[Bjrmd]

Sorry to hear about your ringing.  I am close to 60, have some mild/moderate hearing loss (loud concerts, subways, IEM's) and some minimal tinnitus.  I have done a fair amount of literature review on hearing loss, tinnitus and I will share a couple of findings for interested parties.  First, excessive listening levels for portable devices are very common and it appears that hearing loss can occur at Spl levels below the OSHA standards(study below indicates 80 dB).  Second, the idea of custom equalization based on either pure tone thresholds or equal loudness curves turns out to be dangerous from a medical standpoint (although appealing from physics perspective).  A study showed worsening of tinnitus with overcompensation of hearing loss (by changing the equalization).  There are many posts about how to equalize your headphones based on this method and it's possible if you are young, have normal ears it is fine, but for the older population-beware.  The "notched music therapy" (the opposite--cut the tinnitus band out) may or may not be effective but no study has shown it hurts anything.  The other problem with boosting the frequencies you do not hear well, is potential acceleration of the "noise" induced damage to those frequency bands (since they are impaired to begin with).  Unfortunately there are NO generally accepted medical treatments for either tinnitus, nor noise induced hearing loss.
 
I have an android app that will help determine your listening Spl levels if interested.
 
   

 

[SoundSafari]

I've been wearing headphones whenever possible for more than twenty years now. I developed mild tinnitus years ago, but I found that it always got better or went away after taking a break from headphones.

I haven't gotten around to re-repairing my full sized open ear headphones, so I've been sticking with IEMs for the last year - which I previously used only for running. I know that my other headphones are better for my hearing, but I'm infatuated with the bass and overall detailing/clarity of IEMS vs open headphones.

But after listening to lots of abrasive and bass heavy music loudly on IEMs for almost a year straight, I've suddenly found that my tinnitus is literally ten times worse. Last week I began to hear a constant high pitched tone, and several times the hearing on my right side has gone entirely out for a split second and then slowly faded back in. I can tell that I've really screwed myself this time. I actually have trouble sleeping because the tone is so loud and piercing.

I've stopped listening to music altogether for over a week so far, but it hasn't helped yet.

Obviously this tinnitus is due to my own idiocy, and I blame myself - but I just wanted to put out a warning to others about IEMs. They seem FAR less forgiving than full sized headphones. Either that, or they just so happened to be the final straw in a lifetime of ear abuse. In either case, I'm screwed.

Hi,

I too noticed that I tend to get tennitus quicker with IEMs than with headphones, then with headphones quicker than with speakers. I always try to listen via speakers, if I can't, headphones, if I must, IEMs. Luckily my tinnitus is temporary, if I blast music today, after going to sleep, I wake up cleared. The worst that I ever got was at a concert, cleared after about 2 days, next time I'll get some plugs.

 

[mrs1986]

I have tinitus, permanent tinnitus, what I found via my own experiments is that the iems don't make it worse, it's just that the isolation makes you focus on it more... If I'm distracted it never gets in the way, if I'm thinking about it, then it starts to get annoying...
Just listen to safe volumes and you should be good, listen too loud via whatever will damage your hearing...