powerful weapon... my dad used one..
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Interesting - would the sound be even louder due to being supersonic, in the same way that jets make a right racket in supersonic flight? That would certainly do your hearing.
As for shooting at RAF range, I would have enjoyed that. I once got to shoot some pistols at a gun club, including some bloke's .44 Smith & Wesson. Sadly those days are gone, thanks to our knee-jerk reaction to a handful of dickheads with more ammo than brains :(
I read somewhere that firing only three rounds from a Lee Enfield .303 rifle, would (could?) cause permanent hearing damage.
But to reply to the OP, as long as you continue to enjoy music just live with it. As Ali has said, the brain has a remarkable ability to compensate for shortcomings in the various senses.
I can't hear pure tones over 10kHz, and have very mild tinnitus in my right ear - yet I can hear the effect of a 10kHz low-pass filter applied to, say a violin recording.
I worked as a Linotype operator in the newspaper industry. A room full of these machines was very noisy and I am sure this noise damaged my hearing. This was during the late 60s and 70s. A Linotype was a type-setting machine which used molten metal to cast lines of type (Linotype). Around the mould to crucible interface, asbestos was used to form a heat seal. This asbestos seal would sometimes break down and would be repaired using asbestos mixed with a special glue/paste. The dust particles from the asbestos could clearly be seen whilst this was done. Thank fu*k for the advent of computers eh?
I did an apprenticeship as a letterpress compositor, and I can vouch for those linotype machines - you had to shout to make yourself heard.
Mind you some of those presses weren't any better. We had this ancient old press which we used to print posters using wooden type. The thing could shake the building, and one day the owner of the cafe below us called in to complain that one of his polystyrene ceiling tiles had fallen onto a customer's head. So after that it was only used in the afternoons. It ran off a long belt from a giant flywheel, and one time the belt grabbed one of the old guys by his hair and carried him to the ceiling before letting him go. Oh how we laughed. But this was the 70's, a time untroubled by health & safety :)
Thanks All,
the observation about aids possibly further ruining my hearing is a good one. My eyes have detriorated quite rapidly since I started wearing reading glasses three years ago.
As for the impact, it really does spoil the listening. I have a tad more volume running through the right channel and this centres the vocals nicely, but there always seem to be more instruments on the left side than the right.
My plan is to swap speaker cables and see if there are then new, unheard instruments on the left that I missed when running through the right channel, and some missing on the right that I used to hear through the left.
Re the suggestion about super tweeters my Neat XLSs are equipped with exactly that, mounted in the top surface and firing upwards.
Before rushing to get hearing aids maybe have other things checked out. I suffer from wax in my ears periodically, and recently it's been bad in one ear. Also colds and other problems - maybe allergies can affect hearing - for example by blocking the eustachian tubes, and if the ears become infected that's not good. I'm somewhat older than others have declared, but I'd prefer to continue without hearing aids for as long as possible. I have also used headphones quite a bit sometimes - and recently in the last couple of weeks, but I am firmly convinced that extended headphone listening makes problems such as earwax and infections worse - perhaps because the ears tend to become warm, and maybe there are bacteria which affect the ears which get in via the headphones.
However, I wouldn't dismiss severe hearing problems completely. One of my younger friends suffered quite severe hearing loss about a decade ago - I'm not sure if he ever found out why it happened - but he can't hear what is being said sometimes without the help of his hearing aids. I occasionally also have problems due to the wax, but so far it has always cleared up eventually.
If you discover you really do need hearing aids then go for them, but I think that some of the commercial outfits have an interest in convincing customers that they need hearing aids so that they can keep their businesses running.
Even doctors get things wrong - probably quite often. My mother - at the time she was over 80 - had earwax problems, and on one occasion went very deaf indeed, particularly in one ear. Her GP tried gently to tell her that she needed hearing aids, but she insisted she didn't and wanted her ears flushed out. In the end she had the wax cleared out, and it was clear that her hearing improved dramatically in a matter of minutes. She never did have hearing aids, though she did eventually have other problems.
With advancing age I think that things do get worse. One late musician friend of very advanced years became quite frustrated with several very expensive sets of hearing aids, as he said that they put out the tuning of all the music he listened to, and also of his piano. He commented that some were better than others, but in the end I don't think he liked them much in his last years.
I also recommend reading this book by Bella Bathurst if you want to know more about the kinds of problems some people have had - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sound-Memoi...s=books&sr=1-6 Sound - a memoir of hearing lost and found
If you are thinking about hearing aids to better enjoy your music, I’d think twice. My aids only serve to make it sound tinny, harsh and very sibilant. My high frequency range is all but gone. If you need them to get on with life and actually converse with people,then get them. I only use mine when I absolutely need to, ie in work meetings and social settings with lots of background chatter where I have to interact. To be honest, working from home has really suited me as all work meetings are virtual and sticking on headphones makes hearing people so much better.
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An NHS hearing aid user here as I have moderate hearing loss and tinnitus.
Everyday life and listening to music has been enhanced by the use of the hearing aids, so I would recommend getting checked out and giving them a try.