Tribble
New Head-Fier
- Joined
- Nov 20, 2016
- Posts
- 31
- Likes
- 12
Greetings folks!
About a year ago I was sat minding my own business watching TV when I suddenly went mostly deaf in my right ear. Long story short - I suffered sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSHL); it's permanent and there's nothing can be done about it.
I can hear fine up to just over 2kHz on the right. By 3kHz it's 18dB down, and by 4KHz I'm pretty much gone. Those are my own tests earlier today. The official tests showed similar results in my right ear. The left ear is about average for my age they said - still not 50, just
Oh, and just for good measure, I have screaming tinnitus in the right ear, where all those nice high notes should be.
Just what every music lover wants for Christmas
. Anyway, it's time to stop feeling peeved about it and see what's the best I can do. If anything I'm determined to make even more of what I can get hear, while I still can. Any advice is welcome, especially from anyone in a similar situation.
Due also to changes in circumstances, I'm going to be doing far more listening with headphones and need closed backs. All my music these days is on PC (and an Android for trips) and I usually play either from a dedicated PC in my man cave, or a laptop.
I enjoy a wide range of music; electronic, rock, metal, jazz, classical, movie soundtracks, some general 'pop'... not so much into anything *too* vocal, opera or the extremes of metal that make your head bleed. I do have a leaning towards a good solid base beat (fortunately now - I can still hear it) and 'odd'/haunting/weird types of stuff (just been listening to "The Mist" soundtrack).
I currently (mainly) use a Topping TP-60 driven from the PC, with Gale gold monitors, and UE Superfi 5 Pro earphones on anything else. The earphones hurt my ears after a few hours though, and I keep having to move them to ease the (slight) pressure and pain.
Today I've been trying to EQ the output from my laptop using Equalizer APO and Peace GUI software, to compensate for my right ear. The results are a slight improvement, but only a little. Trying to boost anything over 4kHz to the point it matches the left just results in it sounding like breaking glass. Still, I can get maybe an extra kHz out of it before the instrument sounds like it's running around the stage as the pitch changes
After reading a hundred pages or so here, I think the DT 1770 headphones would suit me. I can't easily get out to anywhere I could demo them so will have to buy from Amazon and hope. I often wear glasses too. I'm not going to use a hearing aid as advised by the hospital. I used to have Sennheiser headphones, years ago. Not sure of the model but I paid £100 for them and never really liked the sound.
That leaves me needing a DAC and amp. The outputs from all of my laptops are too hissy and noisy. I detest hiss; I detested it when records and tapes were all we had. Should be a USB-DAC so I can just move it to whatever I want, although an S/PDIF input would maybe be useful. My main PC and laptop have S/PDIF outputs, and I could possibly use it for watching movies too from the media player. I've been reading reviews here but I'm still unsure what to get. It needs to work well with the headphones and the Equalizer software.
I could make my own amp (used to be an electronics geek, although I sold or packed away most of my kit a couple of years ago) but since I need a DAC anyway, I'm thinking an integrated solution would keep life simple. That's not set in stone though.
Budget: Hmm... Really I should not be spending anything, given our current situation, but life's too short and getting shorter. Besides, I have no other vices to spend on (Single malts are not a vice!) and it's nearly Christmas. Given the high cost of the headphones, maybe another £100 (I'm in the UK) for the DAC/amp. If that's just not enough and would waste the headphones, I could go a bit higher and try to find something left to sell to compensate. Hope that's enough to give you the idea.
I would love to find something with a built-in parametric equalizer, but if it exists I guess I couldn't afford it anyway.
So.... there we go. Any suggestions for a DAC/amp, comments on the suitability of the cans, or anything else that might help now that I'm half as deaf as a post?
About a year ago I was sat minding my own business watching TV when I suddenly went mostly deaf in my right ear. Long story short - I suffered sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSHL); it's permanent and there's nothing can be done about it.
I can hear fine up to just over 2kHz on the right. By 3kHz it's 18dB down, and by 4KHz I'm pretty much gone. Those are my own tests earlier today. The official tests showed similar results in my right ear. The left ear is about average for my age they said - still not 50, just
Oh, and just for good measure, I have screaming tinnitus in the right ear, where all those nice high notes should be.Just what every music lover wants for Christmas
Due also to changes in circumstances, I'm going to be doing far more listening with headphones and need closed backs. All my music these days is on PC (and an Android for trips) and I usually play either from a dedicated PC in my man cave, or a laptop.
I enjoy a wide range of music; electronic, rock, metal, jazz, classical, movie soundtracks, some general 'pop'... not so much into anything *too* vocal, opera or the extremes of metal that make your head bleed. I do have a leaning towards a good solid base beat (fortunately now - I can still hear it) and 'odd'/haunting/weird types of stuff (just been listening to "The Mist" soundtrack).
I currently (mainly) use a Topping TP-60 driven from the PC, with Gale gold monitors, and UE Superfi 5 Pro earphones on anything else. The earphones hurt my ears after a few hours though, and I keep having to move them to ease the (slight) pressure and pain.
Today I've been trying to EQ the output from my laptop using Equalizer APO and Peace GUI software, to compensate for my right ear. The results are a slight improvement, but only a little. Trying to boost anything over 4kHz to the point it matches the left just results in it sounding like breaking glass. Still, I can get maybe an extra kHz out of it before the instrument sounds like it's running around the stage as the pitch changes
After reading a hundred pages or so here, I think the DT 1770 headphones would suit me. I can't easily get out to anywhere I could demo them so will have to buy from Amazon and hope. I often wear glasses too. I'm not going to use a hearing aid as advised by the hospital. I used to have Sennheiser headphones, years ago. Not sure of the model but I paid £100 for them and never really liked the sound.
That leaves me needing a DAC and amp. The outputs from all of my laptops are too hissy and noisy. I detest hiss; I detested it when records and tapes were all we had. Should be a USB-DAC so I can just move it to whatever I want, although an S/PDIF input would maybe be useful. My main PC and laptop have S/PDIF outputs, and I could possibly use it for watching movies too from the media player. I've been reading reviews here but I'm still unsure what to get. It needs to work well with the headphones and the Equalizer software.
I could make my own amp (used to be an electronics geek, although I sold or packed away most of my kit a couple of years ago) but since I need a DAC anyway, I'm thinking an integrated solution would keep life simple. That's not set in stone though.
Budget: Hmm... Really I should not be spending anything, given our current situation, but life's too short and getting shorter. Besides, I have no other vices to spend on (Single malts are not a vice!) and it's nearly Christmas. Given the high cost of the headphones, maybe another £100 (I'm in the UK) for the DAC/amp. If that's just not enough and would waste the headphones, I could go a bit higher and try to find something left to sell to compensate. Hope that's enough to give you the idea.
I would love to find something with a built-in parametric equalizer, but if it exists I guess I couldn't afford it anyway.
So.... there we go. Any suggestions for a DAC/amp, comments on the suitability of the cans, or anything else that might help now that I'm half as deaf as a post?
