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

I have had progressively worse tinnitus for 30 years as well as worsening hearing loss. I am 71 now and have worn hearing aids for about 20 years. I now have some pretty good aids but never do what they advertise they can. Music listening certainly suffers in the higher frequencies but it had not stopped me from enjoying the hobby. I think the wife suffers as well since she has seen it get worse the last few years. Or maybe it is an excuse...!!!!

I want to thank all of you for sharing.  Your responses have given me a lot to think about (and some hope) concerning my hearing issues.  It's almost like the floodgates opened up with so many of you sharing your stories on the thread.  After all, I think I can safely say that the very foundation of our audio hobby is listening to good music and loving great sound. The unfortunate issues with our hearing is both frustrating and scary.  This thread has been helpful...and wow, it stayed on point!  Thank you all, Jim

I have had tinnitus (no hearing loss under 6Khz) for 4 months and hyperacusis for a couple of years.  If you have either of these make sure you avoid high volume environments, or at least wear earplugs if you do.  You can get earplugs moulded to your ears with filters which take off between 10db to 30db yet do not interfere with the frequencies, so they are perfect for gigs.

I have got used to the tinnitus but to start with it sent me into a very low mental state which was very unpleasant.    The hyperacusis is more manageable though sadly I can no longer enjoy listening to my daughter play the piano - anything above middle C is painful.

The only time the tinnitus affects my music listening is in quiet passages where it sounds like a lot of tape hiss is coming through.

The hyperacusis meanwhile does make harsh top-end painful - it means I have moved from a rather brittle sounding Naim system to a velvet-like Vitus set up.

I'm an old timer, 75, and the fact that I worked in a steel mill for 36 years, {before hearing protection was popular}. Also I loved shooting, I did do hearing protection while doing that. Anyway doing all this, plus playing guitar and listening to rock and jazz, I've managed to pretty much destroy my hearing. When I went in the service, I was told I had much better than average hearing. Now I have tinnitus, and what I call, tone deafness. I have always had a love of music and the high end equipment to reproduce it.  So in order for me to do this now, I wear hearing aids when I want to relax and listen to The Rippingtons, or Steely Dan. But I have found that this tone deafness thing causes me to hear music actually go out of tune at times. Whether it is recorded, or live, and that's really frustrating because now I can no longer play music, or even tune my guitar. The best advice I can give anyone is wear hearing protection and just don't get old, it's not for sissies....

Mine is like the old fly back transformer whine in tube TVs. 

That's just what mine sounds like.   And having sensitive hearing I've always been able to hear that high pitch from a CRT TV immediately if one is in the vicinity.  Like, as soon as I'd walk in to someone's house, or in to a store, even if the sound was off that transformer whine was blazingly obvious to me.


BTW, there was a good thread we did when another member complained of hearing sensitivity, likely hyperacusis.


I had a wicked flair-up of my hyperacusis due to having an air-show - various jets - flying low overhead, and I've been treated for over a year now.  I was given tiny hearing-aid type devices that don't amplify sound but instead push a carefully modulated type of white noise in to my ears all day long to re-orient my auditory system.  Seems to have worked pretty well so far as most of my hyperacusis is gone.  (And of course I take them out to listen to music.  With the devices out my hearing is as good as ever).