In a poll that deals with a hearing problem, I would expect that those who have the condition would be more interested and more likely to respond than those who don't: so let me start by urging ALL of you who read this thread to vote in the poll, whether your hearing is perfectly normal or not. Otherwise the results won't mean anything.

In reading the HA forums I've been struck by how often a member will mention, in an aside, that he has a hearing problem, and I wonder if that is related to his interest in audio.

In my case, I developed tinnitus about eight years ago during a bad sinus infection. Tinnitus, or ringing in the ears, can take a lot of forms. For me, it's a nearly pure tone at 13 kHz; it sounds much like a failing neon light tube, but upshifted in frequency.

Now, send me no flowers, and don't weep for me. It's not THAT big a deal. My brain adapts to it, so that I'm not constantly aware of it, and in addition, the constant everyday sounds tend to mask it. But in a very quiet room, I always become conscious of it. My solution is usually to turn on some music to mask it out again, so since I've had the problem I listen to and appreciate a lot more music than I used to!

The only real difficulty I have is a fairly sharp cutoff in my frequency perception at the 13 kHz of the tinnitus. It masks all higher frequencies very effectively, so that I can't hear any higher test tones. But I don't think this seriously affects my appreciation of 99.9% of music.

I'd be interested to know your experiences (and especially interested if any of you have had tinnitus resolve after a long period!)

I have, but it's minor. I don't hear it unless I'm in a sound proof room so it really doesn't bother me...

Yes, permanent (Too many metal concerts I guess). I don't know the english word, it is something like beeeeep... all the time.

I got one since one month. It's a constant beep I can hear when my computer is off (rarely happens) and in silent rooms with closed windows.

I thought of consulting a doctor about that.

Has anyone already tried some kind of treatment for tinnitus? I'd be interested in your experiences.

Either I don't understand the meaning of "temporary" correctly or there's no fitting option to vote for for me. I have (rather used to have) tinnitus once in a while after listeing too long to too loud music or after working with loud machines. Sometimes it even reminds me of something important - e.g. that I'm close to missing an important date or that a person important to me is in trouble and I should call him/her. (No joke, but I doubt it's ABXable ). But it never lasted longer than 2 days, so maybe it can't be called tinnitus at all.

Could you please clarify "temporary" - and what exactly is your definition of tinnitus?

BTW: I now that it'll dissapear sooner or later, but if I'm annoyed of it and want to make it disappear immediately I focus on it, trying to notice every single detail - After 5 minutes it's gone. It's like focussing on a difference while trying to ABX something.

This is an interesting topic you bring up. I have a permanent damage that is a bit difficult for me to describe. It originally comes from an accident with fireworks two and a half years ago and the result is both a sinus tone around 13 khz and a noise. Both of them appears at the same time and in increasingly noticed in a quiet room (for example when going to sleep).

BUT. The brain (as yousay) adapts very easily and the strange thing is that I cannot notice any difference when i experience music. Loud concerts are no-no, but it seems that I can hear all the frequences I could before. 16.5 Khz is no problem - that is how far up my equipment can reproduce sound.

I have also noticed that the tinnitus is increasing as soon as I am stressed and it takes a few days for it to calm down. Anyone else expreiencing this?

To answer the original question - as far as I know, my tinnitus has nothing to do with listening to music,

I once got a tinnitus from a pop/rock -concert. I also noticed that the concert organisers had the volume of the huge speakers on too high. I was sitting in the lawn about 30 meters away from the speakers and I could also feel how the air pressure coming from the bass elements got my lungs vibrating !

So I got the hell out of there after the painful half-hour, and as I got further away from the concert, I noticed a high-ringing sound in my ears. Luckily, it went away in about 3 or 4 hours...

But i have to mention, that I never had a Tinnitus from driving a tank when I was in the army. And I drove the very old but noisy BTR-50 YVI2...

I have permanent tinnitus in both ears, though the right is slightly more severe than the left. To me, it sounds like a very faint 18 khz pure tone. I can generally only hear it when I'm laying down at night to fall asleep or when I'm ill it seems to become more pronounced.

The only explanation I can come up with is because of all the dirt bike riding I do. Before I wised up, I never wore ear protection. My bike doesn't have a muffler, only a spark arrestor, so it is quite loud.

My doctor also thinks that it could be from damage caused by all the severe ear infections I had in my youth (I had some sinus problems when I was younger).

I voted No... I've had it as far back as I can remember, but it only comes around for a minute or two every couple of months.

It feels as if something suddenly shifted in my ears, I can almost feel it moving... then it sounds like my ears are plugged from the inside, and I hear a high pitched ringing... I can hear it over the TV.

My dad has the same problem as me, and when I was young he told me that whenever he gets it, he imagines himself going through his veins, up to his ears, and imagines touching his ear drum, and it's gone. heh it actually works. Also, as Tigre said, if I concentrate on it, I can make it go away permanently.

This is unrelated, but if a TV is on, with no picture or sound coming out of it, I can tell that it's on because of a VERY high pitched whine... it's almost so high that I can't hear it, it's more like I can feel it.

I've got permanent tinnitus from the age of 3 at least, because of otitis.
It's a high pitched tone that does not look very much like a sine, rather a bunch of blurred sines with a bit wow and flutter. Clearly higher than 13 kHz. It's difficult for me to hear a 16 kHz sine, so I don't know if it sounds alike.
It is easily modulated by ambient noises. I can hear it presently with my noisy computer at my feet, but it doesn't overcomes the computer noise. It becomes clear and strong in complete silence, and goes away as soon as I hear a noise. I'm more and more concerned by it's increasement, so I appreciate when I hear it fully, in silence. I know it should decrease, and that my hearing is going to rest. Anyway, silence is always delightful, especially since I'm working surrounded by computers, and I have a noisy fridge. I can only experience silence when I visit friends and sleep there.
I've become sensitive to loud noises after a night in a club with a very loud (and bad) soundsystem. 8 hours without a place with less than 110 db. After this, I had various tinnitus from 1000 Hz and above (I could concetrate on any frequency I chose, they all sounded like sines a bit unstable), hypersensitivity to low frequencies, and couldn't hear past 14 kHz. The hypersensitivity passed after two days, the tinnitus after one month, the inability to hear a 16 kHz tone after several monthes.

I listen very much with headphones, and this doesn't improve anything. I've listened with Sony mdr-1 and mdr-32 for 5 years, then superex proB-VI for 10 years. These headphones had strong treble and few bass, which turned me sensitive to this kind of sound. Now I can't stand listening too loud on soundsystems with too much treble. It's not painful, I just don't like it. And it raises my tinnitus very fast now. Faster than before, I think. There is no way I could stay in a dancefloor with a 120 db sound level, like I used to (five minutes, no more).
I then changed for an AKG K-400, more natural, but still with a lot of treble : really neutral headphones, like Beyer dynamics, sounded completely bass-boosted for me . Now it's a Senheiser HD600. I don't stand listening too loud on other headphones, but with this kind of headphones, I still can and enjoy it.

no i don't have a constat tinitus. but i get one if i get to less sleep. 3 days with only 10hrs of sleeping of example and i get a tinitus sometimes. because of that i try to get enough sleep because i hate tinitus. i drives me crazy.

Me too, I have the same problem. And about the tv I can hear that sound too. It's weird. I don't know anyone that had the same experience but you and your father

I have sometimes bursts of tinnitus. The hearing suddenly becomes muffled, and I can hear a clear tone around 10 kHz, that quickly decreases. The situation is normal after 4 or 5 seconds. It only affects one ear, and must happen about once a week.

I've always had a constant "16kHz-like" ringing but it seems caused by brain and not by the ears.

That's the 15625 Hz (on PAL TV's) transformer sound you're hearing. You can get rid of it by getting a 100 Hz TV

If I remember correctly I've had severe, but temporary, tinnitus on three occasions in my life. All of them were loud metal concerts. While listening to the by far worst (=loudest) concert, I couldn't differentiate between any individual sounds, I just perceived a loud crackling sound. God it hurted, I thought blood was coming from my ears. Naturally I left rather quickly.

After the concert I could hear about three to four very loud distinct sine tones constantly, and I was virtually deaf to regular speech. The tinnitus disappeared in the next day, and I gradually regained my hearing ability during the next week.

After that traumatic experience, I have usually kept several disposable earplugs (for me and to hand over to my friends) with me when going to concerts. They are really worth it, they attenuate the music enough to the point that it doesn't hurt anymore and individual notes can actually be distinguished from the intense 120 dB noise wall.

The two other times I had tinnitus were because I forgot the earplugs. Thank god those three times didn't damage my hearing to the point of constant tinnitus...

I voted yes. When I was 14 back in '85 I went to see Motley Crue during their Theatre Of Pain tour, and my ears rang for three days straight after that. Damn it was loud, I loved it, hehe. (The concert, that is.) When I woke up on the 4th day after it the ringing was gone, I was sure it wasn't going to go away until that point. That was the first of many many concerts that I went to throughout the years, but that was probably the hardest on my ears. At the very least I never had them ring like that again. But I assume from all the concerts added up and from the loud car stereo and the days in a band I have a constant ring in my ears now. It's not very loud, and watching tv or anything of similar volume masks it and I don't really hear it. It's a pretty high tone, I would guess (since I haven't listened to tones to compare it to what I always hear) it's around 13-16KHz. It doesn't really bother me, as I say it's not very loud. It's kind of like the 'sound' you hear after a good punch to the head, hahaha.

In general I would have to say I have very good hearing although that has not been medically proven. However, every year at about this time in the Midwest (U.S.A.) we have severe thunderstorms that always seem to kill the electricity for 1 to 4 hours. In those ever-so boring hours of silence without electricity I notice the problem which I contribute to being foolish by listening to my home theatre so loudly. When the constant chatter from the fan on the central air unit is off, the other applicances (frig, freezer), and other noise makers are silent without power it drives me absolutely insane to hear that high pitched sound buzzing in my ears.

What's more evident to me than that is from time to time I can feel my right eardrum or the bone in it throb and that is the most annoying thing since it is present regardless of rather or not the whole house is quiet or if there's some background noise.

Mine started about 2 months ago. Like many others, I only notice it in quiet surroundings or when I think of it, like right now.

Later.

I had that once - when I got sick (ear infection).
Sounded like low-frequency (~100Hz) tone.
Lasted 1,5 day under control of medicines. (heh, Zinnat)

Sometimes it gets so loud I can't hear the people around me. It's a high frequency annoyance. I've taken medicine, etc, nothing works, I've had it since I was a kid. Right when I'm getting ready to go to bed it keeps me up and I can't sleep because I hear it. The only other choice the doctor said was to change my diet and give up chocolate and caffeine but instead of tinnitus I'd wind up with suicide if I had to do that

Under 120 db noise level, my perception of pitch went away. I could hear the music, but the pitch of the notes seemed to wander crazily two tones around their original position. I would have been unable to tell if the musicians played out of tune.

After a few punk shows I've had noticeable ringing for a day or so afterwards (I wear earplugs to punk shows now). In very quiet areas (middle of nowhere away from cities) I hear a faint background ringing sometimes.

I too have had tinnitus for a very long time. It sounds like a high pitched tone, with a high frequency hiss on top of it. Like others who have posted, it is easily masked by ambient noise, but in a quiet environment, it is always there. I can't think of any traumatic exposure to loud sounds, so I don't really know what caused it.

Also, just like Pio2001, I have bursts of severe tinnitus which occur just as he described:

"The hearing suddenly becomes muffled, and I can hear a clear tone around 10 kHz, that quickly decreases. The situation is normal after 4 or 5 seconds."

Almost the same situation for me. My tinnitus is the result from an firework accident 10 years ago which was not immediately treated by a doctor.
I also notice an increasement as soon as I am stressed or if I spend time in a loud enviroment.
My hearing however is normal except this one frequency where the tinnitus lives.

Woah, I'm very surprised that so many here have permanent tinnitus!?
The longest ringing in my ears is maybe few minutes, but I don't remember when was the last time I experienced that. Must be a long time ago.

@fraqtal: Yes, you certainly should consult an ear doctor. Not because they can treat tinnitus -- so far as I know, there isn't any effective treatment -- but because your problem may be something different, that they can fix before it gets worse.

@tigre: I guess that I would call what you report a series of temporary episodes of tinnitus, but that's just my definition. I'm fascinated that you and paranoos can make it disappear by concentrating on it. I've never heard of that before, but I'll give it a try.

My understanding is that tinnitus can manifest itself as a ringing, a buzzing, a beeping, a whine, or any number of repetitive sounds that are unrelated to any external sound source, but are generated inside the ear itself due to damage by physical trauma or infection.

My tinnitus does sometimes become more prominent when I'm under stress, as several people mentioned; and I do also get occasional bursts of much louder sound, that tend to fade after a few minutes, as Pio and gib report.

Strange, I had the same thing happen to me as I was reading this thread! It faded after a few minutes. Maybe they've been ringing all day, due to last night's Meshuggah concert, and I haven't noticed it until now, although I used earplugs the whole time.

Other than that, I can always hear a faint ringing when my surroundings are fairly quiet, and I listen for it. (Like right now... pfft, thanks for bringing up the subject, my ears are ringing again! )

My roommate also reports hearing a faint ringing in quiet surroundings. My impression is that minor tinnitus is a very common occurrence.

AFAIK, this is relatively common and quite normal. In the absence of all sensory input (anechoic chamber or other totally silent space) the brain interprets the random impulses that nerves send as sound (a kind of hallucination). This was my prof's explanation.

About 15 years ago, the use of a walkman with in-ear headphones and heavy metal concerts caused tinnitus.
The first three years, i was going mad, if i tried to fall asleep without a radio playing to over-sound the beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep.

As i have never visited concerts or even loud partys again, it became better year by year.
Now it's nearly gone in a normal environment. With ear-plugs, concerts are a great pleasure again, i even survived manowar (first row in the middle B) ) last year.

I got mine back in December. It just started all of a sudden. No loud music, noise, or anything. It just started.

Garbledwords

thx B)

Tinnitus may be caused by many different things...

Most probable are loud sounds, getting hit in the face (esp. cheek bone), infections.

(IANAD - I Am Not A Doctor)

Found this:

http://www.bixby.org/faq/tinnitus/discover.html

I've had tinnitus all my life. I remember asking my mom when I was little what "that sound" was and she was like "I can't hear anything"... very frustrating for a little kid.

Anyway, I only hear it in a VERY quiet room. As soon as I turn on something as simple as a fan, or even the noisy street outside will mask it. I guess that other people have worse cases where they hear it all the time.

errrmmm... i voted for "Yes, temporary (1 day - 1 wk)".

i usually get mine the day after visiting a disco or something like that (partys, ...)
like many others i can only hear it in a really quite environment, guess its something around 16-17 khz and after a day of relaxing it's gone, so i don't really bother


phase.

just some nasty hum/roar/dist sound when I go to sleep after being at at disco, but that's gone when I wake up. Other than that I hadly hear anything. I have some sort of noise when I'm in a very quiet room, but then again, it's hardly ever that quiet anywhere. My livingroom / bedroom is REALLY quiet.. and I mean really.
so I _could_ sit still and listen to the noise in the head :B

I have tinnitus since I was 10 years old, as result of an otitis, which also produced me a hearing loss in my right ear. I suppose that the heavy ambient noise of the street I lived didn't helped (my mother suffers tinnitus because of this).

For me, the tinnitus sounds like a high pitched sound, but it doesn't sounds like a pure tone. It is usually masked by ambient noise, but I can feel it at nigth if i'm not sleeping in an urban area.

The hearing loss is probably worse. When I'm using a telephone handset, I can feel perfectly the difference between the two ears (specially the loss of high frequencies). And that's with a 4 Khz telephone signal!

Besides thise "background" tinnitus, sometimes I feel short periods (seconds) of stronger buzzing, even in quiet environments (so it's not induced by strong noise). They usually happen when I'm very tired, have high blood pressure, or when water gets into my ear (I go to swim several times a week). Being more careful with my earplugs when I swim and some drugs for better blood circulation (one of them with "gingko biloba") prescribed by my doctor for a couple of months made it almost disappear. I also try to avoid using headphones or exposing to loud music (like live concerts). But it seems I can't get rid of it when I'm very tired or very nervous...

The sound of this second tinnitus is somewhat different. The pitch is higher and it sounds more "tonal" or "narrowband".

BTW, this second tinnitus appeared when I was 21. At that time I was at the university studying Telecommunications Engineering, and had to choose my specialization. It made me leave the idea of following a sound engineering specialization and getting into communications & networking instead.

Carlos G.

Are you sure it's not the tequilas? Because I can hear the "hum" too after a party night, but I'm not sure it's always the too loud music..

Anyway, I'm naturally avoiding the most noisiest position in a disco or such, and take intentional breaks, so that I wouldn't get constant expose to too loud music. My head start to ache if I'm too long exposed to loud music...

Earplugs work great for noise (disco inferno kind too) exposure. And if you get "hifi" earplugs (10e-20e) the sounds aren't muffled too much and they're more comfortable too.

no tinnitus here. maybe after a long night in the disco, but i havent noticed yet.after next friday
i will know more....

I tried to make some somewhat representative sound of what I hear after I come back a late night from a rock concert or a night out on a nightclub. it's actually quite similar, only it's not really sound but more of a constant inner noise or whatever, it's really hard to explain and put into words.

Nightclub
Rockconcert



edit: typo,
+ mind you, the loudness at which these two samples are percieved is difficult to pin-point, and varies, but the latter (rockconcert), is ofcourse, percieved in a sense of less loudness.

Heh, but then again, most people at the mixer who are often exposed to loud music suffer from hearing loss. Since hearing loss starts with high frequencies first, they turn up the trebble so that it sounds good to them. So if you wear the cheapo yellow foam type ones that cut much more highs than lows... in the sum, you'll get a flat response. Allthough I do have to admit that they not very comfortable.

After a concert (and I'm sure there are much louder ones) I started to have some Tinnitus. Directly after the concert I hardly heard anything. Everything sounded like coming through cotton candy and loud noises hurt. I couldn't hear the motor of the car we were driving (which isn't exactly loud but prominent). Additionally I heard a bunch of tones on both ears. After a few days the muffling was gone, but I still had serious high pitched ringing on the right ear (curiously, my left ear was more exposed than the right one). This lasted for about 1 month (thank God!). I didn't see a doctor, which I regret since I believe something could have been done to ensure no further damage. If I focused on the ringing on my right ear, I could make it toggle between 2 frequencies. It was hard to ignore the sound before going to sleep and the more I concentrated on it, the louder it became (increasing my frustration).

That was about one year ago. Today I can only hear a faint high pitched ringing on both ears of just one frequency in quiet situations, like before going to sleep. I am not sure if this is actually normal and I just wasn't aware of it before. I assume it isn't, because I didn't notice it before that concert and it isn't that unobvious.

Like others mentioned, sometimes (once a week?) I also have short bursts of tinnitus that last for maybe 10 second and only occur on a single ear (with no special preference to one side). During that time I hear the surroundings much quieter on that ear. I've had this as long as I can remember and I haven't noticed anything special triggering the event. After some other loud events I also had some high ringing in my ears that was gone the next day.

I wear those cheapo yellow earplugs now to every concert and that has worked very well, I could actually enjoy the music instead of feeling pain. After I posted about my problems on the band's forums I was lightly flamed that it wasn't loud at all and I shouldn't be so dumb to stand directly in front of the speaker.

Here in Germany there are strict conventions about the allowed sound levels during work. On the other hand people go waste their ears in discos or at loud concerts. I for one wouldn't mind lower sound levels. You "only" need to go to about 90dB to make your glands pump out the happy-hormones.

"Tinnitus sufferers know no silence"

Permanent 18khz pure tone here. Probably caused by repetitive infections during childhood and early 90s Sony "Turbo" in-ear headphones/Nirvana-GN'R

Only noticeable in the dead of the night, though.

To agree with rule 8, you need to put here a scientific proof

Well, I think that a much lower level is already enough. (say, 70 dB)

[off topic]

This has been scientifically proven some time ago. I don't know the exact number and I also don't know if it was in db or dba but it was larger but close to 90 I believe. I tried to search for the article (I believe it was posted on the newsticker of www.heise.de, but I couldn't find it, sorry. It basically said that at the given sound pressure level you start to produce endorphines (a hormone that makes you happy. English word?) to handle the accoustic stress. That's also partly why people enjoy concerts/disco so much. My ex-girlfriend had her taste set on Backstreet Boys, Bon Jovi and Bryan Adams. However she loved "No Good" from The Prodigy after she had heard it at a disco, which is something that was/still is very puzzling for me. Maybe the loudness is part of the explanation.

Heh, you could ABX this yourself. Take some humppa music and play it at ear piercingly loud levels (on your headphones, please!). See, if you like it. I won't try this myself, because a) my ears are too precious and B) I don't want to start liking humppa music.

I have tried it and the music style has much more effect on me.
(but if it's too loud I can't help but cover my ears, tried up to 100dB - I'm not a disco type )

Was tested with speakers and heavy metal (which I don't like much).
(my ears and headphones are too precious to waste)

on topic:
I haven't got any post-tinnitus, probably the sound was too quiet (too loud for my neighbours already)

It depends on the frequency response. High pitched, undynamic music sounds harsh at low levels.
I can stand music with extended low frequency response at higher levels.
Dynamic music is difficult to analyse in decibels.

I voted yes to permanent but I hardly notice it much these days. I'm pretty sure the cause was going to a lot of metal concerts in my somewhat younger years. One concert in particular had a definate effect on my ears and particularly my right as it was a fairly small room and I ended up standing close to the right wall which deflected the sound into my right ear. Lying in bed that night I can remember seperating distinct sounds, one of which was like a ball bearing bouncing on a hard surface.

I think it's gradually gotten better and the fact I don't go to many concerts (only because decent bands don't come to my town) or nightclubs has probably helped. These days to hear it I either have to be in a very quiet environment or block my ears and it's basically a fairly faint high pitched tone.

I soon learned that wearing earplugs to concerts is a must, I could do without the strange looks though.

I also occasionally experience the same thing a number of you have mentioned with one ear (usually my right) experiencing a loud ring muting all other noises which goes away if I block the ear momentarily.

All these people saying they have/have had tinnitus!

Well, I had no idea what people meant by tinnitus up to now. I had imagined it to be something like hearing a pulsating tone now and then. (That's how I interpreted "ringing.")

I must say I do hear a high-pitched constant tone in extremely quiet places at night. But it's rare, and I've never wondered about it.

The only time I've expericed ringing during the day was after military training at the firing range. I had ringing in one ear for a couple of days after that.

Just a little note to say "me too", very much like Pio2001 described. I already talked about it in some other thread. Yes, loud noise for a long time will make you hear the buzz all the time... My 7200rpm HDs kinda sound the same.

Heh, I once mistook my hard drive hiss for a strong tinnitus