Hearing loss

[Soundhappy]

Ear Wax Removal on Vimeo

This is the pair of ear wax that I have just removed.
They came out in one piece and the texture is like rubber.
The down side is, now I hear my wife yelling much louder.

Congratulations Well done! Impressive picture..
Many peoples think is a hearing loss beacause " I am old now "
but clean inside deep ear wax is a simple method to young days come back

 

[weltersys]

I have run the frequency generator up to the point where I can no longer hear the tone. Then I twist my head to the side quickly. For a very short time I can then hear the tone. This does not work if done slowly. Doppler effect? Are the muscles in my neck and ear area temporarily changing the ear’s wave guide? Is blood being pumped to the area to enhance the ear function?

Probably none of the above.

Ear pinna behave as small horns in reverse. Turning your head may put a narrow beam high frequency tone more directly in to your ear, allowing you to hear it much louder than the previous, off-axis position.
If you have turned up the level to compensate for your high frequency loss, the increased level may cause a temporary threshold shift (TTS) in your hearing, nature's "built in compressor/limiter"

TTS can reduce level by 10dB or more, and after it "kicks in", the amount of time to recover to may be relatively fast, seconds to minutes, or slow- hours to days, depending on the intensity, type and duration of the noise.

Most of us have experienced TTS- after a loud concert or bar band, driving home we turn up the car radio on the drive home, then the next time we get in the car we find it far too loud.

Art

 

[Fusor]

Of course, with one’s own hearing all observations are subjective. I left the gain/level unchanged from the last audible frequency. When I slowly moved my head searching for a ‘sweet’ spot it would still be inaudible. Hardly scientific.

I conjecture that accelerating the ear away from the signal could be making it momentarily audible. Thank you Christian Doppler. And whatever effects from simultaneously twisting towards the signal [two ears] would be lost as the higher frequency was already inaudible.

 

[weltersys]

Of course, with one’s own hearing all observations are subjective.
I conjecture that accelerating the ear away from the signal could be making it momentarily audible. Thank you Christian Doppler.

Fusor,

The Doppler pitch shift of moving the receiver (your ear) away from the source would raise the pitch slightly, while also decreasing the level at the ear due to increased distance. Rotating your ears left and right in front of a fixed source would raise pitch in one and lower it in the other, perhaps the binaural beat produced elicits a temporary response.

That said, both the binaural beat and slight pitch change from moving your head seem far less likely to explain your perception than the one posited in Post # 62.

 

[Fusor]

The Doppler pitch shift of moving the receiver (your ear) away from the source would raise the pitch slightly.

Could you be mistaken? As the source and observer move closer, the sound waves may be thought of as being compressed together, and therefore, because the wavelength decreases, the apparent pitch rises. The rise in pitch as an ambulance siren rushes towards us. As I am already at the limit of my hearing the rise in pitch would be inaudible.

The ear that moves away from the source, like the ambulance siren that has passed and is moving away drops in pitch and now becomes audible.

 

[weltersys]

Could you be mistaken? As the source and observer move closer, the sound waves may be thought of as being compressed together, and therefore, because the wavelength decreases, the apparent pitch rises.

My mistake, the sentence should have read:
"The Doppler pitch shift of moving the receiver (your ear) away from the source would lower the pitch slightly, while also decreasing the level at the ear due to increased distance."
In addition, the "lower pitch" ear would also be then be "shadowed" from the source by your head, further reducing level, as high frequencies travel like a beam of light.

An ambulance siren speeding towards or away from you at 40 miles per hour creates a pitch change of only 88 cents, less than the difference between any two adjacent piano keys (100 cents, one semi-tone). The small pitch change from rotating your head at reasonably achievable speed (less than 5 cents) would not likely even be detected by most trained musicians.

But as you said "with one’s own hearing all observations are subjective", just noticed at 8.8kHz, the shape of my pinna allows hearing the tone from a constant directivity horn with my left ear at certain angles, while the right ear requires an additional 3dB at any angle to be heard.
The test also increased my tinnitus level, even though TTS did not kick in

Pretty sure if you try your test again, you will find directivity of your ears due to pinna shape at different angles, rather than "Doppler Pitch Shift" responsible for the change in perception.

Art

 

[weltersys]

That's interesting, let us know how you get on. Have you tried modern hearing aids? The only ones I've heard had a noticeable delay in the boosted frequency range resulting in awful distortion for music, still helped with speech though which is what they're designed for after all.

Been wearing new hearing aids for the past two months:

Hearing High Frequencies “When I’m 64”

Much of my listening time with the hearing aids has been with music, and there is no noticeable delay, measured delay of only 6.15ms with all features engaged. No noticeable comb-filter effects either, a surprise considering the slight delay.

I have found the improvement in music clarity to be as good as the improvement in speech.

Art