Ted Ed’s latest video. Thought I’d share.
I am constantly pulling my decible meter out of my drawer to check myself. My ears self-regulate after a while, but sometimes you get a bit aggressive with new products or music that you LOVE. 
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I use a decibel meter as well, just to make sure–generally I am a pretty low listener.
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great post!
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I think I need to ease up a bit on my listening sessions in terms of the volume I set it up, especially when I prefer music that is on the rock/metal side of things. Tinnitus can be treated though, as long as I ease up on the things on what I listen to.
If you or anyone ever comes across a real cure for tinnitus let me know. My cousin did the loud rock concert thing in her youth. Now she’s driven to thoughts of suicide. It just never lets up. She’s of course following professional guidance. But nothing has helped.
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This is wrong.
Permanent tinnitus is not treatable!
Only temporary tinnitus fades or goes away.
If you get tinnitus or ringing from playing loud music then waiting that ringing goes away or hearing level’s get restored then playing more loud music repeat repeat repeat… you are playing with self harming with ur hearing. Some day it might stay, be permanent.
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I never had an issue until I got into higher end stuff. Now that nothing fucking ever is harsh I find myself cranking for classical and ost and just not turning it back down…
Edit: also, anyone have good tips for measuring the vume of iems with a decibel meter?
Sometimes my wife will point out how loud I am playing. My reflex is to say that they are just more open headphones. However, I will check the volume and sometimes…
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Oops, my mistake.
Yeah I was wrong with that, I wasn’t sure on what I was saying there. My apologies.
Unfortunately years of concert going and playing music WAY too loud my temporary tinnitus turned to permanent back in December. That is coupled with the fact I was born with hearing loss in middle frequencies and told I would need hearing aids one day. I had already been decreasing my listening volume over the year, but one day it just happened with no reasoning. At my doctors appt last month I was basically told everything looks good physically and there is nothing immediate to explain my hearing loss. The only thing that can come close to ‘fixing’ the tinnitus would be hearing aids that can block frequencies heard through tinnitus. I am going to live with it for now and try to become used to the ringing before I jump straight into hearing aids. Fortunately it has not prevented me from sleeping so that I can be happy about. I urge anyone to be aware of their listening volumes and don’t turn out like me, a guy at 32 who has the hearing of an almost 50 year old.
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You shouldn’t feel bad at all. I’m sure lots of other people are under this mistaken impression and your post brought the matter to light.
My cousin tried hearing aids with no luck but I don’t know what they were set up to do. Can you elaborate on blocking frequencies? This just might be something she hasn’t tried.
Honestly I can not speak to this 100%, but basically you can mask and elevate certain frequencies with certain hearing aids. My mom’s boss uses them for her tinnitus and yes it does not fix the issue, only allows her to better manage the issue. Here is a small snippet that may explain that a little better.
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Thanks! The web page Online Tone Generator mentions that matching the exact frequency (when possible) of the tinnitus ringing with an audible tone can help some people. Sounds as though the hearing aid thing is a more sophisticated version of this.
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And I experience the exact opposite. Frequencies near the ringing are irritating.
I hove no hearing loss at all with my Tinnitus, in fact my hearing is “exceptional” according to the audiologist, I just hear continuous high frequency ringing.
I saw an Audiologist and an ENT about mine, the net result was you have to live with it.
There are MANY causes, sometimes it’s the physical i.e. the little bones in the ears, sometimes it’s damage to the auditary nerves, sometimes it’s neither, and not well understood.
Without knowing what the damage is it’s not treatable, and even then it’s probably not treatable.
My ENT said it would go away eventually as I got older and the nerves died.
Some forms of Tinnitus, if the problem is in the sinuses, can be treated with nasal inhalers, they are I think available over the counter, didn’t work for me, but its worth trying them for a few months if you haven’t ruled that out.
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Things like this sweeping frequencies can provide at least temporary relief, and may partially resolve the issue depending on how severe it is.
It’s helped for me. Worked best using low cost IEMs that have a V shaped signature.
possibly alternating between 1 hour of this followed by 15 minutes of using ear plugs to block all sounds.
Also there’s inconclusive results, but Lipo-Flavonoid supplements do seem to help.
To be clear this isn’t official medical advice, but it helped for me.
I hope your cousin finds some relief.
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Thanks for sharing! E-mailed both to her. Will report back on her results.
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On a related topic. Not sure how may people are aware of this, but if you play music loudly you may want to look into the stapedius reflex. Idea is that our ears have a protective mechanism that clamps down when sound reaches a certain pressure/loudness level. When this happens you’d be fighting an up-hill battle and sound quality would be diminished.
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Probably a good guideline to try and keep listening to around 70db
whenever I’m listening to a “hifi” rig it’s at low to medium levels… where I run into problems is my TWS Iems at the gym. I blast them when running/rowing and I think it’s problematic.