Ribbon tweeter, a perfect noise antenna ?

[tinitus]

just had a good/bad experience with this, maybe

bad, because it felt like loosing my hearing
maybe up to something 50% loss
man it was awfull
really exstreme

good, because I found the reason

removed the ribbon, and got my full hearing back in just a couple of hours

anyone have knowledge about this subject ?

[rss388]

Can you be more specific about your experiences? Did your ears ring? Did you have a headache? Were you unable to hear up to a certain threshold or did you hear beating?

What was the set up? I assume a speaker system with ribbon tweeters. What did you replace them with? But to be specific, you said singular ribbon so was it just one channel? What was driving them? What source material were you using?

[bear]

Perhaps you have a parasitic oscillation in your system that was being reproduced by the ribbon...

_-_-bear

[weltersys]

Originally Posted by tinitus

just had a good/bad experience with this, maybe

bad, because it felt like loosing my hearing
maybe up to something 50% loss
man it was awfull
really exstreme

good, because I found the reason

removed the ribbon, and got my full hearing back in just a couple of hours

anyone have knowledge about this subject ?

What is the subject;^) ?
Ribbon tweeters generally use transformers in conjunction with a RC Xover network which could audibly transmit induced noise generated by dimmers or other RF sources. This low level noise would be audible even with no amplifier turned on.
That said, the SPL would not be loud enough to cause tinnitus or hearing loss, or temporary threshold shift, though the noise may be quite annoying.

[tinitus]

I did think of amp issues
I checked amp temperature/heatsinks
as always, not hot at all

this is the speaker with ribbon

there is no transformer
only used a resistor and small cap
maybe the lack of transformer could be part of the reason

I can say that this speaker sounded absolutely fantastic fore many months

what have changed lately is that I have changed a lot of PC/TV stuff to wireless
and maybe my close neighbours have wireless too

I also thought of possible issues with with mechanical connection between speaker wire and ribbon itself

with some crossover adjustments the speaker sounds fine again, without the ribbon
but it really worked very good fore a long time, until lately

I experienced really severe and painfull tinnitus attack yesterday
when I began to loose hearing today, I took action

I removed the ribbon
adjusted the speaker
and my hearing was ok with a few hours

well, might indicate that I live in a very noise plagued environment, and that its worse than ever
maybe caused by wireless transmitters, I don't know

[DrDyna]

Sounds scary, maybe you can borrow an oscope from somewhere and see what's happening?

[tinitus]

Originally Posted by DrDyna

Sounds scary

yeah, it is
and its not over yet
I only detected the problem
and removed what made it worse
the ribbon, causing some kind of back EMI into my stereo

but to remove all noise in a modern home is impossible
its just a matter of how much you can live with
petrolium lamps is not an option, yet

my future seems to be fighting high frequency noise

and yes, I did have mild tinnitus before this
and a hearing damage causing overly sensitive hearing

but this doesn't change the facts

[DrDyna]

You could always build a faraday cage around your listening room!

[Radugazon]

By safety consult an ear specialist.

Because here we have a real case of analysis distorsion : what do you think the average Joe would have done if suddenly he feels loosing 50% of his hearing ? He runs to the doc house. The DIY geek checks his system first...you see what I mean ?

An other good reason is that you had tinnitus before. OTOH, the fact of disconnecting your ribbons and feeling better is maybe not absolutely related, except if repetitive, and then this doesn't exclude a medical cause. At best the ribbons are only the trigger.

PS : what's this damned ribbon tweet ? a DIY thing ?

[speaker dave]

I would think the only way the speakers could be responsible would be if you were listening at extreme levels (real rock concert levels) for a considerable period of time. Last time I had a big threshold shift was after a long go-cart race in college, I've worn earplugs to anything loud since.

Your ears aren't sensitive to audiophile notions of good sound/bad sound, only spectrum and level.

I'd go to an audiologist, especially if you have tinitus issues and random blockage. Don't mess around and don't assume it is related to your stereo.

(Is Earl viewing, I believe his wife is in that profession.)