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#132767 11/04/11 03:56 AM
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Just a note and a question.

It has been established, after much speculation and head scratching, that I hear the mechanics of a headphone when in an isolation booth.

So no matter what freq. the tone is (above 2200 hz) I hear sort of a click. Always. But no tone.

So if you find a freq. generator and play tones through headphones can you hear this?

Bear in mind that up to 2000 hz my hearing is better than normal (just a bit), but it tanks just about that and eventually ends up well off the scale a 3000hz.


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It isn't the headphone - and that can be proven empirically with a Standard Mic and Audio Analyzer.

However, certain things that can go wrong in our ears can indeed make for the sound of a click when a soundwave reaches the eardrum, and that's what I suspect here. Analagous to an overdriven input that creates clipping in the first stage or so of amplification.


--Mac

Mac #132769 11/04/11 10:32 AM
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Maybe I should dig up the trombone soundwave video.

I don't know from nuts, I do now know don't call a click a tone.

I gotta find helicopter type headphones for the car. Or maybe those things the biker guys wear on Goldwings to talk to the boss on the back.

I am back in frustration mode after transporting 3 people in the car and understanding NONE of their conversation. Drove me crazy.


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John,

When you say you hear the mechanics of headphones, I don't understand. Our company makes the finest in-ear monitor headphones that money can buy, with up to 5 balanced armature drivers in a 3-way cross-over, for each ear. Their sound is glorious.

There is nothing in them that would make a click on it's own.

I've used both STAX and Sennheiser circumaural electrostatic headphones, which work on capacitance mechanism - again, nothing that would make a click on it's own.

And then there is all the dynamic driver headphones available - nothing there that would make a click.

Are your hearing aids not working right now? Also, do you have custom earmolds for the hearing aids? I do know people that have just the dome-tip earpieces that go back to their audiologist and get custom earmolds made and it makes a world of difference for some folks.

Also, I would take Ian Fraser's advice and go visit Marshall Chasin in Toronto. That guy knows more than any other on hearing loss as it pertains to musicians.

http://www.musiciansclinics.com/who_we_are.asp

Tell him Scott Lake sent you. I wrote an article for him for the Canadian Hearing Review back several months ago.

-Scott

Last edited by rockstar_not; 11/04/11 01:05 PM.
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Ok, I'm gonna look him up.

I have only ever been in one sound booth, with 2 different techs.

When the freq. goes over my hearing I get a click.

If it's the sound wave hitting my ear and causing the click as Mac suggested he's probably right. Given the sound pressure of the 'wave' my eardrum moves, but there is nothing in the chain to change that into sound, the chemo killed 'hairs' according to the audiologist.

I can tell you the challenges at first are broad.

First the hearing goes, then the tinnitus replaces it. Along with clicks and pops.
Then the cocoon, paper doesn't rustle, some other stuff does. My gore tex jacket cannot be worn with hearing aids, but they don't make the paper rustle or the bacon sizzle. I have to be careful in the kitchen, I can boil the whistle kettle dry, I'm going to get an automatic off kettle this weekend. No more crickets, cicadas, and lots of birds are out of the question.

The car drives me nuts. I almost want to wear hearing protection even without hearing aids.

When you realize that with an almost vertical slope down in my audio test at 2200hz there is not a lot amplification can do for me. Amplification at the level required picks up all kinds of ambient noises no one wants amplified.

Next appt. I'm going to ask about the max # of db's you can crank the level before it's a lost cause.

The pitch shifting thing is freaky. It baffles my brain. About 1 hour of that and I'm tired right out. I think somepeople can fool their brain, but if you spent a life time playing music, the fact that something comes out wrong makes your brain go sideways. That's my explanation. I know it is to help with sibilance at high freq. but still, it just seems contrived and 'wrong'. Do not listen to music with this setting! Pitch shifting is ok if you do the whole spectrum, and might be neat if you could drop about 8 semitones, giving women men's voices. That would be odd.


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Well, if you have a cliff roll-off at 2200 Hz, that is going to be a difficult thing to overcome - which is probably no news to you. The hairs that would have been killed are in the cochlea, on the basilar membrane. It's confusing that it happened in a frequency selective way. If you unroll the cochlea, there's a place to frequency transform that happens along the length. Why the chemo would just stop killing hairs at a certain distance along the membrane is curious.

Here's hoping that Marshall has some encouraging words...
-Scott

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Hi John, Scott.

Scott - you mentioned about the seeming selectivity of chemo damaging the higher frequency hairs - in normal hearing loss, it's usually the upper frequencies which go first - usually - I'm betting those hairs must be more delicate and damage more easily, than those of the lower frequencies.

John - what make and model of hearing aids do you have - I think you mentioned this before, but I don't recall. Scott also asked if you have ear buds or ear moulds. Which one? Do your aids have multiple program capabilities.
I have a dedicated program for speech and another for music and also one for noise - all at the touch of a button on the Behind-the-Ear aid. The audiologist at the hospital sorted out some of my adjustments using "real-time" measurements . . . not just for the speech program, but for the music program (it really helped me with my music production).

Other problems I have John, is that I cannot "tune by ear" anymore. The higher the notes, the less I can tell the difference between and E and an Eb - with missing frequencies and harmonics from the loss, the less tone I hear - as you say, it sometimes sounds like a "click" - no musical information at all. I'm thankful that 800 Hz and down I still hear - not well - but enough. If I had to rely on my higher frequencies, I couldn't tell the difference between a fiddle, a resonator or a pedal steel.

John - as Scott suggests, really make a point of getting in to see Marshall - he may have some knowledge and approaches your regular audie doesn't. Remember - most audies only learn how to adjust for speech . . . music needs a whole other approach.

Pulling for you, man. Remember too that UofWestern has a great hearing centre.

Cheers . . . Boo Leafs.


Ian


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Just wanted to say thanks for the link to the musicians clinic articles. Great reading.
I developed tinnitis a few months back and was concerned all my headphone mixing was to blame but apparently using headphones is ok.

I downloaded a frequency testing software (it's free) that might be of interest. It's loud so be sure to turn down the volume. I can still hear all but the 3 highest ones. It's fun to try and guess which one is sounded.

Hope the link works. (Just tested link and it does.)

http://sft.sourceforge.net/

Last edited by yjoh; 11/06/11 01:43 AM.
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