it was my ears at first but then I listend a little closer and found it was coming from the tv.