I do also suffer from slight tinnitus in my left ear. I got this from an infection a few years ago. It can be best described as tone around 8 kHz with a low SNR (i.e. a noisy tone if you like). My perception of the thing can change a lot depending on how tired I am.
About two years ago I used a signal generator and a piezo tweeter to chase away our neighbour's nosey cat while I was doing some paint job on our dinghy. On this occasion I wondered what frequency my tinnitus might actually be and used this setup to check this. I found out that I do actually have a "notch" in my hearing on the frequency where the tinnitus is.
A standard hearing test that was perfomed last summer showed that I still have quite good hearing for my age with some slight weakness at higher frequencies on the left side.
I think that I am lucky that it isn't worse than that. The aforementioned test was carried out after another infection that I suffered from and that blocked my ear canal completely on one side. I can therefore guarantee you that even a temporay deafness is in no way funny.
Regards
Charles
About two years ago I used a signal generator and a piezo tweeter to chase away our neighbour's nosey cat while I was doing some paint job on our dinghy. On this occasion I wondered what frequency my tinnitus might actually be and used this setup to check this. I found out that I do actually have a "notch" in my hearing on the frequency where the tinnitus is.
A standard hearing test that was perfomed last summer showed that I still have quite good hearing for my age with some slight weakness at higher frequencies on the left side.
I think that I am lucky that it isn't worse than that. The aforementioned test was carried out after another infection that I suffered from and that blocked my ear canal completely on one side. I can therefore guarantee you that even a temporay deafness is in no way funny.
Regards
Charles
Hi the voice, sounds like Australia must still have a sensible legal system. In the UK despite the fact you told them and they are adults, your company would be liable for not making them do the right thing. I have had to take people into disceplinary to make them use safety precations, not to is considered a dereliction of duty of care.
Regards,
Andrew
Regards,
Andrew
Our hearing system has AGC (automatic gain control) that is frequency selective. Your brain has probably increased the gain around the notch frequency and you are hearing "system noise".
I believe that the AGC is the reason so many of us "learn" to like our setups. Of course the accepted wisdom is "burn-in".
Maybe i was a little unclear:
The noise and the AGC might have nothing to do with each other. It is just that the "signal" that I hear isn't a pure sinusoid it is noisy. I.e. it might as well be filtered narrow-band noise.
The notch thingy was the following: I just played around with the frequency control of the generator in order to compare the signal coming from the tweeter with what I perceive as tinnitus. The outcome was that when I approached the frequency of the tinnitus the signal from the tweeter disappeared. It may very well also be a notch in the tweeter's response so I will probably repeat the experiment with a different tweeter also.
But the tinnitus and the notch beinfg the same frequency would perfecly match what the experts say.
Regards
Charles
The noise and the AGC might have nothing to do with each other. It is just that the "signal" that I hear isn't a pure sinusoid it is noisy. I.e. it might as well be filtered narrow-band noise.
The notch thingy was the following: I just played around with the frequency control of the generator in order to compare the signal coming from the tweeter with what I perceive as tinnitus. The outcome was that when I approached the frequency of the tinnitus the signal from the tweeter disappeared. It may very well also be a notch in the tweeter's response so I will probably repeat the experiment with a different tweeter also.
But the tinnitus and the notch beinfg the same frequency would perfecly match what the experts say.
Regards
Charles
i have tinnitus almost ten years now.
i simply ignore it.in the night it gets a bit annoying...
i had some thought about it and wondered if there is a way to send the exact opposite phase frequency that your tinnitus is and cancel it.
can someone here with more technical knowledge on the subject can tell if this possible?
i simply ignore it.in the night it gets a bit annoying...
i had some thought about it and wondered if there is a way to send the exact opposite phase frequency that your tinnitus is and cancel it.
can someone here with more technical knowledge on the subject can tell if this possible?
Hi Thebrain - I doubt that would work as Tinnitus isn't a true auditory input; it is often a signal from a damaged nerve (one of the little frequency-specific hairs in your ear). So the noise you hear has electro-chemical origin, not acoustic.
That said, there are many varieties of tinnitus, with a wide range of different sounds being reported.
The coffee vs zinc post earlier sounds promising. It may be that cutting out caffeine reduces stress levels, enabling your brain to cope better with masking out the sound. It's an easy experiment to conduct ... so there goes that afternoon coffee I was just planning.
My audiologist suggested that I might consider my mild, single tone tinnitus as an alarm of sorts. If it's worse when I'm tired or stressed, then it's an indication I need to go and chill out.
That said, there are many varieties of tinnitus, with a wide range of different sounds being reported.
The coffee vs zinc post earlier sounds promising. It may be that cutting out caffeine reduces stress levels, enabling your brain to cope better with masking out the sound. It's an easy experiment to conduct ... so there goes that afternoon coffee I was just planning.
My audiologist suggested that I might consider my mild, single tone tinnitus as an alarm of sorts. If it's worse when I'm tired or stressed, then it's an indication I need to go and chill out.
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Going back over this thread, I realise I've repeated some of what has already been said. Which helps give me confidence that some of what I was gibbering about may be right, at least!
The quiet early hours of the morning can be worse for tinnitus sufferers, especially if you don't want to disturb a partner by putting on a radio. If you can't bear wearing headphones in bed (and who wants to wake up next to Phones off Stingray), try Googling pillow speaker. For example
C. Crane Company - SoftSpeaker Pillow Speaker - Toll Free (800) 522-8863
(No claims for high fidelity are made in mentioning this product.)
The quiet early hours of the morning can be worse for tinnitus sufferers, especially if you don't want to disturb a partner by putting on a radio. If you can't bear wearing headphones in bed (and who wants to wake up next to Phones off Stingray), try Googling pillow speaker. For example
C. Crane Company - SoftSpeaker Pillow Speaker - Toll Free (800) 522-8863
(No claims for high fidelity are made in mentioning this product.)
Thebrain, unfortunately cancelation is not possible as the sounds we perceive as tinitus are not of acoustic origin. The nerve endings going to the brain are being given a permanent stimulus unrelated to any hair cell movement.
Perhaps I can describe my case. I first became aware of high frequency tones around the age of 50 odd. At the time I was involved in building activity including masonry drilling and chasing (cutting trenches with an angle grinder). I used ear muffs but they may not have been in accordance with any design standards. I would be reluctant to ascribe the tinitus to any particular activity but more likely to your long term noise exposure history and your genes! I have two tones around 10kHz spaced apart by a musical discord. They have been present continuously and get worse when drinking coffee or tea or thinking about it now as I write.
Something more recent is the random presence of non linear distortions first noticed when listening to reproduced music but eventually real sounds. There seems to be a threshold in terms of frequency and level where sounds above it are grossly distorted. I remember reading one of David Greisinger's papers where he uses the word "shattering" to describe the effect. Something that took quite a bit of getting used to was having to ask visitors listening to my Linkwitz Orion speakers if the system sounded OK or was my hearing going through one of it's spasms.
Keith
Perhaps I can describe my case. I first became aware of high frequency tones around the age of 50 odd. At the time I was involved in building activity including masonry drilling and chasing (cutting trenches with an angle grinder). I used ear muffs but they may not have been in accordance with any design standards. I would be reluctant to ascribe the tinitus to any particular activity but more likely to your long term noise exposure history and your genes! I have two tones around 10kHz spaced apart by a musical discord. They have been present continuously and get worse when drinking coffee or tea or thinking about it now as I write.
Something more recent is the random presence of non linear distortions first noticed when listening to reproduced music but eventually real sounds. There seems to be a threshold in terms of frequency and level where sounds above it are grossly distorted. I remember reading one of David Greisinger's papers where he uses the word "shattering" to describe the effect. Something that took quite a bit of getting used to was having to ask visitors listening to my Linkwitz Orion speakers if the system sounded OK or was my hearing going through one of it's spasms.
Keith
I take Zantac daily to control an acid reflux problem and that is one of the side effects. I can live with the ringing, not the burning...
It's a little more grey here. Both the employee and the employer have a legal responsibility for workplace safety. I look after my obligations by providing hearing protection and regularly instructing that it be used. If a worker on site "forgets" to wear protection then they are more liable than myself, although I still share some of that liability. I am supposed to ensure compliance, but in practice that can be difficult, I don't watch these guys every minute they are on site. What I also cannot do is ignore or let slide a direct refusal to wear protection.
Hi Christer. I did suffer from tinnitus for a long time but my learning is that it was stressrelated, at that time i was indeed. Maybe not everybody's course but still it was annoing while going on.
im not speaking of actually sending the signal thru the whole ear mechanism.
tinnitus is caused by our small hairs in the ear that stay bent thus giving the brain constant signal of the specific frequency they resonate.
since there is no way to get inside the ear and fix the hairs
i thought maybe transmitting somehow the exact opposite phase sound wave to the nervous system responsible collecting the electro chemical signal from the tiny hairs..
hmm might be too sci fi though
Has anybody tried what is said in this paper?
http://www.landesbioscience.com/journals/cib/article/StrackeCIB3-3.pdf
Seems to have a similar basis as retraining but this has measurable effect on neuronal activity?
But one thing they didn't mention is loudness and background noise.
I think ginkgo biloba is actually making mine worse? Or is it because my version of the medicine is made in my own country? Or because it was a doctor from a government-subsidized healthcare group? Or all of the above?
http://www.landesbioscience.com/journals/cib/article/StrackeCIB3-3.pdf
Seems to have a similar basis as retraining but this has measurable effect on neuronal activity?
But one thing they didn't mention is loudness and background noise.
I think ginkgo biloba is actually making mine worse? Or is it because my version of the medicine is made in my own country? Or because it was a doctor from a government-subsidized healthcare group? Or all of the above?
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Mmmm.
Do males with a bachelor status suffer less than than those with a married status?.
Just a thought, but don't let my wife catch me thinking. .
----->The ringing in my ears may be caused by sudden trauma....Your wife obviously doesn't holla with you enough.
You really mean (activity ) ???
richy
ps. I drive and fire steamtrains. NYMR and others... and pingin' in the ear'oles is taken for granted. Naturally I like my music LOUD.
I've had it in both ears for years. It is worse in the left from being a right handed shooter. Lots of rifle and big bore pistol shooting. And then the rock concerts.
My hearing is still acute though. I hear things that others don't. I do protect it religiously now. Excluding rock concerts that is
My hearing is still acute though. I hear things that others don't. I do protect it religiously now. Excluding rock concerts that is
Another tinitus victim here.. It's not really bad, but it annoys me sometimes. The CRT syndrome you know..
I've played in bands for almost ten years and no doubt that's where I got it, but going to concerts a lot didn't help of course.
My current band practices in a large studio and that's a lot better than the cramped little holes you ususally get. Our drummer uses a snare that's SO loud! His crash cymbal also..
I use earplugs on and off, but I just make sure I don't expose my ears to loud music too often, and treat them kindly afterwards.
I'm certainly not deaf, my hearing is very good, I can pick up very delicate sounds. And here come's the 'but..' I think someone called it the cocktail party syndrome? It's hard to follow conversations in a loud environment, misinterpreting words etc. Being a lot taller than most people doesn't help either, I find myself bowing down all the time.
This is the hearing deficiency that bothers me, the tinitus I can live with, especially since it's stress related. Time to relax bradda
All in all, at the age of 38 I'm doing pretty good..
It's not really bad, but it annoys me sometimes. The CRT syndrome you know..I've played in bands for almost ten years and no doubt that's where I got it, but going to concerts a lot didn't help of course.
My current band practices in a large studio and that's a lot better than the cramped little holes you ususally get. Our drummer uses a snare that's SO loud!
His crash cymbal also..I use earplugs on and off, but I just make sure I don't expose my ears to loud music too often, and treat them kindly afterwards.
I'm certainly not deaf, my hearing is very good, I can pick up very delicate sounds. And here come's the 'but..' I think someone called it the cocktail party syndrome? It's hard to follow conversations in a loud environment, misinterpreting words etc. Being a lot taller than most people doesn't help either, I find myself bowing down all the time.
This is the hearing deficiency that bothers me, the tinitus I can live with, especially since it's stress related. Time to relax bradda
All in all, at the age of 38 I'm doing pretty good..