Headphones and tinnitus

In my experience, headphones can only make tinnitus worse. If your partner could hear the HD650 a few metres away, then you probably had them on too loud.

Tinnitus is your ear-brain's way of saying it's had too much.

If you really need music while commuting, go for a sealed cup type with noise reduction so that you can reduce background noise and listen at a lower level. Example, the PSB M4U 2.

I found that the best thing for commuting (on a subway) was earplugs.

Jan

Thanks Jan

I tried the headphones again and put the volume way down. It is a shame that the computer software to control the volume doesnt give a dbl reading to indicate loudness. One thing i did notice was that with the volume right down how much hiss and noise was was present in the signal and what that must have been like with the volume louder.

I will check out the headphones you mentio but they are probably a bit pricdy for me after my latesr purchase. Any others you wwwould recommend?

Simcat,

Hiss and noise at low volume may be a symptom of the sound card as well as inherent noise on your computer's power supply, although you said you hadn't previously noticed it with the Grados. Maybe more sensitive, resolving HPs won't work well for you listening via computer.

As one with chronic tinnitus I'd ask is your own tinnitus a direct result of HP listening or do you have it all the time?

I have been struggling with tinnitus for a few months now after sudden onset. It is clearly more noticeable with closed back cans. At least with open back designs some background noise bleeds in and it is not as noticeable but with the closeback ones it is like holding a sea shell to my ear. They block out so much that the tinnitus seems much louder. So if your question is about which designs allow you to enjoy music more with tinnutis pushed as far back as possible, I would say an open back design with as much external bleed as possible. I find both the HD600 great for this. The HD800, while amazing don't bleed as much from the outside and I find I need to pick days where the tinnitus is less to use them enjoyably.

The biggest thing with tinnitus is to learn to not be bothered by it - learn to ignore it.  The brain is highly re-programmable, use this facility.

The next biggest thing is concentrate your efforts on improving the clarity of replay, particularly the intelligibility of voices - get that right and most other beneficial qualities will follow.

The biggest mistake you can make is to try to use volume to mask it if anything, use lower volumes and just ignore the cicadas.

Computers don't have dB scales as they have no way to know the sensitivity of the output device attached to them.

That is excellent advice Huge. Volume is never a good way to deal with tinnitus. In my experience, tinnitus, although really loud, seems to bost other sounds so drowning it out would not be possible (as well as damage hearing). It is common to find that with tinnitus, low listening volmes start to sound much louder rather than being drowned out. I'm not sure why this is. I never used to listen to truly antisocial preasure levels but I now find that even on low volumes, after a couple minutes of brain adjustment, starts to sound incredibly loud and needs to be brought down even lower.

I think getting used to Tinnitus is the way. Its when you become conscious of it and annoyed by it that it becomes much worse. However, ignoring it is hard and just accepting its part of the sound environment is the way. With the headphone I used I think I had it too loud, though it sounded great, and it made my ears ring for quite a long time. Also, by playing quieter it was apparent how much noise was part of the replay. So can't have been good having that boosted as well by the volume increase. What would you suggest to improve this for computer based replay?

My main system has ATC SCM40  as the front end and I find the clarity and mid band just a relief. It is very clear and precise and that helps as I don't have to work so hard to distinguish the sounds and music. For me this precision is quite relaxing. For others maybe not.

But for commuting open backed headphones sound interesting based on comments above but possibly annoying for other passengers?

At the end of the day, at least unless you insert a calibrated microphone between earphone and ear and attach to a suitable meter, the only judge of sound level with headphones is the listener: i.e. you! That is no different from speakers if you listen in seclusion, though if you listen to speakers with others around of course they may volunteer that it's too loud (do they sometimes?).

what anyone hears outside your headphones depends on their leakage, quietness of room etc, and doesn't indicate if too loud for your ears (if the idea of cans is not to disturb others in the same room, or not be disturbed by them watching TV etc, go for a closed back design).

The make/model of your cans and the power of your amp make no difference, unless you choose a model so insensitive that they can't get loud even at max vol. 

If you have a tendency to like to listen loud, headphones can have a tendency to almost encourage you to 'wind it up' - I remember as a 16 year old discovering that if I did that I could simulate levels in the near-front rows of a Deep Purple gig - in my parents' house! But when my ears were still ringing next morning as they not uncommonly did after gigs, I started to think it may be unwise, and limited both volume and time somewhat thereafter.

The only things that can control the sound level are your own restraint, combined with that knob called a volume control! (Ok or it's remote control.) If you find headphones tease you into louder listening levels and you either don't realise or can't exercise control, then perhaps the're not the best thing for you.