My tinnitus started way before my Focal Clears were invented or HD600’s. Its just there, caused by loud music and drag racing why before we knew about hearing protection.Headphones or without headphones you just live with it. I’ve had my mosquito buzz since the late 60’s early 70’s. Update, my diagnoses to this day, well came from my cousin who is a Otolaryngologist - head and neck surgeon at Mayo.
Interesting how different everyone’s experience is. For me, I don’t think it is complex treble. Piano sonatas, for instance, do it for me as much as Bach’s cello suite. The one thing that makes it go away is a combo of higher volume of the–I’m not quite sure what the right word is–the density of the sound. I won’t hear it, say, in a large choral work sung at decent volume.
My chain is FLAC->Mojo->Clears
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That’s auditory masking, where a louder sound makes a softer one inaudible. Masking is a common way to manage tinnitus (drive it out of perception) rather than eliminate it. Masking with a fan or pink noise generator also helps people sleep with others who snore, in cities, near railroads, etc. I spent a night on a high floor at The Mirage Las Vegas hotel. The elevators make ghostly whines every time they rise as they push the air out. The hotel’s solution was to put in very loud bathroom fans with noisy bearings.
I’m a full believer in the medically documented role of magnesium in helping with tinnitus. That link has other info on minerals too. While there’s not much tinnitus research, I also find MSM helps the body absorb vitamins and minerals.
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Thanks for the links. I hadn’t heard about magnesium or MSM. I’ll check them out.
The thing for me about my headphones is that they call my attention to the presence of my tinnitus. i.e. I’ve more or less learned to ignore my tinnitus in everyday life, including in very quiet situations. But when I listen to headphones, I again start to perceive it during and after listening to music–except during the parts that are loud enough to mask it. Headphone listening is a sort of unmasking (or un-ignoring).
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I have developed tinnitus in my left ear, most likely due to stress and repetitive sinus infections. It’s a struggle at times to want to put on headphones and listen to music as the ringing can be quite an impediment. I’ve tried supplements, rinses, and now at a point where I have decided to see an ENT doctor. I’ve been hesitant to waste time on that route as there seems to be low expectations to treat it.
It’s good to know there are others in this hobby who also suffer this and look forward to sharing more.
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I saw an ENT about mine a couple of years ago.
The hearing test I took at the time came back as exceptional for my age.
The ENT basically told me unless there was some obvious physical cause, I was going to have to live with it. With the helpful advice of when the nerves die, it will go away.
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Thanks for sharing, that is what I am afraid of happening. Best case, my ENT is able to identify the cause, worse case, same situation as it is now.
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That’s interesting. I probably always had it but environmental noise was always higher – so my mind has probably been masking it.
Into a practical life context, as I type, I notice this ~10kHz pitch also competing with the refrigerator motor around 5ft away from me. Measured noise level is 45 dB(A) on average and I feel this pitch being probably 10-20dB lower.
In extremely quiet times if I focus on it, it does become annoying. 
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Sorry dude, similar thing here with my sinuses. Mine used to go away after a while but I think it’s here to stay.
A couple things that make it a little better for me when things get rougher:
- Either Mucinex or Sinex nasal spray (the methanol in them helps me open things up for me). This normally works pretty decently for me to open things up and reduce the pressure.
- Some allergy sinus medication with the sudafed you have to show ID for (I’ll use in combination with the #1 when bad)
- Gonna sound a little odd but when it’s REAL bad sometimes I’ll take a hot shower and let the water run on the back of my head/neck for a while. It sorta opens up my sinuses a bit (I think) and at the very least, the sound of the water helps mask the ringing for a bit for some relief.
Caveat, I’m not a doctor nor did I stay at a Holiday Inn … these are just things that seem to help me in reducing the ringing.
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I’m sorry to learn that you guys are suffering tinnitus. The ENT doctor I first went to see about mine was decidedly unsympathetic. Essentially, he told me to get over it since I was but one of millions who suffer from it. He was a bit of a twat, frankly, and was clearly pleased with his big, expensive watch. He prescribed me a course of steroids because his audiologist - a much more sympathetic, caring person - had identified some mild hearing loss in both of my ears (I’m in my mid-40s), but she also determined that I had more hearing loss in the left ear. It is with the left ear that I suffer tinnitus. The steroid boosted my hearing when I went back for a second test a week later, and I was given a discount code for a supplement that was supposed to help.
A year or two later, I went to a different ENT because of an infection and relayed this story to him when explaining my medical history. This second doctor was not impressed by what he heard. He explained that the steroid would have provided a temporary boost to my hearing but that the underlying problem could not be resolved. He also explained that the more significant loss of hearing in my left ear - and the tinnitus associated with it - could probably be explained by an infection since I’ve not knowingly exposed myself to loud sounds on just the one side, as with firing guns, for instance.
I’m not sure the supplements did anything beyond offering me a balm as I adjusted to life with tinnitus. That was therapeutic in its way, I suppose, and I eventually adjusted to life with tinnitus, for the most part.
I’m not a doctor and none of this post consists of medical advice: knowing what I do now, I’m wary of infections and am inclined to get medical help with them if they persist. When we’re not in a pandemic, I’m also keen to get my hearing tested on a regular basis.
My father had tinnitus. As he entered his 70s, it got bad enough that he could no longer listen to his beloved Schubert and stopped listening to his 2 channel setup. Enjoy the music while you can, everyone.
If it’s any comfort, I find that a variety of factors affect my tinnitus. The less stressed and better rested I am, the less I’m aware of it.
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@frkasper, @bigshel99, & @Tchoupitoulas thank you very much for the additional insight and suggestions.
I have tried the hot shower, it definitely helps on the bad days and also help reduce my stress. The methanol is something I will have to try, I usually will do a neti pot rinse every few days or spritz with saline to moisten.
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the period of realization to getting permanent ringing made me hugely depressed
but not for long, a week or two. i did not listen to music at all for a while and debated getting rid of all my audio gear, did not listen to music for a couple of months.
i heard somewhere that in some people, it made them incapable of good feelings at all, i think some people suicide shortly after getting it.
im still on forums doing my audio journey thing so im hap, happi boi. i actually got my tinnitus after testing whether or not my headphones were broken so i upped the volume for about 5 min with pauses in between because it was pretty fucking loud, turns out it broke my ears instead haha.
do you know if it worsen for some people? Oh yeah and i very occasionally get ringing in my other ear which even happens to people without tinnitus
I recall that early on in this thread there was discussion of audio software that could help train your ringing away. Has anyone tried that?
I have a minor tinnitus that makes it seem as if there’s a flyback transformer around somewhere. But it’s not there or loud all of the time.
seems feasible. i believe there are dedicated tinnitus earpieces that are custom made to aim at the specific location in the frequency range where each individuals tinnitus is, if this is the case i dont see why some sofware couldn’t but i dont know that
I tried this companies https://www.signiausa.com/tinnitus/solutions-for-tinnitus/. Although its a “hearing aid” with this feature, I really don’t have any actual hearing issues, its just ringing. Sure having ocean waves breaking in your head is cool, but wearing the darn thing became a pain. As I got older I just “tuned it out”, and found as the years passed the sound just hide in the deep areas of the mind, but I can at will by just thinking about it, bring back the buzz.
I’ve been unbelievably lucky - I’m 46 and been to more gigs than I can count and most of those have been EDM, metal and rock bands (and noisy ones at that; Melt Banana, Lightning Bolt, The Locust et al). I didn’t even think about hearing protection until I was in my mid 30’s! I recall gigs where my hearing was totally shot the next day, my hearing being totally muffled and high ringing sounds, this happened multiple times in my teens and twenties. I considered it to be nothing more than a temporary annoyance, nothing to be overly concerned about and certainly not lasting damage.
Interestingly, my ears have felt most abused by house alarms, I’ve suffered several house alarm onslaughts over the years and those have really hurt my ears!
Somehow, any damage that did take place (I’m sure some damage has happened) is not perceivable to me, thankfully - I don’t notice any reduction in my hearing and no persistent ringing. I started wearing ear protection for all live music about a decade ago and that seems to have done the job to ensure I kept whatever hearing I have left. I’m also very careful with volume from all sound devices, be that headphones, speakers, TV etc and environmental noise.
Having said that, I am very treble sensitive, in fact I’m probably more treble sensitive now than I recall being in my youth. If I listen to particularly bright or sibilant equipment for any length of time I do get some ringing afterward for a short period. When that happens I usually rest my ears for a few days.
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Ditto the loud- car- stereo- phase. I didn’t notice it much until 2 years ago. Played in a band when young and dumb without hearing protection 100% of the time so that definitely contributed. Asked my PCP last year if he had tinnutus, as we’re close to the same age (I’m 61) and he said he did and that nothing could be done to alleviate it. So, like many here I’m buying higher quality components and notice i enjoy simple, mellow music with fewer instruments, such as the aforementioned Norah Jones.
Sorry to ask you about an old post. What does eat popping mean, according to your ENT? Do we mean hold your nose and blow with your mouth closed? Like what divers do to equalize pressure.
Or the other technique that’s hard to describe that just involves flexing your jaw.
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Yes, I think. Both methods should work. Basically what you do when you are in an airplane that is descending.
I’ve also been meaning to post that my ENT prescribed Azelastine spray. The stuff is kinda nasty, but it works! None of the corticosteroid sprays worked after a week or so but it’s been several months now and Azelastine is still working for me. The tinnitus has been back to the same easily tolerable level as it was before I got sick for some time now too.
It is extremely nasty! 
Thank you for the info. I didn’t realize regular ear popping was useful, aside from airplanes or mountain roads I mean. I hope it has the same outcome for me!