Few weeks ago, I sustained traumatic blast induced hearing loss during a training incident. The level of hearing loss and tinnitus is pretty bad, I’ve had only a minimal level of improvement. midrange and upper frequencies sound like a 1970’s transistor radio. Horrible. The reality of the situation is looking like my audiophile days are pretty much over. Now I’m thinking of what to do with the gear…the thought of dismantling my rig and selling piece by piece is nauseating. Are there any resources that would come in and take it all? At this point I really don’t give a crap about being lowballed, it’s aggravating to look at what Ive put so much time and effort into and not be able to enjoy it. I need to move on.
@jl1nyI’m deeply sorry regarding your injury. I would also recommend not selling.
Give yourself time and maybe some improvement can come regarding your condition. The science of audiology and medical surgical intervention is always advancing.
My own personal story regarding the sale of a Hifi system was when my father died. We were never close, and he passed in my early 20’s and my siblings sold off everything of his. Now in my 40’s I’m in love with Hifi just as he was, and would happily box my system and save it for my child (now 1 year old) to give it to him at a later time at the very least. I deeply regret not hanging on to his system and record collection.
Your system often becomes a part of you (memories, joy, a journey, etc). Hold on to it. Hold on to your health and recovery, hold on to hope.
You are getting good advice here. Don't sell and don't give up. I lost my hearing for 2 or 3 days at a very loud rock concert. It eventually came back with some tinnitus that, some days I can mentally block it out and other days I cannot. No cure for that, you just have to deal with it.
I’m in the “don’t sell, yet” camp. Suffering a traumatic injury is bad enough. Let some time go by and ignore the stereo system for a couple months. Go to a fabric store and buy some nice cloth to lay onto the components. It’ll look decent, keep the dust off and you won’t have to look at it. Who knows, with luck, you’ll start a whole new love affair with music and your system?
If you do get hearing aids find an audiologist who sells Widex aids. They are the most natural sounding aids I could find. Truly wonderful. Other brands costing $6500 and more sound like the worst class D from hell you can imagine. Believe me, I found out the hard and very expensive way.
Very sad to learn all this, but nice to see all the support and advice here. Everyone's different, but maybe my saga will give you some hope.
Coming back from Prague a few years ago, there was a family with a screaming baby in the next seats; that baby screamed for most of the long flight. Probably, it was screaming because it was in pain. In any case, three days after getting home, I came down with a severe ear ache. Two days later, all hearing was gone in my left ear. I could rub the outer ear and hear nothing. Snapping fingers an inch away were inaudible.
My regular doctor sent me to an audiologist, who did a battery of tests (including bone conduction), and concluded that the cilia in my ear had been damaged by the infection. He told me this was not repairable by any standard therapy, and that my hearing wasn't coming back: the fact that the bone stimulation showed the same loss as through the ear led him to this dire conclusion. He mentioned an experimental treatment—hyperbaric oxygen, or something. There was a local clinic that did this, but it was very expensive, not covered by insurance, and carried some risk of being consumed by flames (really; one is put in a chamber for an hour at a time with very high concentrations of oxygen—which is extremely flammable!)—so, a hard no. Also said no to cortisone injections directly into the ear.
Well, the prognosis turned out to be wrong, I'm relieved to report. The hearing did come back; slowly after about six months, but almost fully at last.
So hang in there. Don't sell your kit just yet. In situations like this, I often remember the doctor's opinion on that old TV show "Northern Exposure": "The body is an amazing self-righting machine."
I’m very sorry to hear of your injury! I too would recommend holding on liquidating your system until at least 6-12 months have elapsed and your new norm is established! I’m on the ophthalmology end of medicine and care for acute nerve palsies and eye trauma at our local hospital with regularity. My neurology colleagues and I expect that things may improve to whatever extent they will at a minimum of 6 months. Medical science knowledge base is doubling every 2 - 2.5 years and who knows what options we’ll have for you in 1-2 doubling periods ? If you need to box things up to avoid the reminder of what you can’t fully enjoy at this point, you can reassess in 6-12 months. Never underestimate the power of prayer ! I don’t and have seen some wonderful things in 20+ years of practice. Sometimes the answer is no with prayer and that’s where the advances in medical science can kick in for you down the road potentially. Never loose hope and thanks for your service! 🙏
I’m really sorry about your situation, I can only imagine how frustrating and difficult it must be. A couple in this thread have recommended waiting a while before making any decisions. My medical background helps me to think this might be good advice right now. Maybe waiting a while is in order. Take it a day at a time, it might be worth it.
As I recall, you asked “how” to liquidate the entire system…not “if” you should liquidate the entire system. Skimmed the responses but didn't see a direct answer (may have missed it). So, here is one:
List it for sale here with a brief explanation of your reason for selling and willingness to be flexible to support a single, simple transaction. As you suggested, you may get low-balled but I suspect you’d get plenty of activity.
I recommend auctioning everything. Set the starting bid at 25% of the MSRP, the market will dictate how much everything is worth. While your situation may be temporary, you can always build a new system. Designing a system based on research, finding good deals, and setting up a system is half the fun of this hobby. You may even decide you want a new headphone rig so you can really turn up the volume. I do hope your hearing improves, and definitely don’t rule out a lawsuit since everyone carries insurance.
@jl1nyhang in there man. Hopefully it’s temporary and at least you’ll regain some or most of your hearing.
As to liquidating your entire system…I see you are in New York so give SkyFi Audio in Jersey a call. But…hope you give yourself some time and chance to recover before moving on. Best wishes to you!
The little I can glean from your explanation of events it sure doesn't seem like you're the kind of guy who gives up (working with flash bangs!). So, I submit that this is not the time to sell. Hang in there and go down every road to resolve this issue.
Research the best doctors in NY and see them all as well as alternative remedies. Hoping for a good outcome.
Yeah man, that’s all pending. A flash-bang detonated right near my head during on the job training (ear pro wasn’t mandated).
That one sentence stuck with me all this time so I looked up anything on flash bang grenade training and found this 17 yr old article on a police site on the use and extreme dangers of flash bang grenades.
This one passage caught my attention:
Avoid looking directly at the suspect when releasing the device: This almost always causes the device to be thrown closer to the suspect than the suggested five feet, due to the "pitch and catch" process we have subconsciously practiced since childhood. Officers should instead focus on the floor 45 degrees to the side, and 5 feet away from the suspect.
These devices go off at 160-180 decibels! I know the article is an old one but if anything, common sense progress has to have been made by then. If they had you laying on the floor and just tossed it near you and some other guys as a way of preconditioning you to the effects, I'd get a lawyer as they're not qualified trainers in the least. That, and not requiring ear protection with that loud an event is completely unprofessional.
It depends on the type of hearing loss you suffered: sensorineural vs conductive. Also, is the problem in one or both ears? About 30 years ago, I lost most of the hearing in my right ear (about 90% sensorineural loss). It has never recovered but I still hear normally with my left ear. It was difficult but I have adjusted my habits to accommodate such as sitting off center to the right at concerts and on my listening room. Unfortunately, hearing aids don’t benefit profound sensorineural hearing loss, but they can benefit conductive hearing loss. Even better, traumatic conductive hearing loss can recover. Hang in there! BTW, I think of myself as “the one-eared audiophile”!😎
I got tinnitus in 1998, and listening to music is different now. I no longer enjoy listening intently to speakers placed eight feet across the room. It sounds as if the hiss (high-pitched) takes up the entire space between speaker and ear/brain.
It was frustrating for a few years, and then life changed whereby I spend most of my time on my computer. I have no problem now listening to CDs I ripped to different hard drives connected to my laptop, through a pair of Bowers & Wilkins MM1’s. I seldom think about what I have lost any longer.
Wow! Thank you all for your thoughts and words of encouragement. I don’t know where this situation will land legally so I don’t want to go too far into the weeds but yes, I’m LEO. I’m also a ritualistic individual. sitting down to late night listening after a long tour has been an integral component of my daily routine. As we all know, It’s an extremely effective method of decompression. What pings my frustration is I’m in a studio so staring at this rig that I put so much into is unavoidable. Nevertheless, I’ll push past it. For the time being, you guys have convinced me to hold off on the fire sale…thanks for that.
You need to see a lawyer. Your claim is worth a lot of money. It will be workers comp claim if you were there for work. If it was for work but the training was by a third party who is not your employer you can sue them as well. You are looking at a six figure claim for loss of your hearing. I’m an attorney in Carlsbad Ca and have seen cases like your be very successful. Don’t wait on this.
Glad to read your optimistic report. You can and will push through this and I'm hoping that you'll come out much stronger on the other side. Do take all the caring advice provided in this thread into consideration and do what you think is right. Blessings to you and your family.
Definitely give it some time. I had an incident that affected my hearing as a child. The specialist told my parents that I’d be deaf before I reached 20. Not so as the ringing gradually diminished over the years to the point that I hardly notice it unless I’m thinking about it.
Cancer survivor. Chemo really did in my left ear which had already been spotty. Just hold off for a year. You may find different gear a better choice, but wait.
If it were me, depending on the severity of hearing loss based on a hearing test, I would look to adding digital signal processing to help compensate. Roon provides great flexibility for that right at the source and most anything else an audiophile could ask for.
You must have a verified phone number and physical address in order to post in the Audiogon Forums. Please return to Audiogon.com and complete this step. If you have any questions please contact Support.
