[troublemaker]

well something real odd just happened.

I was listening for about an hour to my ET4's at what i would call a normal level and all was good - then i left them in my ears and disconnected them from my iPod, and went downstairs to get another beer, when i got back upstairs i noticed what appeared to be a ringing. Worried i went to take them out, and the second i pulled the left earbud out the noise disappeared immediatly, so i reinserted it but it didnt come back.

Can anyone explain this?

 

[Geek]

You are experiencing mild tinnitus. Tinnitus is a condition in which one or both ears exhibit some sort of noise that is not supposed to be there.

It usually is caused by exposure to too much loud sounds, music, or whatever. But it does have other causes.

If you notice unusual ringing in your ears, I'd put the phones away and take at least one or two days away from the phones, avoiding exposure to loud noises to let your ears rest.

I live with permanent extremely mild tinnitus, 70% right ear, 30% left ear. It never goes away but I only hear it if the room is dead silent. Low-volume headphone listening or the sound of my computer covers it up. Classical music is loud when you're the performer, that's how I have tinnitus.

Don't become like me, take frequent breaks.

Cheers,
Geek

 

[MERTON]

does it sound like staticy air? i sometimes hear that if the room is completley silent.

 

[Knocturnal]

Ill second what geek said

 

[Moguta]

Quote:

Originally posted by MERTON does it sound like staticy air? i sometimes hear that if the room is completley silent.

No. Ringing in the ears is usually a basic frequency tone. Supposedly it's constant & consistent enough (once permanently damaged) that a violin player could tune her instrument by it. O.o

 

[gpalmer]

The tinnitus warning is a good thing, I have a son in his early twenties that has managed to damage his hearing already by too much loud head-phone listening. Mine comes honestly enough from having been a musician and working sound.

I have one question though, how tight was the seal in your ear? I have managed to get the seal of the Etys so tight that I got ringing like what he's describing from the pressure. Similar symptoms to his, as soon as I relieved the pressure the noise was gone. They also give me problems if I insert them too deeply, for me I just go as far as the bend in the ear.

 

[gpalmer]

BTW tinnitus is when one the hairs in your ears that pick up sound waves get damaged enough that they fire all the time instead of just when there is stimulus. Since the hairs for high frequency sound are closer to the ear drum, they tend to get damaged first. So to answer the earlier question, yes it appears centered around one frequency and doesn't usually waver (at least mine doesn't).

 

[rextrade]

I have a mild case--but w/ the etys, what happened (recently) was they (maybe) pushed up some gunk that was in my ear and caused ringing, which was even made worse when I went diving--really loud ringing. As soon as my ears cleared up, the ringing went away. Now, I just have the usual mild ringing that I only hear when things are silent.

Os, I suspect that clogged ears=loud ringing which will go away. But, I'm not a doctor and no nothing about ears.