Say What? A do-it-yourself hearing test CD
(Credit:
Digital Recordings)
If you occasionally experience "ringing in the ears" after exposure to loud sounds or concerts, you may be losing your hearing. To find out where you stand check out Digital Recordings' hearing test CD. It can be used to set a baseline of your hearing, and if you're geeky enough, retest yourself the day after attending a loud concert, working with power tools, or riding a snowmobile. A few hours or even a day later your hearing acuity will be significantly reduced. It's kinda like a preview of what's to come, if you don't stop abusing your ears.
That short-term deafness is sometimes referred to as Temporary Threshold Shift (TTS). But repeated episodes of temporary hearing loss, with insufficient recovery times between exposures will eventually lead to permanent hearing loss. At that point there's no need to keep reading the Audiophiliac blog.
Just kidding, but other than hearing aids there's no "cure" for deafness. Blasting your ears with ear buds day after day may in the long term do your ears in. You've been warned. And that's why using noise blocking or reducing headphones is so important--since they block outside noise you can listen at much lower volumes. Your ears will thank you. Check out my review of the Etymotic ER-6 noise blocking headphone here.
The ER-6 may save some part of your hearing
(Credit: Etymotic)The Digital Recordings' Audio CD--Hearing Test is more comprehensive than the standard audiologist listening test that uses a fairly narrow range of test frequencies, from 125--8,000 Hertz. Properly used, the Audio CD test extends to the full range of frequencies humans can hear, 20-- 20,000 Hz. All you need to perform the test is a CD player and a good set of headphones.
I've used the CD many times over the years and I remember my first impression was that it was easy to useand highly accurate. I say that because every time I repeated the test, the results were essentially the same. It's a great tool and for us audiophiles it's especially nice to know we're not going deaf.
Steve Guttenberg is a frequent contributor to magazines and Web sites including Home Entertainment, Playback, and Ultimate AV. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network, and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure. 
The ringing is annoying, but over time I've learned to ignore it. The hardest part was seeing the steep rolloff in my hearing over 9 khz (I told the audiologist that he had to be kidding; I owuldn't buy speakers with a response curve like that!)
Frustrating as it is, I still buy fine audio equipment. And I still hear differences that lesser folk do not. I will listen to discs with friends pointing out instruments, or placement of instruments (try Fred Hirsch Trio's Passion Flower to hear an amazing soundstage - you can "see" where each cymbal is on the kit)
I may not be able to hear the "air" around instruments anymore (yes, I heard the air....) but I would argue that being an audiophile, and "reading further in this blog" is equal parts training ie, knowing what to listen for, as well as aural abilities.
My bigger concer is this generation of iPod listeners who are blasting their precious ears with poor quality, flat mixes with no dynamic range or depth. Don't get me started on Springsteen's Magic mix.
But then again..what? Do you say something? What's that....speak up......
- by DaveMcLain August 21, 2008 3:22 PM PDT
- The real problem with headphone listening like you're talking about is that it's very difficult to judge how loud they are playing. There is no feeling of air movement and bass shaking things in the room. Therefore it probably seems a lot quieter to the listener than it really is SPL wise. Bad for the ears without question.
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