[Trismos]

I have a topic I'd like to ask others about. I'm 51. I'm a life long drummer who's been foolish enough to play without hearing protection for too many years. And I suffer from a pretty good dose of Tinnitus. It's a pretty distressing ailment sometimes, especially when you're trying to enjoy a good piece of music and the Tinnitus acts up.

I'd appreciate it if others out there who suffer from this would chime in a bit.

Regards
Dave

[Pez]

While I don't suffer from Tinnitus I did have a very nasty bout of eustachian tube disfunction for 6 months last year. Basically what kept happening at random intervals several times a week is that suddenly I would hear a very loud low fluttering sound constantly coupled with a very large drop in my ability to hear in that ear. This would go on for hours sometimes and worse it would not cease for days. When it first happened I freaked out thinking I was losing my hearing. For any audiophile the very thought should give you pause.

It took several specialists to finally diagnose the problem and then the 'solution' was pretty much worthless involving flo-nase, that's right the stuff you take for allergies. Needless to say all of this really put a damper on any listening. It got to the point where if it was happening I just plain wouldn't listen to my system due to shear frustration. One thing that I think worked is that when the problem would act up I would stuff an ear plug in my ear. I can't say for certain that it did anything at all, but it seemed like the issue would resolve quicker if I plugged my ear.  Any way, I honestly can't even remember when it stopped, but I am so happy to be done with it.

I know it's not the same thing as tinnitus, but this experience definately made me realize just how frustrating something like this can be. Protect your ears, no show you are at is worth losing even a little bit of hearing. Ear plugs people.

[Pez]

sorry, re-read my post made a revision.

[Trismos]

Thx Pez.

[Russell Dawkins]

something like this would be a good idea in a noisy environment:
http://www.etymotic.com/hp/er20hd.html

[Trismos]

I'm all over educating people to protect their hearing. Thanks for the link Russell. I am hoping to hear from others who suffer similarly on what they do or have done.

[catastrofe]

I'm 52 and suffer from Tinnitus also.  It's always in the background, but I've been able to somewhat tune it out by not focusing on it.  I've also found that Ginko Biloba provides a little relief, but not much.

Based on my Internet research, there isn't much you can do in the way of treatment.  The medical community isn't even sure what causes it, and they point to external factors such as loud noise, along with internal factors such as stress.  The aforementioned Ginko B is one of the potential treatments, but its effectiveness varies by individual.

Ultimately, I just try to ignore it.

[Elizabeth]

I have severe tinnitus from an acccident at age 19. I almost died from a severe skull fracture (headfirst into curb off back of motorcycle hit by drunk driver)
So the first three years were the hard ones.
Now it is just my personal hair shirt.
I do nothing to try to stop it or slow it down. (after 43 years living with it... I am pretty used to it)
The odd thing is test tones are really hard to 'pick out' at an audiology test. But music I can hear through the tinnitus pretty well.

[groovybassist]

I've got tinnitus primarily in my left ear - was also a musician earlier in life. I've gotten used to it and generally don't notice it unless I'm in a quiet environment or focus on it. If I focus on it, I can hear it any time, even through very loud music. The one interesting thing it does to me when listening - I always feel like the left/right balance is off and the image is skewed to the right. I'm getting used to that, but to me this is the most annoying aspect of it.

Mike

[Rclark]

I can't even imagine. Tinnitus must be the herpes of audiophiles. No cure, never going away. I swear it's those earbuds man. They'll F up your ears.

[abernardi]

I noticed there's a parallel thread in the Music Circle.  This is an important topic.  Is there a way to merge these two threads?

[Trismos]

I noticed there's a parallel thread in the Music Circle.  This is an important topic.  Is there a way to merge these two threads?

My apologies. I didn't know where to put it and since I frequent the GR circle it naturally started here. But yes, it's important to me and I see many others too.

[mhconley]

I'm 52 and also suffer from tinnitus; it started about 15 years ago.  My father has it, too.  I have a constant ~9.5kHz tone in both ears, louder in my right than in my left.  I also had Eustachian tube issues my entire life until a CAT scan found a cyst in my sinus in my mid-40's.  I've had no issues since it was removed.  I have some hearing loss in my right ear due to a "friend" firing a 44 magnum next to my right ear when I was in my early 20's.  It's severe enough that I find it difficult to understand voices in that ear.  I've tried many tinnitus remedies including drops and various minerals/vitamins but none have made any difference.

I find I can still enjoy music and can critically listen to sources, components and speakers.  I've learned to tune out the tinnitus.

Martin

[Quiet Earth]

Here are a few things you can do to improve a mild case of tinnitus:

Reduce caffeine intake
Reduce sodium intake
Reduce alcohol intake
Reduce medications if possible. Don't take any if you don't have to.
Drink more water during the day.

Here are a few maintenance tips :

Wear earplugs when you mow the lawn or do other noisy chores.
Buy a stereo that sounds really good at low SPLs, like 75 to 85 dB.
Stand as far away from the drummer as you possibly can. If he or your guitar player refuse to play at sane levels, put your ear plugs in or go home.

[Russtafarian]

My tinnitus is centered around 13khz right where my hearing begins to roll off.  That makes me really sensitive to speakers with rough, peaky treble.  It's been a challenge finding a speaker system that doesn't aggrevate the condition.  Recently I've mated a Fostex compression bullet tweeter to my Zu Superfly's in place of the internal tweeter.  I'm still playing with the crossover level and slope, but the results are promising.

Last year I read this book and implemented some of the ear retraining techniques.  It hasn't cured or eliminated my tinnitus, but it has minimized my awareness of it on a day in day out basis.

 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0521088372

An example of the suggested ear retraining is I have a radio at my desk at work that I tune to give me "white noise".  I keep it on all the time and set the level to where it mixes with the ringing in my ears but doesn't steal my attention from everything that's going on.  Over time this has helped to desensitize my perception of the ringing. 

The other thing I do (as mentioned by others) is use musicians earplugs whenever I know I'll be exposed to higher than normal noise levels (concerts, car races, power tools, vacuums, etc.) to avoid unnecessarily aggravating my tinnitus.  These etymotic plugs are inexpensive and effective at lowering but not completely blocking noise.

 http://www.amazon.com/Etymotic-Research-ETYPlug-Protection-Earplugs/dp/B0044DEETC/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1311703912&sr=8-2

Russ

[Martyn]

I've had moderate tinnitus for many years; as far as I'm aware, there's no cure. It doesn't affect my enjoyment of music, although you never quite know what you're missing.

My tinnitus is aggravated by loud noises. Music that is too loud (although it might not seem like it at the time) can elevate my tinnitus which can take weeks to settle down again. So resist the temptation to crank up the volume!

There have been several references to ear plugs. I advise against these and suggest using external ear defenders instead, even though they may sometimes be less convenient. The skin of our ears produces a thin, protective layer of wax. Every time you insert an ear plug, you smear the wax further down the outer ear canal. Eventually the wax accumulates against the ear drum and attenuates the higher frequencies. This can happen quite quickly if you use ear plugs a lot. Having the wax syringed out of your ears is not the most comfortable way of passing a few minutes, although it is probably the most cost-effective audio tweak you'll ever discover! These days, I have a full medical examination every year or so and make a point of having my ears checked for wax. The subtle rustling and jingling sounds that become evident once that big, ugly plug has been blown out are a joy!

[dm]

I have tinnitus and I am a GIK customer.  No, one has not caused the other 

Others have already discussed the medical side and lack of real cures for Tinnitus.  From an acoustics prospective I find that there are two key factors that I must consider to enjoy my 2 channel and HT listening.  Low volume and acoustical treatments for music/dialog clarity.

Low Volume:

With my tinnitus I really cannot listen to my HT or music at loud levels without paying the price later with increased tinnitus symptoms.  Therefore, I have taken measures to sound proof my dedicated listening room as much as (economically) possible.  In this way I can eliminate as much of the non-music and sound as possible in my home and then listen to my music/movies at a lower volume.  I don't want my music/movie watching to have to compete with other sounds in the home and thus cause me to increase the volume to compensate.

1.  My listening room is in the basement of my home.  3 of the walls are below ground cinder block.  This virtually eliminates street noise and most of the noise from elsewhere in my home.  I have added a layer of greenglue subfloor on the main level in the floor above my basement.  I have solid core doors in the two doors leading to my listening room.  Not a room in a room, but enough to lower the transmission of noise into my listening room.  I can listen at lower levels and enjoy my music.

2.  Audyssey Dynamic EQ.  Dynamic EQ is a system that creates a more "perceived" natural tonal balance for lower level listening.  For HT it boosts the surround channels, but it also balances the bass which has a more dramatic fall off when listening at lower volume levels.  The Dynamic EQ allows me to enjoy a more natural perceived balanced even at lower listening tinnitus friendly levels.

Acoustical Treatments (GIK! plus DIY):

I have spent alot of attention to acoustical treatments in my listening room.  The goal is to provide bass trapping so that I can smooth out the bass response and for the higher frequencies eliminate echo, combing, first reflection issues that may smear the sound and make the accuracy of the sound less than perfect.  With my tinnitus I find any extraneous noise or reflections compete with the tone I hear in my ears from the tinnitus and make understanding (clarity) of the music that much worse.

3.  Bass trapping.  The basement has cinder block walls and cement floor.  This is not great for bass causing unpleasant peaks and nulls.  I have DIY ethan winer panel traps and rigid fiberglass panels in the corners.  Also the greenglue floor above acts as a significant bass trap.  Key is to evening out the response so that the modal bass peaks do not overwhelm the bass in the room and again cause you to increase the volume to compensate or have loud unnatural peaks that will aggravate the tinnitus.

4.  First reflection and corner treatments.  Especially for the center channel, you need to absorb the reflections coming from the corners (tri-corners and floor-wall, ceiling wall corners, etc).  I find with my tinnitus that any extra background noise or reflections makes dialog in movies that much harder to understand.  This also allows me to lower the volume of the movie and still be able to understand the dialog.  I have first reflection (center speaker) absorbers as well as (now out of business) eighthnerve corner treatments.

5.  Diffusion.  I have several GIK QRD and Gridfusor panels in my room.  With items 3 and 4 above I have created somewhat of a dead sounding room.  I needed to selectively add back controlled diffusion, especially for my front left and right speakers to make the music sound live in my room.  I have Magnepan 1.6QR front speakers which are a dipole speaker with a figure 8 pattern of sound coming from the front and back of the speakers.  The do not excite side wall or much in the way of floor or ceiling reflections.  I have GIK diffusion panel treatments behind the speakers (front wall?) as well as on the back of my room (rear wall?) to evenly spread out the sound coming from the front and back of the magnepan panel speakers.

I find that ironically even tho the tinnitus is a hearing related syndrome, it is my audio hobby that has provided a significant source of relief via recreational listening.  When I am in my listening room, my tinnitus is much less of a annoyance.

best of luck