How good is your hearing?
 

How good is your hearing?

I have tinnitus, which i have had since around 2004, after standing too close to the speakers at a Dandy Warhols show and an Interpol show in the same month. Oh and at a SY show that summer.

People tell me that i talk quite loudly, which i have always put down to my hearing.

I now wear ear plugs at every show i go to, it doesn't muffle the sound at all, just cuts out the distortion. Does anyone here do the same?

I am kind of puzzled as to how my friends ( who have attended all the same shows as me) have managed to avoid getting tinnitus. If i don't wear ear plugs at a show, then the ringing turns into buzzing and that white noise TV's make when they are not tuned it, like a Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh sound.
It's kind of sad, i am only 19.

i get tinnitus after a show, but it goes away. that said, i think i have some hearing loss. i really blame ac/dc.

It's so good I can listen to Assacre for 24 hours straight and still hear sounds only usually heard by dogs directly afterwards.

can hear buzzing noises from tvs and radios etc (when they've just been turned on before the sound kicks in) that no one else I know can hear and I can hear it from quite far away. But I sometimes have difficulty understanding what people are saying, though usually it's particular people, most people I don't have any trouble understanding. I've always been like this.

tinnitus is degenerative. If you have ever experienced over a few hours of "ringing" after a show then you shold be very careful about exposing your eras to anything very loud. You do not want to have that "ringing/buzzing" get louder and louder until that is all you hear.

I am like this too. I am partially deaf on my right ear, since birth. Which is the cause of my lisp, I talk loudly. I also can't hear people if they talk in a low voice.

30 the new fifty.

Same here, i end up just nodding along some times when i can't hear a word people are saying.

sonic M.I.L.F.!

Shit. Has been since birth.

my hearing has been perfect since i was a foetus. i got my hearsight checked last year..... perfect hearing and 20:20 sight.... i am good to go!

i don't know and it sometimes scares me. i sometimes have problems joining/following friends' conversations at bars or other places where music's being played and i often wonder if that's because my hearing's going to shit or just because they're talking into each other's ears and not mine.

i like to think my hearing is still ok, but i do go to dozens of loud gigs year in year out without ear plugs and listen to music with earbuds daily... and often pretty loud.

pretty good! i can hear weird high pitches nobody else can.

but when i have trouble understanding what people say it's due to language issues-- not being a "native" english speaker i often have trouble with phonetics.

ay cant jier yu maaan!!

you mean you want to join the army :D?
I hear superfine, see superbad (well, almost...and not the movie).

Tinnitus scares me.

I suffered from some thing of that kind, but it went away. It took nine days to leave. It prevented me from sleeping, I'd go to bed, shut everything down, and instead of silence would buzz that ringing sound. It even woke me up. That was extremely painful. I've been wearing dayglo earplugs since, for every single show.

And you're 19, too bad.

This put aside, I realise now that when you answered "yes!" to my pervert question at the Roundhouse, you didn't understand me...

yeah, i remember not hearing a word you were saying, sorry about that.

i've been going to shows on a regular basis for 10 years and i don't have tinnitus

I've changed my mind in the last few years about earplugs. I've met so many people in their mid-30s onwards who've constantly battered into me that you need earplugs for gigs. It's not weak, it's good sense, and the fact that it cuts out out the more extreme frequencies means you hear more of the total sound (the upper/ lower register, at volume, will mask the middle range, which is where most sound takes place).

Regarding the above though - if you go to a gig with a socially inclined person (let's say, a girlfriend who isn't into the music) you'll probably notice that their threshold for sound, or their listening concentration, will be inclined towards what people are saying - 'she' may not be able to hear much in the music, but will probably be able to pick out conversations that you can't.

I have ok hearing, musically outstanding (as in, pitch differentiation) but I'm massively paranoid to the point where I try to never go to noise shows nowadays, and rock shows only very cautiously.

is yr tinitus a ringing? cuz if it is props to you for not even mentioning how suicidal that ringing can make you, it is not just being "deaf" it is much much worse, I had the worst tinnitus from 2003-2005 because I refused to play my guitar under the volume of way to fucking loud, and I was learing a lot of new things so I would spend four hours at a time doing this, until one day,, rinnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnggggggggggggggggggggggggggg

perpetually, every second of every second of every second, tick tock tick tock, ringggggggggggggggg, tick tock tick tock, rinnggggggggggggggggggg

I honestly dont know how mine went away, but it has been replaced with a solid sound of "deafness" in my left hear where it now feels like there is always a little water in there, but it was a miraculous trade of for the ringing. just thinking about it gives me the worst anxiety. I hope it works out better for you!

of course, the hearing that I do have is fucking perfect, triangular like a bat, that is why I can't stand surround sound in peoples living rooms cuz they never never know how to set it up right and I can hear it like the sound board guy. I can also hear a little dog bark from three blocks away with crystal clear precision can point out its absolute direction with little difficulty. I can also hear even the most faint whisper, so it is impossible to keep secrets within 300 ft of me.

ringing after a show= temporary
tinnitus = quasi-to-fully-permanent hearing damage

if you have trouble hearing what people are saying in loud places try putting your finger in your ear, not right in the hole like you were picking out wax, but just so the tip covers the hole

what?!?! **loud music playing**

I got 88.9%, thats not bad :)

Yeah mine is ringing, but sometimes it can sound like squeeling. It has never made me suicidal! it has made me irritated more than a few times when it has kept me awake, but to be honest i am kind of used to it now. I have had it for almost four years.

Everyone has tinnitus, to some degree. What I find more fascinating, is when you hear a high-frequency tone, sound in your ears for a minute or two ; it's the last time you'll hear that frequency again.

i have definatley sufered from hearing loss from a mixture of going to gigs and playing loud music. i do wish that i had used earplugs for some of it but then i would not have looked so godamn cool would i?

yes, you get used to it to a degree. does the ringing change pitch or is it the same monotone ring infinitim? mine used to shift between four pitches and play a kind of music sometimes.. annoying but musical.

At the moment it's going up and down between two notes.

you know smoking herbs really does help make the condition more manageable?

everyone most definitely DOES NOT have tinnitus.

tinnitus is the breaking or bending of the tiny "hairs" in your inner ear that help sense vibrations along with your ear drum. People who really have damage have tinnitus.

You said it Rob.

There is a huge difference between getting ringing in your ears occasionally after a loud show. And having it there constantly, for the rest of your life.

My uncle, who is in a ska band, is completely deaf in one ear and has really loud buzzing in the other. I really don't want to end up like that.

I had two days of ringing one time :o
Next show I go to I'm going to get some ear plugs if time allows. The ringing drives me mad.

I have great hearing. I always wear earplugs to shows now, because my family has a history of hearing impairment, and also I used to have ear infections as a child.

I think that it's very sharp but I have problems hearing people sometimes and they often have a problem hearing me. I'm sure damage of some kind has been done to it, or maybe it just shuts down when there's something that it doesn't want to hear.

The fact that earplugs aren't cool is one of the few reasons I can think of for growing my hair again.

that could well be true, which reminds me of another thing, though not really related:

i've experienced several times - when going to live shows with exactly the same people standing right next to each other - that sometimes i found the volume to be unbearable while friends thought it was "ok" and other times they would walk out of the room while i wasn't having any problems at all. and neither of us would have ear plugs. in other words there must be some subjective factor in experiencing loud sounds, next to the objective amount of decibels. it's crossed my mind of course that enjoying the show or not is probably a big factor in all of this (the more you like it the higher your pain level) but i did really enjoy that show where i was numbed afterwards and a friend said "well that wasn't that loud, was it?".

you're right about ear plugs though and i keep saying i should wear them more often. maybe this weekend.

i got 80.6% with 2 hyper playing kids in the background.....

point tho, tonedeaf is different to being deaf as a post tho!

try the pitch perception test. iyts fucking hard.. seemingly i have fuck all pitch perception.... 6.6..... oh well, im looking forward to the magik markers gig!

I would also like to apologise to Bertrand for any post-roundhouse-gig rudeness, I was mostly deafened too.