Anyone with tinnitus or hearing loss who is into "high-end" audio?


Over the last few years I have developed tinnitus and also have some hearing issues.  I am a long time music and audio fanatic.  Years ago I built my own Hafler amp.  Before that I had a great AR system.  Presently, I have, what I believe, is a pretty nice system in a dedicated listening room (about 60,000.00).  My question is if there are others of you out there in similar situations concerning your hearing issues as they relate to your love and reproduction of great sounding music?  What are your experiences? Have you found anything that helps and do you have any advice? I would venture to say that we all experience some degree of hearing loss, or hearing anomalies as we age...whether we realize it or not.  Thanks, Jim 
pfeiffer
rcprince:  Yes, my diagnosis is Meniere's.  But I think that diagnosis gets thrown at a collection of symptoms without an obvious cause.  (ie. not having a tumor or physical ear damage)  I have had a couple of different ENT's as I have moved around the country, and my experience is that they all tend to prescribe medication (steroids, anti-virals, etc.) when a "paradigm shift" of worsening symptoms is reported to them.  But I am unaware of any cases where anybody is able to reverse the situation.   Maybe your audiologist is aware, but also ask your ENT.  
I have tinnitus also. the type of White noise or a constant ssshhhhhhh. That's one reason I like music so much as it makes forget my tinnitus is there. I wondered if it interferes or makes me miss some information.
Well I too have tinnitus and some moderate loss centered around 3500 hz to about 5k.  Gives me an out when it comes to dealing with the wife!  For me it was a surprise that I had the loss.  Tinnitus sure, but loss...  anyway, its prob like the boiling frog thing.  I never noticed.   Not possible to do an A to B so it's not "an issue".  Even though the loss is in L only, I can't say it's big enough to fuss over.  I still hear things in music, timbre, staging, that most dont.  

Pulsitile I get but never inquired.  Like a tapping in my bad ear.  Has a pitch, irregular.  Like a spasm.

 @ flatblackround, I too get whooshing but for me, its linked to the need for a C1 adjustment from my chiropractor.  Ok, for some of you that's akin to orange fuses and wall sockets.  However a major blood vessel runs right up against C1 so any shift can put that beating up to the base of skull as it were so there's that.  I know just the right Doc in your area too!

I'll try to notice if it's at all worse after taking ibuprofen etc.


This is really a timely post for me and thank you for it. I noticed this past Saturday I was hearing some increasingly loud chirping sounds. I had at first attributed this to the fact it was Springtime, and living in the country it’s a natural sound to be hearing. Except as it seemed to be getting louder, I went into a storeroom with no windows, and the sound continued unabated. A couple days later a louder high frequency tone or his seemed to enter the mix in my left ear which at this point seems to be coming and going.

I’ve been reading about tinnitis for a few days now which I figure this is, and have a doctors appointment tomorrow afternoon. There doesn’t seem to be much they can do about it medically, but we’ll see. So far the high frequency hiss seems to come and go, and the sound of insects chirping is constant, although annoying, not debilitating. Some of you mention the intensity of your symptoms seems to come and go which is reassuring. Maybe this will go away, but I’m not banking on it.

When listening to the stereo, my auditory system is now providing it’s own tape his sound, which is really aggravating, considering I’ve been enjoying really black backrounds with my new equipment and the addition of a Shunyata power conditioner.

So wish me luck tomorrow and thank you again for this timely post. It’s reassuring knowing some of you audiophiles have learned to survive and exist with this, and still enjoy your stereo system. And I’m a bit preoccupied with this unwelcome and revolting development at this point as pfeiffer indicated newcomers to it often are. Just when I was worried about getting nailed with Covid-19, this snuck in the back door. What next?

Mike
My tinnitus is generally a low buzz that I can tune out most of the time. But it can be severely aggregated by loud noises, including the volume of my stereo. 
After a lot of trial and error I've found that if I keep the volume below around 80dB peaks at my listening chair, then no problems. But if it goes over 80dB for any length of time the buzzing worsens considerably, sometimes to the point of being painful.
My solution. I've put together a warm and detailed system that sounds almost as good at lower volumes, and better on some music, as it does rattling the room.
Listening at lower volumes maybe affects the types of music I listen to a bit, but not much. I certainly still enjoy my music and my stereo as much as ever.