has your 'hearing' changed as you've got older?

mushii

Its more likely the high frequency / vowel distinction that makes it harder to hear as the brain is looking for those higher frequency vowel sounds to process words. Modern hearing aids, do not process full spectrum audio, they are tailored to those lost or failing frequencies and amplify / modulate them so that they are more distinguishable. This is often quite a narrow band. Hence you get a more natural sound for conversation  as the missing high frequencies and hence vowel sounds are returned and speech once again becomes intelligible,

According to my last audiogram I have 10% hearing loss in the 1 - 2 khz range, which is top end of speech, in my left ear - consequently it makes passenger conversations quite hard when I am driving. This was due to a middle infection in my late teens which has damaged the ossicles (the 3 bones in the middle ear) meaning that they do not perform their function properly.

simon194

My tinitus is the constant tone variety around 10kHz. One of my work colleagues has what I consider one of the worst forms, a constant buzzing.

reevesy

tinitus must be horrible....

really hope i'm not going that way......had problems about 2 years ago with a 'wooshy' woolly feeling in my right ear...and headaches all the time...ended up getting a MRI scan

...didnt show any thing up...and things have improved though my right ear just feels off.

i did have one idea...i spent a 6 years in the military and my right ear would have been right next to any rifle i was firing...though range days were always with ear deafs

dr told me that strangely in that situation its more likely to effect the left ear

...also been diving a few times in my younger years ...always had trouble clearing my ears on the way down..

i do remember my final medical before leaving the army the doctor said i would be entitled to compensation if my hearing started to suffer later in life

to which i answered 'pardon'

......he looked at me like he'd heard that a million times

dogfonos

A few folk I know have constant-tone Tinitus. Some have high pitch (like yours and mine), others have a low frequency sound. It can be a distraction at first but most of us grow accustomed to it (though still wish we didn't have to) as the brain usually filters it out.

I believe the worst type of Tinitus is a varying tone, though I don't know of anyone who suffers from that. A varying tone would be distracting - the brain can't easily filter that out. Of course, it depends on perceived volume too.

oldcootstereo

I have had tinnitus since I can remember, telling my Mom about it when I was 7-8 years old.  Mid-high-pitch tone, varies in intensity... after a visit to my massage therapist it almost disappears... for about a day.  Had a severe ear infection in my late teens that resulted in a punctured right eardrum, so some loss there too.  But apparently my ears/audio processing/brain compensate quite well, as I routinely hear details in the music that my wife (10 years younger and only worked in offices) often misses.  

As for standard occupational hearing tests, Toole states Ch17.1:
"Occupational conservation programs are almost totally irrelevant to audio professionals and serious audiophiles. ... It is essential to know that in existing national and international standards, the ONLY criterion considered is the preservation of the ability to understand speech.  ... the goal was not to prevent hearing loss, it was to preserve enough that at the end of a working life, conversational speech at 1 meter distance was possible. ... it is considered acceptable for hearing loss to accumulate up to 25dB in both ears at 1/2/3khz audiometric frequencies.  ...  Further losses from 25 to 40 dB are described as "slight".  

Acceptable and slight... until workers end up half-deaf at retirement age.

More modern clinical audiometeric tests may include some full spectrum criteria, but I'd guess that unless the wider spectrum test is requested (prescribed by the physician?), it may not be done as a matter of course.

dogfonos

Quit while you're ahead

oscroft

I'm 61 and my top-end hearing is quite badly deteriorated and tops out at around 10kHz. I also have tinnitus which is intermittent in intensity, but seems to be pitched quite a bit higher than anything I can actually hear.

Strangely, it doesn't harm my enjoyment of music, and favourite pieces don't really sound different to the way I remember them from the past - I guess brains and psychologies adjust to changing ears.

daddy999

Oh, it’s about 2.30pm.....

cosmicma

just took the test 3 times and it says my hearing is at a 44 years old i'm 58 so not  as bad as it could be but can't hear anything above 13.5Khz

did a similar thing not so long ago with a frequency generator on my phone and i stopped hearing things above 15Khz
maybe the phone speaker is more efficient at higher frequencies than my pc speakers or maybe i was a bit optimistic on what i thought i could hear

dogfonos

Or maybe your hearing is deteriorating rapidly - only kidding.

I SAID, ONLY KIDDING!