I have used the OTC hearing aids from MD Hearing for a decade or so and while I thought they were pretty good (but more like $1,500 not $45) they don't compare to the aids from Resound that I got fitted with a year ago. My niece is a recently minted audiologist so I got the family pricing at $2,500. I have a pretty severe loss at 50-60Db across the frequency spectrum so not typical age related hearing loss. Bluetooth is fantastic for phone calls, I used to really struggle with phone calls and now they are a snap. These aids have a music mode that is flat frequency response and sounds great when we attend the DSO. I had pretty severe tinnitus but my experience has been that wearing hearing aids helps greatly to lower the whine. My theory is that when your brain doesn't hear through your ears it keeps jacking up the system gain to try to compensate for those missing hair cells. Too much gain leads to noise.
Speaking about Veteran's benefits. I took a hearing exam 6 years ago at a VA-qualified hearing center and submitted claim paperwork through the local VFW. A year later, they hadn't responded. I contacted them and they said they were working on it. A year later, no response. I sent them a polite letter telling them "Thanks, but no thanks" and withdrew my claim. I should have contacted a lawyer. My wife's family and mine are full of attorneys.
We may have better luck with acupuncture or even a shaman.
Too much gain does lead to noise. It also limits dynamic range. RF, data acquisition, imaging and electroacoustic engineers call it RTI or Referred to Input Noise. Assume your preamp has a 3 dB Noise Figure. That means its noise is 3 dB higher than the -174 dBm/Hz or -204 dB/Hz Johnson (thermal) noise of a 50 Ohm resistor @ 25C. That's 904 picoVolts or 0.9 nanoVolts per root Hz from 50 Ohms @ 25C.
50 Ohms is used commonly because most (but not all) terminated test systems are 50 Ohms.
Let's, for fun, assume the preamp's gain is 20 and the second stage's input Johnson noise is higher, @ 4 nanoVolts per root Hz. That second stage's RTI Johnson noise is 4 nanoVolts/20 or 200 picoVolts per root Hz.
Assume the two noise Voltages are uncorrelated. They add in quadrature or Pythagorean style, the sqrt of the sum of each of the squared Voltages or sqrt[(0.9 nV)**2 +(0.2 nV)**2] or sqrt[(.81 nV squared)+ (.04 nV squared)] = .92 nV/root Hz. Since they add in quadrature, RSS or root sum squared, the x20 preamp gain, here, reduces the RTI contribution of the second stage's input noise significantly.
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Ron,
Resubmit your VA claim. I just sent in a claim for tinnitus, and within about 4-6 months, I had gotten an adjustment on my disability rating. They gave me a 10% claim for tinnitus. With many other problems (peripheral neuropathy, all of my cervical discs being bad and occipital and supraorbital neuralgias), I got my rating raised from 60% to 70%, and they are still in the process of evaluating my cervical problems. Don't give up. Trump overhauled the VA, and it is doing a much better job than before.
Resubmit your VA claim. I just sent in a claim for tinnitus, and within about 4-6 months, I had gotten an adjustment on my disability rating. They gave me a 10% claim for tinnitus. With many other problems (peripheral neuropathy, all of my cervical discs being bad and occipital and supraorbital neuralgias), I got my rating raised from 60% to 70%, and they are still in the process of evaluating my cervical problems. Don't give up. Trump overhauled the VA, and it is doing a much better job than before.
I got permanent tinnitus after a year long session of bupropion, just to show a case of chemically induced (ototoxic) tinnitus. Told the doc and he just noted "yeah that sucks" and moved on. Afterwards i googled it and there are a lot of cases and even lawsuits apparently.
Luckily it is not debilitating as there is no tone associated with it in my case, just a very loud "noise floor". That means i dont notice it for most of the day, until its night and ambient gets quieter than my ear.
A benefit is i no longer need to care about noise element of components, as my intrinsic noise is now certainly higher than any component
Sometimes the ears do do something weird though, where i am just sitting and it just suddenly makes a loud sine tone and it fades out back into just noise, it sounds like.....ssssssssssBEEEepppp..sssssss
But i have had very sensitive hearing even since as a kid, any louder noise, even people laughing, would cause an audible crunching/distorted sound, like crumbling paper. I never told anyone as i didnt think it would be taken seriously, so maybe it was just waiting to happen.
Luckily it is not debilitating as there is no tone associated with it in my case, just a very loud "noise floor". That means i dont notice it for most of the day, until its night and ambient gets quieter than my ear.
A benefit is i no longer need to care about noise element of components, as my intrinsic noise is now certainly higher than any component
Sometimes the ears do do something weird though, where i am just sitting and it just suddenly makes a loud sine tone and it fades out back into just noise, it sounds like.....ssssssssssBEEEepppp..sssssss
But i have had very sensitive hearing even since as a kid, any louder noise, even people laughing, would cause an audible crunching/distorted sound, like crumbling paper. I never told anyone as i didnt think it would be taken seriously, so maybe it was just waiting to happen.
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Just a remark as I once experienced hearing damage when switching a very high power switch. In German speaking countries an immediate case of hearing damage by loud noise can be treated if one goes to a doctor immediately after the incident. The doctor injects a fluid near the ear that relaxes nerves/muscles and I think it also has cortisone in it. In my personal case this solved the loud buzzing I heard after the incident.
So when you're in German speaking countries and experience sudden hearing damage?! Go directly to a doctor and explain you have a "Knalltrauma".
Needless to say but anyway... always use hearing protection when doing industrial work. For me there are no exceptions anymore.
So when you're in German speaking countries and experience sudden hearing damage?! Go directly to a doctor and explain you have a "Knalltrauma".
Needless to say but anyway... always use hearing protection when doing industrial work. For me there are no exceptions anymore.
So I thought I'd chime in here and mention a little experiment I conducted a couple days ago. My tinnitus was getting scary loud. A couple of different tones in both ears, about the same frequency. My tinnitus is from stupid loud music for the past 40+ years. So I was wondering what might happen if I went to the online tone generator and discovered which tones they are and then see if listening to those particular ones would mitigate/cancel the severity of my tinnitus. It took some playing around back and forth, mute and resume, to find it; 4970 or thereabouts to be exact. So using ear buds I matched the volume with my tinnitus volume and listened for a while. Mind you this was not stupid loud as could be verified by checking other frequencies. By the next day, last night, my tinnitus was reduced at least 50% if not more. I'm absolutely blown away. My hearing is actually improved a bit because of it. I know tinnitus comes in many forms with many different causes. I'm by no means declaring this as a remedy for others here. I also would not turn up the volume past what I feel would be safe at other different frequencies. Even though my tinnitus was getting really loud, the relative volume of the tone generator proved perception is not the same thing...for me. Who knows how permanent this relief will be but right now I'm seriously grateful. Just thought it was worth mentioning.
Disco-Pete,
I had tried this a year or so ago. It seemed to do some good, but my tinnitus returned quite quickly afterwards and in the same intensity, so I concluded that it would not work for me. I may not have listened long enough in a session, though. For how long did you listen to your frequency in a session? Too, it interferes with my daily grind.
I had tried this a year or so ago. It seemed to do some good, but my tinnitus returned quite quickly afterwards and in the same intensity, so I concluded that it would not work for me. I may not have listened long enough in a session, though. For how long did you listen to your frequency in a session? Too, it interferes with my daily grind.
Hand grenades, machine guns, rockets, chainsaws, Ministry concerts. It used to get lit up from computer hard drives, then refrigerators running, like any time I had to place some background noise. The solid state amplifiers started making it happen. Now I have a very narrow window of pleasurable listening, usually less than an lp side before I wave the white flag.
I‘d speculate that this could be a very viable method to keep one‘s T at bay…
Also, I hsard about a similar method: to accentuate/stimulate the frequencies surrounding a T (little bit above+a little bit below)…
Hi Pete,
Your experiment has documented merit. My impetus to try the tone(s) came from a Siemens Audiology Group paper around 6 years ago. I noticed when I took a neighbor to her hearing aid store, 3 years ago, the Siemens "fix" has been implemented in at least one hearing aid product.
In addition to (predominantly male) HF loss from presbycusis. I have an elevated noise floor that sounds like the shaped noise from a room full of equipment fans. Since I've worked on electronic systems all my life, I can often mentally tune them out or keep my brain occupied by "breathing" small tones or songs to myself. Instead of a simple tone or white noise generator, there are a number of freebie or cheap synthesizer keyboard programs that can duplicate many continuous tones.
What's confusing - some of my tinnitus came from Mirapex withdrawal. A known, non-reversible withdrawal symptom. Mirapex is a dopamine agonist, used to dampen Parkinson tremors. It's commonly used, off label, to treat Restless Leg. A number of the body's biological servo systems have (usually beneficial) micro tremors. As a biomed, audio and servo designer, I believe those tremors increase, partially because of the age-related decrease in dopamine production. But I'm an engineer, not a physician.
I found singing to myself helped with the military helicopter blade noise that leaked through sound-attenuating headsets. I'd tested commercial analog ANC headsets and chips for a few years, but have never worn a flight crew's Bose or David Clark ANC headset.
Speaking of military noise, I have deep, sharp notches in both ears at ~ 360 Hz, the PRF of the USAF Heavy Ground Radars I'd lived with for 4 years. They're sharp enough that several audiologists have missed them.
For those of you who do any shooting, an associate of mine is a range officer. I was curious about the possibility of civilian Active Noise Cancellation headsets for shooters. Contrary to the BS most manufacturers and sellers would lead you to believe, there's no such thing as a civilian ANC shooter's headset. Once the ambient SPL exceeds 82 dBA, sound-amplifying shooter's headsets simply resort to their built-in passive attenuation of around 25 to 30 dB. Period. If you need more, try wearing a pair of foam earplugs inside the amplified headset. 30 dB of passive headset attenuation won't sufficiently attenuate the approx 170 dB pulsed SPL of a .44 magnum, 5, 10 or 20 feet away.
I've spent a bunch of time analyzing the OSHA, NIOSH/CDC, Bureau of Mines and MIL Noise-Induced Hearing Loss Standards. According to NIOSH, the 40 year lifetime work-related accumulated hearing Energy Density Limit is around 9 Joules per square centimeter. If you approach that limit in your work or duty, you'll have to switch to something quieter.
As of yet, the Standards don't cover hobby or DIY noise. Most over-the-counter products try their best to follow the Standards.
I've spent a bunch of time analyzing the OSHA, NIOSH/CDC, Bureau of Mines and MIL Noise-Induced Hearing Loss Standards. According to NIOSH, the 40 year lifetime work-related accumulated hearing Energy Density Limit is around 9 Joules per square centimeter. If you approach that limit in your work or duty, you'll have to switch to something quieter.
As of yet, the Standards don't cover hobby or DIY noise. Most over-the-counter products try their best to follow the Standards.
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I do remember seeing mention of this technique either in this thread or another one. I've had restless leg syndrome most of my life so thanks for the heads up about Mirapex. I have not sought treatment for that. I use the Thumper Equine for that now which works well
. It seems just the exercise of pinpointing the exact frequency of the tinnitus is what does the trick. I'm discovering that it's not a single tone but because it's high pitched it sounds like it. It's actually multiple tones within about a 1000hz range, for me..around 3600-5000. There's also a separate, much higher pitched range I have not yet focused on. So it's difficult to find a predominant tone. It's interesting you mention the notch at 360hz. My hearing reaches it's limit at about 12000hz so I'm thinking there could be another/other ranges that could be useful for this which are beyond my hearing audibility. I tried the youtube cricket chirping therapies and found the 12-13000hz one to be slightly helpful so I'm wondering if experimenting in that area with the tone generator may be helpful.