Am I hearing things (you don't) ????

It is had for any audiophile to come to terms with any sort of hearing problem. Partly a guy thing of never letting down your guard, (If you do, macho type guys will 'punish you for being 'weak'.) plus here it is wide open public display. Not just a few friends.    Facing the fact most of us are getting old. Some hearing loss is gonna happen.

Oh, I see.

Yes it’s understandable to not want to feel one is exposing too much.

It does feel a bit odd to talk about "hearing health" issues on an audiophile board. Some people could possibly be d*cks and try to put a negative spin on that.

But these issues ARE a concern for people, and one would think especially audiophiles, and since the issues naturally crop up now and again, I think it’s helpful to share what information we can.

In my case, if there is a silver lining to having had Tinnitus since the late 80’s, it’s that it got me protecting my ears early, and hence my audiogram is actually very good and hearing tone tests are excellent for my age - it’s more like the hearing of someone 12 years younger (I’m 54).

My audiologist was going through very minute adjustments of the white noise for my treatment, through the earbuds. When he’d adjust I’d tell him "you just slightly increased the sound around 4K."

He expressed amazement as he said he was adjusting by 1 or 2 dB increments, and no one had ever remarked on hearing the difference.
Fortunately I have good hearing and I do this for my living. I'm increasing various parts of the frequency range in a wide variety of sounds, by 1 to 3 dB all the time.

Now, I just want my hearing to get LESS sensitive :)

But as for hearing loss, as people have said, a large proportion of audiophiles are over 50 and definitely would have lost high frequency hearing, especially if you are more towards 60 and beyond. (My wife is 55 and did not live a life exposed to tons of loud sound, yet her hearing caps off somewhere around 10Kz or below). So many audiophiles can only brag so far about their hearing. But given much of what our brain cares about is actually below the frequency of age-related hearing loss, we can all still enjoy music and evaluate most aspects of high end gear.

It’s perhaps one of the biggest ironies, among many ironies in this oft bizarre hobby of audio, that those who claim to have no hearing issues or problems can’t hear what they’re listening to whilst those who do have issues such as hearing loss can hear plain as day and know the difference between this and that.

I’ve only noticed the ringing the last couple of years as my hearing is getting worse. My wife has had it longer and is coping with it better. The ENT she saw who worked at the same University she does and also does research on this told her in simple terms, your brain expects sound and as you lose hearing it compensates by providing sound hence the ringing. My ENT says my hearing is only lousy at high frequency which in normal for my age 62. I also have dizzy spells and they have been testing for meniere’s disease though I don’t have classical symptoms it also could be a neurological problem. In other words it sucks getting old. Should know more when I go back in Jan. The OP mentioned artillery, my father was in artillery during the Korean war and suffered hearing loss about 70% in one ear and small amount in the other, he had tinnitus most of his life and always talked about how certain noises , like the plates clanging, were actually painful. We always had heavy stoneware dishes as they didn’t seem to clang in a way that bothered him.

Trust geoffkait to show up and troll even a thread devoted to hearing health.

D'ya ever think of taking a break?  Maybe try buying a puppy?