I want some of your messMy mess as of December 10th.
I have a lightly tinnitus (I hear like an interference with some songs -or passages- in my left ear and mainly when I'm in my car listening to it's simple stock radio). With headphones, sometimes (once, a doctor said to me that the tinnitus shows when you are nervous) with some headphones it appears but only in certain passages of songs. I think my Sony Z7s produce some days a little, but not all the days.Going to have to change my listening habits and start compensating headphones for speakers, my tinnitus is getting worse! might have to retire from headphone listening altogether!
It's so annoying, isn't it?
I've had Tinnitus for about 4 or 5 years but it was bearable for me, I experienced the high frequency buzz sound and I think it was headphones that caused it, it might have been the bass heavy JVC HA-SZ2000's I had in 2016, those headphones where explosive, I tell you. Like wearing a subwoofer on my head, lol. I probably listened to them louder than I should have, but after a while the Tinnitus did seem to go away, then it would come back but only temporarily. The last 4 weeks or so has been seriously annoying as it has came back with a vengeance, but it's a different kind of Tinnitus this time, a far more annoying kind;. It's called Pulsatile Tinnitus, is much louder than the other kind I used to have, and any kind of music listening through headphones at medium volume levels exacerbates it to the point where it becomes a real problem. The most annoying thing is that I think it might be my Fostex TH500RP planar magnetic headphones that have caused it, as it seems to get loudest when I use the planar's. I guess planars must shift more air than dynamic drivers. Hmm..very annoying. I am probably going to have to take a break from planars, aargh! 
I have tinnitus too. I think it’s caused by some medicine I take, and I drink caffeine and vape nicotine (both are associated with tinnitus apparently). I find the opposite to be true of planars vs dynamic headphones. With my planars the tinnitus is fine and manageable (TCs or Susvaras), but with my dynamic headphones (mainly Utopias), my tinnitus flares up more. It’s not terrible once you “trick” your brain to kind of ignore it, but it’s still annoying. I actually sold my first pair of Utopias because of that, but I ended up buying them again (they’re a great pair of cans).It's so annoying, isn't it?
The last thing I want is to end up deaf in my right ear, I already have eyesight damage in my right eye! aargh again! lol.
I never thought to measure the decibel level of the Ha-SZ2000 when I had them, but it was probably a good bit louder than what I thought it was at the time. The ear pads of the HA-SZ2000 where very thin (almost no depth compared to the ear pads you get with a fostex biocellulose) and so my ears where very close (almost touching) to the large 55mm dynamic drivers, also the HA-SZ2000 had smaller 30mm drivers (or was it 35mm ?! I can’t remember.) behind the large 55mm drivers, so there was a high level of ambient noise inside the housing/earcups of the HA-SZ2000 which would’ve amplified the db levels, no doubt, so when I listen with the HA-SZ2000 on my iPhone and set the volume at around 70%, in reality the decibel level was probably at least 5db higher. I don’t know what it is about the Fostex TH500RP but something about it’s sound exacerbates my tinnitus, when I take the TH500RP off my head after a 2 hour long listening session listening at around 65-70db, it takes about half an hour for the tinnitus to quieten down to the point where it’s less audible thus less annoying and more bearable. This exacerbation of my tinnitus does not happen so much when I listen with my Sennheiser HD206 or soft sounding AKG K702, to the extent of which it happens when I listen with the TH500RP. I am no scientist, but drawing from memory of articles I’ve read in the past, I’m pretty sure that low frequency sound waves use up more air/shift it in greater quantities compared to high frequency sound waves. If you stood right next to the turbofan (those gigantic fan thingys on the wings of commercial airliners) of an airplane, you would experience allot of pain and instant deafness, and maybe even death. Turbofans are one of the loudest known noises in the world, at something like 120db. Anyways, that was slightly off topic, sorry, lol.I have tinnitus too. I think it’s caused by some medicine I take, and I drink caffeine and vape nicotine (both are associated with tinnitus apparently). I find the opposite to be true of planars vs dynamic headphones. With my planars the tinnitus is fine and manageable (TCs or Susvaras), but with my dynamic headphones (mainly Utopias), my tinnitus flares up more. It’s not terrible once you “trick” your brain to kind of ignore it, but it’s still annoying. I actually sold my first pair of Utopias because of that, but I ended up buying them again (they’re a great pair of cans).
It’s interesting that you mention bass cannon headphones. I have sometimes wondered if the TCs could be hurting my ears with their humongous bass. They also sound like subwoofers in your ears. I measure the decibel level of my cans, and even very loud, the highest it gets to has been like 77db. With the way the TCs fit, it’s very difficult to get an accurate reading with the bass. I wonder how loud the “subwoofer” type bass really is?
I had tinnitus prior to the TCs, and it hasn’t gotten any worse I don’t think, but I still wonder…
Beautiful set-up! You should also post it here:I finally moved all of this Schiit off of my desk....
Schiit Bifrost 2/64 DAC
Schiit Lokius EQ
Schiit Saga preamp (1957 Sylvania 6SN7GT)
Schiit Asgard 3 amp
Schiit Lyr 3 amp (1952 JAN Philco 7N7)
Roland Octa-Capture audio interface
