“A constant sine wave inside my skull.”
Yup. That’s how I experience it.
“I try to bear the aches and pains with good grace.”
Same here, jirkal.
It’s a cruel affliction.
Doubly cruel to audiophiles something like poor Beethoven going deaf.
Triply cruel: every time I think of my youthful thoughtlessness at rock concerts and with power tools, all the times I didn’t protect my hearing, I feel guilty.
Quadruply cruel: I dream of a quiet place in the country and it will not be quiet because I no longer experience pure quiet.
Strangely, with tinnitus and hearing loss, I can still judge sound and soundscape; I know when I’m hearing a fine system vs a ‘lesser’ system.
I suspect that the brain’s audio processing apparatus adapts.
And I’ve wondered - even thought of starting a thread - if anyone else has a decibel meter front-and-center as part of their system.
It helps to more accurately judge one’s sound exposure.