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.
I agree with others on giving it at least a year, as a combination of healing and slight gear modifications (adding an equalizer) may allow you to regain your enjoyment of listening.
I you end up deciding to sell all or some of your gear, I recommend TMR (The Music Room) in Erie Colorado. I've sold gear to them twice... one time some large relatively expensive speakers. They are very professional and make the process easy.
I am sorry to hear about your hearing loss. I am with those in favor of not selling your gear until you have exhausted all the options out there to restore your hearing. If your mind is made up to sell your gear, then reach out to TMR audio in Colorado.
I have nominal hearing loss in one ear and much more significant hearing loss in the other ear. With the addition of hearing correction (expensive hearing aids), I could hear the music more clearly but it lost most of it's passion / live quality while wearing hearing aids. And now, since I wear the hearing aids most of the time, it takes about an hour for my ears to adjust to listening to music without them. But, then the music sounds better.
The best thing for me right now are headphones (Focal Utopia and Burson headphone amp/dac for serious listening and Grado GS1E for connecting to the laptop.
I’d hold off before you jump. Judging by your user name, you are in NY? SkyFi through Dave Wasserman (ex-Stereo Exchange) buys high end, but there are all kinds of things you can do to try and recover some of your hearing. I’m really big on integrative medicine, which combines traditional western stuff with wacky Eastern snake oil. It has helped me through a few medical issues.
Are you LEO? Why were you close to a flash bang? Nasty stuff.
I have about $50k invested in HAM radio equipment and my HAM shack is state of the art. I could talk almost anywhere in the world.
I got diagnosed with tongue cancer two years ago and they had to remove part of my tongue then graft on some muscle from my forearm. This has greatly affected my speech and it could take up to 5 years. I am difficult to understand on the air or phone.
My first inclination was to go out and sell everything. I came to my senses, remained optimistic and let it collect dust for now.
Like sever members have already suggested, give it some time and don't sell. Doctors don't always have the correct answers as I've discovered.
I like the idea of finding a friend or relative you trust, to lend them your gear. You would not have to see it every day and someone else would enjoy it. If things change, and you want to give it a try, you can still take your gear back.
Hang in there my friend. There is more to life than just one thing. Shift your passion to something else. Show the rest of the world that you are a resilient, multifaceted individual. You can do it, won’t be easy but you got this.
Considering the traumatic nature of the event, I'd consult an acupuncturist and possibly a hypnotist. Your hearing loss may be your body trying to protect itself.
Once your hearing loss is fully accepted by you and you are not fixated on it, you will need to answer for yourself as to which direction you want to go with your audio listening habits. That said, for me, with whatever level of hearing disability that I have, I continue to enjoy listening to music. I moved into a newly built house in February of 22 and built my system from scratch after at least 17 years away from two channel listening. When I was a young teenager in the 1960’s one of my friend’s father had a full McIntosh system and I just fell in love with the sound. I also knew that McIntosh held value a bit better than some. I wanted fewer interconnects, so I purchased a McIntosh MA12000 and proceeded to sample speakers. The MA 12000 was purchased on my birthday, with my wife present and we both assumed that this would be the main expense incurred in building a system. I was living in Texas and my wife continued to live in California and I paid all credit card bills, so you know where this is going. I started auditioning speakers with the integrated and as I went up in price, the speakers just kept getting better. I finally reached my financial limit, because I still thought that I could limit the expense and purchased the Wilson Sabrina X. I purchased an iFi Zen Stream, Technics SL-1500G and Hana ML cartridge. I used the integrated phono section and DAC. Unfortunately, my system didn’t have what I identified as the musical quality of the system that I heard over 55 years ago…. When you look at my system, you will see that everything except for the integrated and speakers have been dramatically upgraded. Some changes involved multiple returns to Music Direct. My power conditioner and cords are now my most costly expense. The problem is that I could hear differences. My point being, I don’t hear what others hear, but I could hear differences when switching out power cables, interconnects, DACs, phono preamps and streamers. I can hear the difference between Ethernet cables. Now, I probably can’t hear fine differences and this might be why I upgraded to the top of the Shunyata line. I could hear a clear difference between their Venum NR and their premier cables. I now have a very musical system with lots of detail and to my taste vocals can be just stunning. So, for me, I can’t understand lyrics and I have a constant fairly loud ringing in my ears, but due to slow changes, I don’t focus on what I lack, but on what I still have. Unfortunately for me, this was a very expensive journey. I hope that this helps out.
The body has ways of healing itself. Years ago, one of my sons had a near fatal auto accident in which he fractured his skull. He lost hearing in his right ear, but over the years, it has come back. In any event, wishing you health.
The body has ways of healing itself. Years ago, one of my sons had a near fatal auto accident in which he fractured his skull. He lost hearing in his right ear, but over the years, it has come back. In any event, wishing you health.
I would wait for a good long time before sending off your system. Back in the day I was messing around with the youngsters and got slapped right upside my head and like you, I thought my eardrum popped. Couldn't hear straight for the longest time and like you, the tinnitus was bad. Muffled sound and with my balance off a bit, I thought I was a goner.
Time did heal everything and it didn't take that long, relatively speaking.
I’m with the don’t sell crowd. First, you have inflation which will make it less painful to wait. Second, what you are going through is tragic and I’m sure depressing, but time is very important. You are having a much more difficult time than myself and there is no way to compare our hearing, but my tinnitus is always present and since birth. Occasionally, it sounds like there is an ambulance in my driveway. Aging has further destroyed my ability to understand speech. Two characteristics here, one is a condition that I have always had and the second is a conditioned that slowly caused hearing degeneration. In any case, I still enjoy listening to music, but I have changed my listening taste due to my inability to understand lyrics. I now listen to alot of Korean vocals and will probably take in more varied music.
Assuming that your loss isn’t close to total, time will allow for some healing, but more important it will allow you to adapt to a new normal. Right now, your hearing loss is just a reminder of what you could hear in the past. Give it some time.
Who is responsible for the accident? Sustained on the job? Sounds like you need a Lawyer who can get you proper compensation including the cost of your system which may be useless to you now. Good luck
Erik thanks. I’m open to all solutions, what’s going on here is multifaceted. midrange and upper frequencies sound static and harsh. My right ear sounds like there’s a fax machine in it and the left ear sounds like Im wearing a 30db earplug.
I’m using a coupe of tinnitus apps to mitigate the fax machine going off 24/7 in my head and I’m bio-hacking with magnesium / NAC / ginko for what it’s worth…collectively it offers some relief.
After the incident went straight to the doc, as I thought I had ruptured my ear drum (thankfully not the case) then went to a ENT and Audiologist for a battery of tests. I have more testing to undergo. The audiologist was straight up and said the level of loss i sustained was significant. Time will tell I guess.
Just FYI, there's a lot of EQ solutions for listening on headphones and speakers. If you have an idea of your hearing curve you could try to make an adjustment that way, but how much luck have yo had with the modern hearing aids?? The tech has gotten pretty advanced in being able to apply DSP in the aid now.
It’s extremely frustrating to the point of anger. Sitting down and listening after a long day at work was my daily routine. I find that it’s best to avoid it for the time being. I’m praying that at headphones might be an option at some point. I tested the waters with iPod pro’s and it’s out of the question for now.
Have you been evaluated by an ENT for this condition? There may be treatment options if seen immediately. Also, several weeks is far to short a time to decide whether you'll improve. I've been told in the past that conditions I've had would not improve past a certain point, and they were wrong. I would be patient, and hope for gradual improvement. Keep us updated.
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