CDP caused tinnitus?


I have noticed over the past several years a bit of tinnitus developing. It seems to be aggravated by (naturally) listening to music, but I have narrowed it down even further...

When listening to cd music it becomes worse- even while listening to the first song or two.

But... when I listen to vinyl- no problem. No ringing, no nothing.

Any ideas on this? I have experienced it with two different cdp's in the system. The cdp's are older (Sony x7esd and another Sony changer for non critical listening) Think a new cdp would help? or what could be going on here?

RW
128x128rwbadley
Arkprof, from a sufferer of tinnitus (as you have stated) it surprises me that you are making such a statement. My wife is an audiologist with 10 years of undergraduate and post graduate training and another 15 years of practice. The idea that tinnitus may be set-off by certain audible situations (one of which could certainly be music/sound related) is not unusually rare, though not necessarily common either. Unfortunately, many people who suffer from tinnitus may simply be less congnizant of the situations preceding specific occurances.

On another note, I cannot sleep with my watch on, as the noise of the watch (with my wrist underneath) my pillow keeps me awake. I cannot hear my watch through just air when it is more than 12" away from my ear. If I am driving down the road during the summer with my window open, I can hear the power lines hum/buzz (if the lines are running next to the road). When I mentioned this to my wife she said this was impossible, that the noise from the open window in the moving car would overpower the hum/buzz from the power lines. She later tested my hearing in the sound booth at her clinic. She stated that I could hear certain frequencies at volumes that were lower than what normal human hearing should be able to discern. Don't get me wrong, I certainly am not one of those golden eared people that can hear super subtle differences, such as changing some cables (I can hear differences in some cases, just not all) or the difference when cables are on stilts vs. just on the floor. Also, I cannot sing worth S*#T, to me it always sounds like I am perfectly on key - but everyone around tells me I am no where close!
Now that you have a hearing complaint it would be worthwhile to have a hearing test. This might shed some light in your case. Further evaluation or reassurance might result.

And a baseline test could be very useful to you if later in life you have some other hearing changes.

We humans only have so many senses.
I have not got my ears checked by a specialist yet but I suspect I have tinnitus. Apart from listening to music at loud volumes, simple actions such as closing the door with a bang or talking loudly will trigger a slight ringing in my right ear. The ringing will only occur after the door is closed, or after I have finished the last sentence of my conversation. The ringing is slight and minor but is certainly there. Are these signs of developing tinnitus?

Any advice would be appreciated.
Excellent Isolation of your CD player and conditioning of your entire system will reduce a 'ton' of the cd 'noise' that bothers your ears.
I have extreme tinnitus and have therefore have gone to extreme lengths of isolation and found it 'transformed' my listening pleasure(and I listen daily).
I use an Equitech 2Q balanced transformer for the dedicated AC power to my system, and an MIT Z Iso HC and Z Ztabilizer ll for my CDP. Stunning improvement. Feel free to ask for details. Good luck.
To get back to the topic of this thread. RWBadley, as Psacanli has suggested, isolation and conditioning of the entire system will help. However, I believe the room is actually the biggest factor in reducing the effects of ringing in your ear apart from avoiding listening at high volumes. Apart from standing waves and modal ringing in the room, midrange and high frequency reflections can actually cause a lot of displeasure to the ear especially if the acoustics of the room is a bad one. Previously I have only diffusors at the rear wall. Just when I felt the reflections might be too much, I placed some of my left-over absorption panels at the rear, in other words a mix of absorption and diffusion, and the net effect is pleasingly advantageous not only in improving the room acoustics but in reducing the intensity of ringing in my ear as well.

If room acoustics have not been addressed, I would think it is worthwhile to look into it. You have to realize that loud noise exposure which includes high intensity music is a very common cause of tinnitus. Apart from listening at low to moderate volumes, a good room will definitely help alleviate the problem to a lower level. The effects of the room will be 10X greater in comparison to the CD player IMO.

Just food for thought.