My hearing is worse, but some things I hear better.

[Toto'sDad]

Cutting torch slag in my left ear, and too many firearm reports in my right including a .357 magnum at very close range finished off the right one. I still hear out of both ears but not nearly as well as I used to. The problem is, while my higher register hearing is poor, my lower register hearing is still acute. Boom boxes I can hear in cars with the windows up at great distance. Even when I'm in a car and the boom box is in another. At night, when we're lying in bed watching TV, I ask my wife, can you hear the train wheels clacking? It's about three miles to the railroad!

A strange thing has developed so slowly that I didn't catch it until recently. I don't know if it's me, or the radio, but I'm starting to notice pitch problems listening to music that I never noticed before. I only listen to Okie, or country music, so that may be the problem right there. I think it's the reason I actually don't listen to the radio much anymore.

To get to the problem, I notice lots of women singers go flat at both higher, and lower notes at the extreme of their range. I notice some of the men doing the same, but it's not as noticeable to me, usually when they try and hit a low note that's just a little out of their range. Not by a huge amount, but it's there. I also notice when I'm out at the golf course where they play only 60s, 70s and 80s rock and roll in the cart shack, that not just a few instruments that are doing instrumentals are sometimes more than a little out of tune.

Just wondering if anyone else has this problem, or even if it is a problem.

 

[Buckaroo65]

I hear most things pretty good(I think), but I can never quite hear missus well enough. I’m pretty sure she just talks quietly to keep me off balance. I may or may not be in danger.

 

[Happy Enchilada]

Now that you mention it ...
My hearing is shot in my left ear - 20% maybe.
Right ear is 70% - my "good" ear.
Tinnitus to beat hell in both for years.
Too many loud PAs, too many days at the range before those great electronic muffs.

Lately I've had problems tuning my B string.
Always sounds off somehow - and on several different guitars.
Tried several tuners, same result.
And then some days it's fine.

So I beat carpal tunnel and I'm working on trigger thumb on my picking hand ...
At least now I can hold a pick and play.
Getting old isn't for sissies.

 

[Toto'sDad]

I hear most things pretty good(I think), but I can never quite hear missus well enough. I’m pretty sure she just talks quietly to keep me off balance. I may or may not be in danger.

My wife and I are golfing buddies, you can't get more buddy than that. BUT, we are badly mismatched in the hearing department, she has acute hearing, I have hearing people make cute jokes about. She has a marvelous speaking voice, and sounds terrific on the phone. I can actually hear her when she's on the phone. Not so much when she's talking into the pantry thirty five feet away. (But she expects me to)

 

[prairietelecaster]

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I get “Shemped” when I hear notes that are a hair off.

 

[ChicknPickn]

My band days wiped out the higher ranges, while my middle and lower ranges are fine. Tinnitus is a nearly constant companion.

Decent hearing aids are a blessing. Vanity kept me from getting them for years (it was hard to give up looking like Brad Pitt), but they're my buddies now.

 

[Vibroluxer]

An older man who has very hard of hearing decided to get hearing aids.

A month later he returned to where he bought them for an adjustment. The nurse came in and in short order said "You're hearing so much more now, your family must be very happy." He replied "Oh, I haven't told them about the hearing aids but I've changed my will twice."

 

[memorex]

The only thing I hear better each day is tinnitus. I've adjusted my TV's EQ settings to brighten the highs so I hear the TV OK. My wife is another problem. I often find myself saying to her loudly, "WHAT?"

 

[Toto'sDad]

My band days wiped out the higher ranges, while my middle and lower ranges are fine. Tinnitus is a nearly constant companion.

Decent hearing aids are a blessing. Vanity kept me from getting them for years (it was hard to give up looking like Brad Pitt), but they're my buddies now.

I forgot to mention I've had tinnitus since I got hit in the head working in a tractor shop when I was nineteen years old. Freaky thing, an air hose coupling made of brass blew part way off the end of an air hose hanging close to me. The air pressure was pretty high, and the hose starting whipping around, and before I could get out of the way, the coupler hit me on the side of the head. Instant tinnitus, been there ever since.

As far as wearing hearing aids. I've tried them a few times, I can't seem to adapt to having something in my ears. I keeping poking my fingers against the hearing aids trying to scratch my ears. I tried a friends set that you could control by phone, worked pretty good until something happened and they started blasting in my ears until my ears were hurting.

 

[Toto'sDad]

The only thing I hear better each day is tinnitus. I've adjusted my TV's EQ settings to brighten the highs so I hear the TV OK. My wife is another problem. I often find myself saying to her loudly, "WHAT?"

Familiar with that. One day my wife was frustrated with me and said; Why don't you get some hearing aids you old coot!

 

[Toto'sDad]

Odd thing is, lots of people I can understand just fine. Some are friends, some are family.

 

[ChicknPickn]

I forgot to mention I've had tinnitus since I got hit in the head working in a tractor shop when I was nineteen years old. Freaky thing, an air hose coupling made of brass blew part way off the end of an air hose hanging close to me. The air pressure was pretty high, and the hose starting whipping around, and before I could get out of the way, the coupler hit me on the side of the head. Instant tinnitus, been there ever since.

As far as wearing hearing aids. I've tried them a few times, I can't seem to adapt to having something in my ears. I keeping poking my fingers against the hearing aids trying to scratch my ears. I tried a friends set that you could control by phone, worked pretty good until something happened and they started blasting in my ears until my ears were hurting.

An unexpected benefit of having my over-the-ear aids is that they greatly reduce my perception of tinnitus. It happens for some lucky people, and I'm one of them. The audiologist said that when we lose high-range hearing, the brain tries to compensate somehow for that and overdoes it. By restoring much of what used to be there, the ringing is reduced. I don't know how "scientific" that is, but the effect seems real enough.

 

[bumnote]

As I've gotten older, high frequencies aren't pleasant anymore. The days of all treble and just a little bass on the stereo are over.
The only other issue I have is what I call "compression". If you stand 10 feet away and whisper or softly talk, I'll 'hear' it almost as loudly as a normal speaking volume. It's great on one hand, because I hear everything...on the other it can be a huge pain when the room is noisy and distinguishing between individual voices or words get convoluted.

 

[Buckaroo65]

Familiar with that. One day my wife was frustrated with me and said; Why don't you get some hearing aids you old coot!

What do you want with my old boots?

 

[memorex]

Familiar with that. One day my wife was frustrated with me and said; Why don't you get some hearing aids you old coot!

Both my wife and I are slowly losing our hearing, and neither of us wants to get hearing aids. Any conversation between us usually includes a half dozen instances of: WHAT?

 

[Toto'sDad]

What do you want with my old boots?

I am from this very moment on, just waiting for the opportunity to use that exact line!

 

[memorex]

 

[sammy1974]

To get to the problem, I notice lots of women singers go flat at both higher, and lower notes at the extreme of their range. I notice some of the men doing the same, but it's not as noticeable to me, usually when they try and hit a low note that's just a little out of their range.

Opera singers. My God, most of them are covering up severe pitch issues with vibrato. I've gotten more sensitive to it over time as well.

 

[memorex]

The other day my wife told me to remind her to get our granddaughter's new address from our son. I told her, "Who's going to remind me to remind you?"

 

[Mjark]

My high end is gone. I was out on the deck earlier turned on my bird call app to see what was singing and I noticed on the scrolling section at the top my phone was hearing things I was not.