[andrzejpw]

Gah, I'm so afraid of all of this.

I'm only 15(16 in a month. . . WOOT). Anyway, I listen to what I call a moderate level. I can EASILY hear me snap my fingers. I listen at such a low level that on some old jazz recordings(Brubeck, Davis, Coltrane) I can't hear the tape hiss. If I turn the volume up, I can.

I really need a decibel meter from radioshack. . . how are they on returns of such things?

 

[Clubkill]

It sound to me like a good test is to stop after about a half hour of listening/gaming and go into a quiet closet or something. If your ears don't feel like they are tingling, or trying to adjust, and obviously if they are not ringing, you are probably alright. It is just the leaving them on for a long time at too high of a level that can do damage, so do a checkup midway through.

And don't get so paranoid!

(unless it makes everyone sell their gear at the same time and make for great and wonderous deals for me

)

 

[Flasken]

Quote:

Originally posted by Vertigo-1 3. Put those on in a dead quiet environment, and then listen for any sign of ringings. If you have tinnitus this is a pretty sure fire way to find out if you've got it or not, and to what degree.

oh no no no... Anyone who plugged his/her ears in a silent environment would hear "the sound of tinnitus". I am sure you already know that, vertigo, but my point is, that whenever you focus on a sound, the more the brain amplifies it. In your test, all external sounds are removed, and at the same time you are psycologically focusing/looking for the high pitched sound or "tinnitus" - thus the brain would make it sound much much higher than it physically is.

BTW I am not saying that I am an eardoctor and that I know all about sounds and the internals of our ears - all of the above is from personal experience and experimentation combined with what other people have told me.

So how DO you know how serious your case of tinnitus is or if you even have it`?? I'd say that there are no other ways to figure it out, other than going to an eardoctor.

I also think it is important that you actually go consult a doctor as fast as possible. Obviously the sound will disturb you much more once you start convincing yourself that you have irreversably damaged one of your 5 senses for the rest of your live.

- Kristian

 

[grinch]

it will take a whole lot more reasoning before i ever agree to the idea that headphones are more damaging to ears than speakers. loud is loud. if you listen too loud, don't be suprised to not be able to hear your kids singing at their high school choir. i have a friend who is completely deaf in one ear from her "misspent youth"

and she pleads with everybody she knows to be more careful with their hearing. not being able to hear REALLY sucks.

also, a helpful hint for cleaning ears: (i do not know if there are any medical reasons not to do this but my mom has a medical background and has been doing this to me since i was little)

1. clean ears with alcohol and q-tips.
2. lay on your side and have somebody pour a little alcohol into your ear. let it sit there for a minute or two and then flip over and let it drain out, cleaning with q-tips.
3. do this with hydrogen peroxide

it actually works a lot better than alcohol and fizzes and gives a rather interesting feeling. you can hear the peroxide fizzing away wax and stuff and after dumping that out i am clean as a whistle.

if i ever had any effects of tinnitus (never have once, yet) this procedure is one of the first things i would do directly afterward.

and just for the record, dictionary.com's definition of tinnitus:

tin·ni·tus Pronunciation Key (t-nts, tn-)
n. pl. tin·ni·tus·es
A sound in one ear or both ears, such as buzzing, ringing, or whistling, occurring without an external stimulus and usually caused by a specific condition, such as an ear infection, the use of certain drugs, a blocked auditory tube or canal, or a head injury.

(just thought that was interesting)

edit = grammar correction

 

[Joe Bloggs]

FWIW, if you're going on any more rounds of marathon gaming, it might be worth it to check out some phones with less treble response, like the Sony VxxxDJ for example

 

[Flasken]

- oh good. For a minute i thought you were going to spill some rubbish about you making the VxxxDJ sound like HD600s through eq'ing...

Luckily you haven't gone THAT crazy... yet


kidding as always,
- Kristian

 

[dhwilkin]

As grinch said, loud is loud. And time is time. Nine straight hours of listening, whether through speakers or headphones, is not good for your ears. They need time to rest eventually... the longer you play, the lower you must keep the sound. Take an hour break every now and then. Or keep playing, but turn off the sound for an hour... heck, pretend it's training, like when Obi-Wan forced Luke to put the blaster shield on his helmet down when practicing against the training droid. Sharpen your force senses.

 

[john_jcb]

The same thing has happened to me Nick, although from a differenrt source. When driving long distances with the windows down I experience the same feelings that you describe. I think fatigue may have something to do with it.

I have taken to wearing earplugs that provide some attenuation, not so much that I cant hear what is happening but they take the edge off. To a lesser degree I have also noticed this on very long flights (over 6 hours). In both cases it has disappeared in a short time.

I look back at all the things that I did when young that could of damaged my ears and am thankful that I hear as well as I do. Hope it is temporary with you as well.

 

[pedxing]

After my bad experience with headphones while playing Max Payne about over a years ago, I actually believe that headphones and computer games don't really mix. I am probably full of crap, but here are my reasons. Most computer games are gun shots, explosions, and random noise. These noises have a tendancy to be louder than the rest of the noise in the game such as background music. Many computer games seem to have two levels of volume - really quite sounds (foot steps, dialog, and background music) and really loud explosions. To hear the quite stuff, I had to turn up the volume which means the louder sound effects are too loud. I wish more computer games came with volume adjustments for each type of sound such as dialog, music, and effects.

Because of this, I think I made my tinnitus in my right ear worst while I was playing computer games with my headphones.

 

[kelly]

Pedxing is right, of course. A lot of games have two different volumes so that you can set the volume of the sound effects and the volume of the music seperately--I find this useful so I can turn off their crappy music and turn on my stereo system and keep the (almost necessary for some games) sound effects.

The default settings will almost always place the sound effects at a higher volume than the music. If you're jamming along to the music at a "good" volume, the sound effects would undoubtedly be too loud. So yeah, adjust accordingly.

The real problem with stuff like this is that you naturally WANT the gunshots to sound like gunshots. But of course, real gun shots in real life make people deaf all the time. It sucks that you always have to scale back realism to maintain your health---I swear some day we'll get those jacks installed in our skulls and bypass this whole "speaker" thing.

 

[Clubkill]

Quote:

I swear some day we'll get those jacks installed in our skulls and bypass this whole "speaker" thing.

That is the day I get some really quality interconnects.

 

[scalar vortices]

Definitely a health condition that should not be ignored, for those who value their auditory perception of the world.  There have been some advancements at combating the issue:
 
  http://www.audionotch.com/app/tune/
 
For those who notice inner ear fluid buildup, occasional or constant, this road map might help put things into perspective:
 
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eustachian_tube
 
And for the people who enjoy unfavorable posture while being in the "comfy chair" (season 2 episode 2):
 
  http://www.tucsonchiropractors.com/spine-map.html
 
Headphones can help and severely harm the delicate apparatus known as human hearing.