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Hearing Loss and Ear Plugs
- Thread starter Boplicity
- Start date
Has anyone here been fitted with hearing aids that actually work with being a musician?
Around January of this year I went for evaluation and fitting of hearing aids.
They include four settings:
-- universal
-- noisy environment
-- television
-- tinnitus masking
I was told that it will take some tweaking to make them work for me and that I need to wear them consistently for my brain to readjust.
So far....
They are what I describe as 'helpful'. They do restore or somehow synthesize the effect of frequencies that are in a 'dead zone' ....pretty much in the upper midrange. And, so far they work best when watching television.
But when it comes to a sustained tone, the audio image is warbled be it by adding a small room like delay to emphasize certain frequencies or something to that effect. It is annoying like if you are singing into a fan. I hope that it can be dealt with.
The aids digitize the signal and manipulate it from there according to various algorithms.
I wish that I had at least one setting out of the four where I had control over the equalization, compression and other aspects to model it. The only self control that is offered is a broad bass/treble balance and directivity from narrow to 360* via iPhone app 'Signia'.
Around January of this year I went for evaluation and fitting of hearing aids.
They include four settings:
-- universal
-- noisy environment
-- television
-- tinnitus masking
I was told that it will take some tweaking to make them work for me and that I need to wear them consistently for my brain to readjust.
So far....
They are what I describe as 'helpful'. They do restore or somehow synthesize the effect of frequencies that are in a 'dead zone' ....pretty much in the upper midrange. And, so far they work best when watching television.
But when it comes to a sustained tone, the audio image is warbled be it by adding a small room like delay to emphasize certain frequencies or something to that effect. It is annoying like if you are singing into a fan. I hope that it can be dealt with.
The aids digitize the signal and manipulate it from there according to various algorithms.
I wish that I had at least one setting out of the four where I had control over the equalization, compression and other aspects to model it. The only self control that is offered is a broad bass/treble balance and directivity from narrow to 360* via iPhone app 'Signia'.
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I have little experience but I could swear I watched an audiologist setting hearing aids (for an older adult) with what looked like a 31-band style graphic eq. It appeared pretty fine adjustment would be possible. There were lots of other buttons on the page so I suspect much more than EQ control is programmable. Still, I’ve heard other similar complaints from my elders.
I used the Sonic II's years ago, their attenuation is volume dependent; you could talk between numbers, louder sounds were cut back. Much better than foam plugs, which really kill higher frequencies. They are not available now, but search for "shooter's earplugs", got a pair recently now that I am playing electric again. Most of my damage was done to the left ear from running sound; the PFL headphone feed on the Hill MA-16 mixer just came in the left channel, and even with closed back over the ear cans I cranked it for making EQ tweaks and trying to find out which mic had been moved to which instrument during festivals with lots of acts. Down 30 dB in left ear, 20 dB down in right ear. The shooter's earplugs cost about $20 US.
Shooter's earplugs are mechanical. There is a small diaphragm inside that can only pass so much sound, so you can hear talking when quiet but the louder the sound the more it is attenuated. There are electronic in ear devices which fall in the IEM category (in-ear monitors) which have a microphone for passing stage sound, mixed with the feed you get from the monitor mix.
I'm kind of freaked out because I seem to have lost all hearing in my left ear !
I'm 62 and have been gigging since I was 12, and of course I have foolishly abused my ears in my youth. As a result I have been dealing with tinnitus for many years, but I was able to manage it ok and in the past 15 years or so I have been pretty religious about hearing protection even in modest volume situations.
So, last Sat night I did a very low volume gig with a guit/violin/bass trio in a very small space. All the players are pro's and our volume level was very low/appropriate. Gig went fine, but as I was driving home I could feel my hearing shutting down in my left ear. Freaked me out!
I am a swimmer, and am prone to blockages in the outer ear canal. So I flushed my ears out with the accepted way, but got no relief.
I got in to see my GP on Monday and he checked me out. Scoped my ear canals, and also did a tuning fork test on the bones in front and behind both ears. The initial results are that my outer canals are clear, my ear drum is intact, and the positive tuning fork test result seems to suggest that my problem is physical, not neurological ... which is good, because neurological damage basically means permanent deafness.
So, that leaves some kind of physical issue in the inner ear on the left side. Possibilities include inflammation of some kind/for some reason, infection (unlikely, but possible), an inner ear cyst (no idea).
I'm going for an audiology exam today to get more details and hope to see an ENT Doc later this week for more insights and hopefully a plan. My GP did give me a short prescription dose of prednisone (steroids), and the initial dose did seem to get me back at least some hearing, but as the week long dose wore off/down, my hearing went back to nearly zero.
I'm kind of freaked out at the moment, but also pretty hopeful that this situation will resolve itself because playing on only one ear is really bad right now .. I've tried just practicing a bit, and while I can hear in the right ear, the tinnitus and whatever else is going on in the left ear just makes the sound really difficult to "listen" to.
Anyone ever experience sudden loss of hearing ? any suggestions besides the stuff I'm pursuing ?
Thanks
I'm 62 and have been gigging since I was 12, and of course I have foolishly abused my ears in my youth. As a result I have been dealing with tinnitus for many years, but I was able to manage it ok and in the past 15 years or so I have been pretty religious about hearing protection even in modest volume situations.
So, last Sat night I did a very low volume gig with a guit/violin/bass trio in a very small space. All the players are pro's and our volume level was very low/appropriate. Gig went fine, but as I was driving home I could feel my hearing shutting down in my left ear. Freaked me out!
I am a swimmer, and am prone to blockages in the outer ear canal. So I flushed my ears out with the accepted way, but got no relief.
I got in to see my GP on Monday and he checked me out. Scoped my ear canals, and also did a tuning fork test on the bones in front and behind both ears. The initial results are that my outer canals are clear, my ear drum is intact, and the positive tuning fork test result seems to suggest that my problem is physical, not neurological ... which is good, because neurological damage basically means permanent deafness.
So, that leaves some kind of physical issue in the inner ear on the left side. Possibilities include inflammation of some kind/for some reason, infection (unlikely, but possible), an inner ear cyst (no idea).
I'm going for an audiology exam today to get more details and hope to see an ENT Doc later this week for more insights and hopefully a plan. My GP did give me a short prescription dose of prednisone (steroids), and the initial dose did seem to get me back at least some hearing, but as the week long dose wore off/down, my hearing went back to nearly zero.
I'm kind of freaked out at the moment, but also pretty hopeful that this situation will resolve itself because playing on only one ear is really bad right now .. I've tried just practicing a bit, and while I can hear in the right ear, the tinnitus and whatever else is going on in the left ear just makes the sound really difficult to "listen" to.
Anyone ever experience sudden loss of hearing ? any suggestions besides the stuff I'm pursuing ?
Thanks
i have used hearing protection since i started playing guitar with a professional band where we were in large venues with large sound systems. Prior to that i didnt do loud gigs. Initially i used the off the shelf ones until about 2012 when i got some ACS custom moulded ones and use them on virtually all my gigs now. i have two sets. My main one is 17db and one at 20db that i use when listening to loud bands at gigs.
ACS Custom Pro Series
ACS Custom Pro Series
follow-up to my own post above.
Audiologist tested me today and told me the following:
Left ear is -50dB vs Right (!) ... but I pretty much could have guessed that just living with it for the past week.
Both ear drums are intact/ok (good)
Loss of hearing is likely from an middle ear virus (not a definitive diagnosis, but lots of experience by a medical audiologist).
Odds of at least some recovery are decent; 50% likelyhood of full recovery to prior function, and higher odds of less than full recovery but still functional.
The fact that I jumped on it and was put on steroids(prednisone) within a day of the initial loss is a good indicator of improved recovery odds.
Treatment will likely involve another round of steroids, and the ENT Doc I see soon may do a direct injection of steroids into my middle ear (yikes, sounds painful).
anyway, thought I would share my experience. Not apparently directly related to high volume, but still quite a problem.
Glad you took quick action. Hope it clears up soon. As someone said, making yourself deaf because you like music is like drowning because you like to swim.
I want to repeat that my current hearing situation, aside from my pre-existing tinnitus, is NOT due to high volume damage. So, this is more of a story about hopefully recovering my general hearing.
I saw the ENT Doc today and got a direct injection of steroids thru my eardrum into my middle ear (!) ... and a bit more information.
first off, let me just say that the injection hurt like a b**ch !
what the ENT Doc told me was that my situation is most likely re-emergent chicken-pox/shingles virus in my inner ear. The hearing loss comes from inflammation due to an overwhelming immune system reaction to the virus which is apparently very bad for the audio nerve bundle in the inner ear. The steroid injection (which is obviously much more direct than an oral prescription) moves through the middle ear into the inner ear and just helps reduce the inflammation from the immune system response attacking the nerve bundle .. it does nothing for the viral infection itself.
There is no guarantee that any of this will work. I just have to let the steroids work on the inflammation and hope there has not been major nerve damage from all of this. The doc says that I should see some, but perhaps not total relief within hours or overnight .... so far, nothing good to report yet. I sure hope I get some hearing function back from this injection. I have another injection scheduled for next Monday.
hoping for the best
I recently had the shingles vaccine - I wonder if that would have prevented it? Recommended for 50 and over ...
https://www.webmd.com/skin-problems...13/new-shingles-vaccine_what-you-need-to-know
https://www.webmd.com/skin-problems...13/new-shingles-vaccine_what-you-need-to-know
had the shingles vaccine (the older one) myself 2 years ago. Unfortunately, like all vaccines, it's not 100% preventative, it just improves your odds of not being infected. Or, if infected, it may reduce the severity of the infection.
Prevented what? Deafness? I am due to get this (for the last 4 years that Ive known about it...procrastinator at large here). My dad had shingles in his 80's and he was miserable.
My big fear is going deaf and have only the roar of tinnitus to listen to 24/7/365.
My right ear is quite bad and seems to be at it's worst when I wake up in the morning.
Speak up, I can't hear you !!
Same boat here. Too many years of racecars, (friend had a drag car, I was on his pit crew), loud music, shooting a lot of guns, stuck next to the drummer, , all w/o hearing protection
it has taken a toll on me too
Same boat here. Too many years of racecars, (friend had a drag car, I was on his pit crew), loud music, shooting a lot of guns, stuck next to the drummer, , all w/o hearing protection
it has taken a toll on me too
just to update ...
After 1 round of steroids (predisone) immediately after the initial hearing loss, and then 2 direct injections of steroids thru the eardrum into the middle ear (ouch!) over the past 2 weeks (so three weeks out from the initial loss) I have maybe recovered 10dB in my left ear and the initial "distortion/garbling" has abated somewhat. So I can hear something in my left ear but it's still way out of balance L to R. I am still hopeful/hoping for additional relief/hearing recovery. Docs have suggested 2 more rounds of direct steroid injection but I may ask to go back on an oral steroid round as that was the only treatment that seemed to have fairly clear results .. even though it was temporary. Plus the direct injection hurts like a b**ch!, is quite expensive and has not seemingly produced much improvement vs the initial prednisone scrip. I hate to second guess Docs, particularly specialists (ENT's in this case) but I'm going to ask them about this before getting another direct injection.
still hopeful for recovery, but after 3 weeks I am starting to consider how I will be able to continue playing with my hearing degraded as it is now. Not something I want to accept just yet but its hard to keep the negative thoughts entirely at bay.
After 1 round of steroids (predisone) immediately after the initial hearing loss, and then 2 direct injections of steroids thru the eardrum into the middle ear (ouch!) over the past 2 weeks (so three weeks out from the initial loss) I have maybe recovered 10dB in my left ear and the initial "distortion/garbling" has abated somewhat. So I can hear something in my left ear but it's still way out of balance L to R. I am still hopeful/hoping for additional relief/hearing recovery. Docs have suggested 2 more rounds of direct steroid injection but I may ask to go back on an oral steroid round as that was the only treatment that seemed to have fairly clear results .. even though it was temporary. Plus the direct injection hurts like a b**ch!, is quite expensive and has not seemingly produced much improvement vs the initial prednisone scrip. I hate to second guess Docs, particularly specialists (ENT's in this case) but I'm going to ask them about this before getting another direct injection.
still hopeful for recovery, but after 3 weeks I am starting to consider how I will be able to continue playing with my hearing degraded as it is now. Not something I want to accept just yet but its hard to keep the negative thoughts entirely at bay.
I proscribe an intensive course of puppy petting. Good luck.
I’ve posted this up on a different thread. Anyone ready this thread are probably concerned about hearing loss. Like many of you, I’ve played too many years w/o protection and now suffering the consequences at 61. Hearing loss in both ears but much worse in my right. Pretty bad tinnitus. I’ve worn custom ears plugs the past ten years only to preserve what’s remaining. I recommend anyone reading this to invest in a good set of custom ears plugs. Mine cost $ 200.00 which is about the price of one decent pedal. Only regret is I wish I had these in my twenty’s. You can get these mail order direct from the company below with an at home fitting kit. I’ve done it two times and both fit perfectly. Use 25’s for performance and loud concerts. 15’s for lower volume shows.
Westone Style ES49 Custom Musicians Ear Plugs With ER Filters (One Pair) - Ear Plugs for Music and Concerts
Westone Style ES49 Custom Musicians Ear Plugs With ER Filters (One Pair) - Ear Plugs for Music and Concerts
Happy New Year to all.
I wanted to come back to this thread to report that after a bit more than a month of dealing with unexpected and profound hearing loss in my left ear, my hearing has noticeably started to recover in the past few days. It's still not back to where it was before all this happened, but it has recovered enough that I have a semblance of stereoscopic hearing again. Audiology testing right after the initial loss showed that I had a -50dB loss in the left ear which I more or less equated to a L/R volume balance of about 90/10 (totally subjective description). On top of the net hearing loss, what I was hearing was also quite distorted, which was very disorienting. Over time the distortion went away, which was great, but still left me with extremely attenuated hearing overall. Today I would say I'm probably at about 90/60, and am hoping for continued recovery ... hopefully back to at least where I was before this happened. FWIW, I'm using 90 for my "good" ear because even before all this happened I had pretty serious high-end loss and significant tinnitus .... but I was able to manage all that well enough and under the circumstances would welcome a return to that level of hearing.
anyway, as you might expect, I am pretty psyched to be experiencing some recovery (and hoping for more as time goes on) and thought I would share.
thanks
I wanted to come back to this thread to report that after a bit more than a month of dealing with unexpected and profound hearing loss in my left ear, my hearing has noticeably started to recover in the past few days. It's still not back to where it was before all this happened, but it has recovered enough that I have a semblance of stereoscopic hearing again. Audiology testing right after the initial loss showed that I had a -50dB loss in the left ear which I more or less equated to a L/R volume balance of about 90/10 (totally subjective description). On top of the net hearing loss, what I was hearing was also quite distorted, which was very disorienting. Over time the distortion went away, which was great, but still left me with extremely attenuated hearing overall. Today I would say I'm probably at about 90/60, and am hoping for continued recovery ... hopefully back to at least where I was before this happened. FWIW, I'm using 90 for my "good" ear because even before all this happened I had pretty serious high-end loss and significant tinnitus .... but I was able to manage all that well enough and under the circumstances would welcome a return to that level of hearing.
anyway, as you might expect, I am pretty psyched to be experiencing some recovery (and hoping for more as time goes on) and thought I would share.
thanks
Hey folks,
So after spending the last two/three days going through this entire thread and absorbing all this great information, I'm about to take the plunge to grab some better ear protection. Up till now, I've been using the ER20XS Standard Fit you can just buy off Amazon. However, I've tried a variety of ear tips and most have been either painfully large, or they don't stay in... basically, I'm fed up with fit, so I've made an appointment to go see an audiologist, take a hearing test (last time I did one I was 17, so it's probably time seeing as I'm now twice that age), as well as get a custom set of ear musicians earplugs.
The problem is I'm not sure what to go with in terms of filters. The Doc makes they own set and uses Etymotic filters (I would probably go with the 15 reduction, as I do find the 20 to be a tad too much overall). I'd be open to doing a set from Westone or someone else reputable, but I'd have to keep in mind conversion and import fees here in Canada. My price, shopping around audiologists here in Toronto, seems to be about 400CAD before tax, which would put it in the 200/250US range.
My appointment is for next Monday, so I'm just putting down these questions that I feel I don't have a clear answer on so far:
- Do you have any specific suggestions other than Westone? Should I go with them over what the audiologist uses?
- Etymotic Musician Pro: great idea but, anyone have any relevant info on them? From what I've seen online, and on this forum, their frequency curve hurts the bass, and a few bassists (from pre 2016 sources) have said that they weren't very good for bass. Wondering if it's improved any in the past few years?
Thanks everyone
So after spending the last two/three days going through this entire thread and absorbing all this great information, I'm about to take the plunge to grab some better ear protection. Up till now, I've been using the ER20XS Standard Fit you can just buy off Amazon. However, I've tried a variety of ear tips and most have been either painfully large, or they don't stay in... basically, I'm fed up with fit, so I've made an appointment to go see an audiologist, take a hearing test (last time I did one I was 17, so it's probably time seeing as I'm now twice that age), as well as get a custom set of ear musicians earplugs.
The problem is I'm not sure what to go with in terms of filters. The Doc makes they own set and uses Etymotic filters (I would probably go with the 15 reduction, as I do find the 20 to be a tad too much overall). I'd be open to doing a set from Westone or someone else reputable, but I'd have to keep in mind conversion and import fees here in Canada. My price, shopping around audiologists here in Toronto, seems to be about 400CAD before tax, which would put it in the 200/250US range.
My appointment is for next Monday, so I'm just putting down these questions that I feel I don't have a clear answer on so far:
- Do you have any specific suggestions other than Westone? Should I go with them over what the audiologist uses?
- Etymotic Musician Pro: great idea but, anyone have any relevant info on them? From what I've seen online, and on this forum, their frequency curve hurts the bass, and a few bassists (from pre 2016 sources) have said that they weren't very good for bass. Wondering if it's improved any in the past few years?
Thanks everyone