Greetings, Friends,
For as long as I can remember, I've had tinnitus, or ringing in the ears. When I was young, and even more stupid that I am now, I used to shoot large caliber firearms with no hearing protection, at all. For about 8 years in the CA National Guard, I was a Tank Platoon Leader, and our old M48's were just plain LOUD! Add to that the fact that I played music, professionally, for almost thirty years, and well, my ears ring, every day, all the time, period!
Once when Sweet Bride and I were snow camping, up on Mt. San Jacinto (10,802 feet), we had setup our tent on 12 feet of snow, and in the middle of the night, I was awakened by what I took to be a Freight Train coming through our tent!!! I ripped open the zipper on the tent fly, and stuck my head outside, to see what could possibly be making such a horrible noise! It was just my ears ringing..... The extreme quiet at that altitude, when everything was deeply covered with snow, really highlighted just how much my ears ring all the time!
Since I got my L300's, and had my 1812 Overture "experience", it seems that they are ringing even louder than they previously were! I'm trying to get them back to "normal", and have been putting the DB meter on the L300's, and the L19's I'm now listening to in my work area. I'm trying to limit the DB's to around 80 +/-. Don't know if it will do any good, but what the heck, eh?!
My question is, how many of you also suffer from tinnitus? If you do have it, how long have you dealt with it, and what are you doing to keep it from getting worse? How do we keep enjoying the music reproduced by our beloved JBL speaker systems, without further damaging our hearing?
This morning, I was looking at those 2380A horns I got the other day, one of which is already mounted on one of the 2445J's I got from Brother Todd, and I thought to myself, "Oh Lord! What have I gotten myself into??!! I'll bet these suckers will be really LOUD, unless I pad them down a good bit"!! Yeah.... JUST what I need!
I'd appreciate hearing (no pun intended!) how the rest of you deal with ringing in the ears, and your sharing any remedies you are undertaking to keep things from getting worse. Thanks, very much, and God Bless!
Every Good Wish,
Doc