Does Hearing Loss Disqualify Me from Audiophiledom?


For one thing, it makes it really challenging to take advice from the experts with good ears.  As a result of loss in the higher register, tinitits and unbalanced hearing, I tend to go for dynamics and soundstage as opposed to accuracy and subtleties.  How do others who suffer from hearing issues "offset" their challenges?  Can we still be in the club?

Current Rig - Bluesound Node 2i > Danafrips Ares II > Freya + > Krell Duo 300 XD > Forte IVs / SVS PB 4000.  In case you have suggestions...

And yes, the Forte's can be a bit bright and fatiguing with certain music.  

gruvjet

When they say things like we lose our ability to hear past a certain freq it refers to at a certain dB. We are able to hear them at higher SPL. Can you still hear a mosquito when it’s buzzing around your ear? Look at that frequency. My answer? Turn it up!  @gruvejet I do think you have a point. The pharyngotympanic tube can become clogged or at least restricted. I've been dealing with this to a degree. Two months of Fluticosone and ear drops have helped, and I'm stunned by the amount of wax removed and the improvement since.

@dadork-

Can you still hear a mosquito when it’s buzzing around your ear?   Look at that frequency.

                          Could you be a bit more nebulous?

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Wingbeat-frequencies-for-29-mosquito-species-Bars-mean-wingbeat-frequency-are_fig1_351489590

 

                    The pharyngotympanic tube and EAR WAX?       

                                                     +1

                                AudioPHILE = audio LOVER (literally)

     iow: If you love AUDIO, you qualify (irrespective of anything else, including hearing).

      'Music' differs from 'audio' in definition, but many conflate them (semantics).

      I'm quite certain: Beethoven was still a MUSICPHILE, though he had gone deaf between his twenties and forties.

      *There wasn't much in the way of 'audio', back in Ludwig's day, for him to,"love". 

                              Would he have, "loved" it? 

       *TOTALLY: non sequitur to the initial thread topic, but: semantic gymnastics are fun!

@dadork 

Thank you for that insight.  I will be consulting an audiologist for a cleaning and have them check my pharyngotympanic tube.  And I agree with your “turn it up” approach. I would have to invest in an EQ. Any recommendations?

Was the treatment you are undergoing prescribed by a doctor?

This is exactly why I started the thread. Hopefully it will allow me the ability to hear the affect on such crazy things as speaker cable risers!

@gruvejet     Thank you.  The amount of pressure seems to determne the HF volume and the HF response can go above what I recall used to be flat.  Regulating the pressure can enable the right response to be obtained.

This is very interesting and as we both postulate may lead to a solution to our problems.  I have quite serious sinusitis that varies in intensity from time to time.  I find that having wax cleared make a bit of an improvement but nowhere near as much as pressurising.  I am wondering if a medical procedure might exist or be developed that could make permanent the pressurised effect?   Anyone here an ENT specialist who can comment with a degree of authority?