Hearing damage

[ijvanl]

Music is one of the things in this world which I love the most, but it seems I've loved it to the point where I risk losing it. A family history of hearing issues + too many loud rock gigs without earplugs when I was younger has meant my hearing has suffered — for a good few years now, I've had a persistent noisy tinnitus in both ears; it's as if the pre-amp inside my skull has blown a capacitor and its self-noise level has increased by a half dozen dB. I can still listen to music and hear most of the detail at safe levels, but often I find it very hard to make out the minute details of a piece of audio without cranking the volume, which in turn might risk damaging my hearing further, etc etc.

Anyone here with similar experiences / hearing issues? What are your experiences working in the world of audio with hearing which might not be the best?

 

[pucho812]

I am fortunate that the only thing damaged in my head is my mental state. There has been a lot, let’s just say that.
My ears on the other hand have what is considered normal loss for my age and where I live.
I do feel for you though as I have had times where due to sickness my ears didn’t work right. Best described as a blown speaker on one side. I managed to get through that by just trusting my instincts and reading meters. Luckily no one complained about the work.

 

[cyrano]

I've got Tinnitus. Usually a 7 to 8 kHz tone in my right ear. Sometimes white noise. When I'm tired, my left ear starts buzzing too.

There's a yoga exercise that helps. Putting my hands on the back of my skull and tapping with the thumbs just below the base of the skull.

Most other things I've tried don't seem to do much.

 

[JohnRoberts]

Over the years I have been exposed to many loud noises. I have tried to use ear protection including wearing ear plugs to protect against wind noise while riding my motorcycle decades ago. I even had to DIY ear plugs using cigarette butts, one time on a military rifle qualification firing range.

I perceive some chronic overload distortion in my right ear (crackling sound coincident with loud noises), but I pretty much just live with it while avoiding exposure to high SPL.
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Depending on the nature of the injury lots of hearing damage is permanent.... BUT increasing blood flow is helpful to the body for healing sundry injuries. The ears have very tiny, narrow blood vessels so blockages can occur.

[TMI- One time I had some traveling blood clots from a sports injury. I could literally hear the blood flowing in one ear where a clot was partially blocking a tiny blood vessel resulting in a pulsing, rushing noise. [/TMI]

Good luck, hearing is important to multiple gigs in the audio business.

JR

 

[Ó Draighnáin]

It was not the loud gigs that did it to me it was having headphones levels too loud when tracking. Mine is bad, it is always there and present, and I actually get pain and a worsening of the self-noise from high SPL. I can't really play in a band anymore which is sad (well except for folk which is where I've headed musically). It hasn't stopped me from using woodworking machinery, I'm just really careful with ear protection. It is strange, but when walking in the mountains I have found that I don't really notice it.

 

[ruffrecords]

I have tinnitus in my right ear too - probably from many years with a telephone clamped to my right ear. I have not been subjected to persistent high levels but about 10 years ago the top end response of my ears was noticeably worsening. A year ago I finally got my ears tested and the response was something like 10dB down at 8KHz. Couldn't believe it but they fitted me with a pair of hearing aids right then and there and I have not looked back since. Modern digital hearing aids are surprisingly good. They have no LF response but that is OK because that just bypasses them anyway but the top end it now a lot crisper. High hats are no longer buried in the mix. Mine have several settings. The normal one is for speech but there is also a music one with a much extended frequency response..

Cheers

Ian