hearing loss

[Mister Tawny]

Okay I saw the ringing thread and thought it's time for this thread...

Anyway I have been a musician (professionally) since I was 12. My favorite rig was a Sunn Coliseum, slaves and 3 stacks. After that when my kids were born (1984/5 is when I quit playing pro) I just listened as a fan. then I got into consumer/pro sound a few years later. After that... Well stadiums and small venues with sound for arenas..... No surprise my hearing is limited....

But in the last few years, I added rave DJ and promoter to the mix and my hearing has slid so much more. Why all this????

Simple... Whatever regimen you follow a good ENT (ear, nose, throat) doc should be there. I wish I knew about it earlier, and rest assured my kids (and my old fans and now, rave kids) all are going/will be checked and be careful in the future....

[Doc Mark]

Hey, Mister Tawny,

Yep. Been there, done that. It just goes to prove the old adage, "Too soon old, too late smart"! Back in the day, we used to delight in our ears ringing, heavily, after shooting large bore pistols, with no ear protection!! Yes, we were completely ignorant of the massive damage we were doing to our hearing. Later, as a musician, I never gave the high SPL's, to which we were all exposed, much thought. But, now, I think about my hearing loss all the time. Even last night, as we watched Kevin Costner's "Wyatt Earp", I began to feel that the sound was just a tad too loud, and pulled out the old Rat Shack DB meter to check it out. Our hearing and our vision are two things that we really take for granted, when we are young. As we age, both become much more important to us. Such is life, I guess.... Best of luck on your own hearing loss, and God Bless!

Every Good Wish,
Doc

[mikebake]

For about $100 you can have an audiologist make custom molded ear plugs that come with a variety of changeable filters to cut, i.e. -5, -10, -15, -20 db attenuation.

[SEAWOLF97]

Am fortunate that have only intermittent tinnitus , after years on the shooting range (an M-16 is quite noisey) , time under the turbines of a Huey and working on the flight deck within 15 feet of full afterburner Phantoms and of course the rock concerts , it should be worse. Never protected my hearing until I was in my late 40's.

BUT , very happy that I can still make it to 13 or 14Khz on the freq sweeps..

If anyone has an miracle solutions to the tinnitus problem, plse post them ...have had mine so long thats its just part of life anymore.

My wif is Asian and her country did not vaccinate children and as I understand, many have perforated eardrums as a consequence.

[Steve Schell]

As a piano technician for 33 years I have tried to protect my hearing when possible. I formed a lifelong habit of always keeping a pair of cheap foam earplugs in my left pants pocket and using them whenever necessary. There are many occasions like plane flights and long rides in noisy vehicles where the 25dB of broadband attenuation of properly installed plugs is soooo welcome.

My hearing disappears above about 13kHz.; I have been watching the upper limit slowly descend over the years as (I think) a natural consequence of aging. I am about to turn 55. I can still ace conventional Beltone type hearing exams though, which only measure up to 8kHz. Mostly I think it is the piano tuners' developed ability in hearing subtle sounds and pulling tones out of the noise floor.

[boputnam]

Steve - great post. Good advice, which I too, follow.

I also keep a pair of inexpensive but effective over-ear protectors in the shop. I use them for everything, particularly when vacuuming or power sawing, etc. - any long-term noise is just plumb unneccessary. Never be lazy about protecting your hearing (or eyesight - I wear over-glasses goggles for everything, too... ).

On gigs, I more and more often live "in the cans". I keep SPL in the range of 90-95dB at Front of House, but even at that, I just don't like it nekked for 4-hours, so I wear Sony MDR-V6 headphones. These are reliable sounding and block a great deal of the "noise". I say "noise", because back by me, all too frequently, fans are visiting each other and their chatter is often louder than the PA . The only weird part is when the console doesn't have a delay for the headphone jack - it can get a bit strange when back +100-ft.

Oh - one other thing. I've been known to wear my headphones when I have to crawl on stage to fix mics/lines, live. Even tho not plugged-in (I stuff the plug into my pocket), they protect me from the gawdawful SPL of the artists' amps or the damned snare. Egads, it's loud up there...