I've been watching this thread with interest, as I'm a tinnitus sufferer myself. I do think a new digital source or DAC would be likely to help; in a situation very similar to yours, it did for me. I still can't listen to my iPod at even low volumes (using AIFF files and AKG K501s) because of the experience you describe, but I can now listen comfortably through my speakers and headphones--and at higher volumes than before--using a Sony Playstation One. The Playstation aside--it's all I could afford to experiment with, and it's good enough I'm sticking with it for a while--I've since also listened to a number of other highly resolving digital systems I _loved_, with no tinnitus aftershock.
Tinnitus can be temporarily exacerbated by a lot of things--from music to coffee to alcohol--but Ckoffend is right: it happens when the tiny hairs in your inner ear that convey the highest frequencies are permanently flattened over, and a "detailed" CDP or system that emphasizes--or overemphasizes--those frequencies is going to hit them harder. For me, I find myself gravitating toward--and saving for--gear that is a little gentler in its presentation. For example, I'm now looking forward to swapping my K501s for a pair of Sennheiser HD600s, which I heard last weekend at Lyric Hi Fi through an Antique Sound Lab headphone amp with a Pioneer Elite DVD as the source: THAT's the sound I'm looking for, and I didn't feel it lost anything in terms of resolution. I could have listened for hours. Good luck with the medical and audiophile aspects of this.
Tinnitus can be temporarily exacerbated by a lot of things--from music to coffee to alcohol--but Ckoffend is right: it happens when the tiny hairs in your inner ear that convey the highest frequencies are permanently flattened over, and a "detailed" CDP or system that emphasizes--or overemphasizes--those frequencies is going to hit them harder. For me, I find myself gravitating toward--and saving for--gear that is a little gentler in its presentation. For example, I'm now looking forward to swapping my K501s for a pair of Sennheiser HD600s, which I heard last weekend at Lyric Hi Fi through an Antique Sound Lab headphone amp with a Pioneer Elite DVD as the source: THAT's the sound I'm looking for, and I didn't feel it lost anything in terms of resolution. I could have listened for hours. Good luck with the medical and audiophile aspects of this.