I think I need to give up Hi-Fi

[walpurgis]

Hmm.

It was my compromised hearing that led me to my interest in Hi-Fi. Being about 50% deaf in my right ear along with no ability to hear higher frequencies, I thought high quality sound would be of benefit, rather than a waste of time.

I admit that having had impaired hearing nearly all my life, I'm used to it and don't consciously think of it generally. I also find that it has no effect on my enjoyment or my ability to appreciate the stereo effect from recordings.

I'd say keep what equipment you have or improve on it rather than downgrade. As for mono, it belongs where it is, in the past, apart from being a specialist interest for a very few (in my opinion ).

[Chris]

Thanks, but maybe my case is a little different in so far I hear zero, zilch through my right ear. If I had 50 % I could use a balance control to get an impression of stereo. If I fix the balance 5% - 95% in favour of the right I will still only hear the 5 z of the left. I figure that listening in stereo I must be missing a lot of right hand info. Imagine listening through cans where the right hand driver is not connected.

[walpurgis]

Did you know that even with only one ear, there is directional information audible. If you have any recordings with pronounced left/right separation of the signal, try them, you my be surprised.

[HD Goofnut]

For those of you who have loss of hearing from 9k onwards and nothing past 10k how does it interfere when listening to music and vocals & is there anything that can be done to help get back what has been lost?

[walpurgis]

Well I can't detect sounds over 10kHz in my left ear due to age and have never been able to hear over about 1kHz in my right ear and that's at about 50% what it should be. To be honest, I'm seldom aware of it. The Hi-Fi still sounds as good to me as it ever did.

[struth]

could try headphones, especially adaptive ones... https://www.nuraphone.com/

[Pharos]

Most of the musical information is below about 4k - listen to telephone music - string quartet Bach for example, it can be surprisingly nuanced and informative.

telephone speech is based on commercial speech bandwidth of 300 to 3400 Hz, and was chosen a long time ago because it increases intelligibility, information retrieval.

Above about 5k mainly all that is there is 'bite', although I do miss the high belles on Enigma in the vocal refrain between 'verses'.

[HD Goofnut]

Obviously what is lost can’t be replaced but can decent hearing aids enhance the listening experience?

https://www.hearingreview.com/practi...n-hearing-aids

[AJSki2fly]

That's what I was getting. Largely down to a badly blocked carotid artery it seems, which had gone undiagnosed for some time. Could be worth getting checked, seeing as it gave me three successive strokes and nearly killed me in February. (only just before the hospital was swamped with Coronavirus victims as it happens)

That's interesting, I recently tested my hearing and my right ear drops at 12K by30dB and is pretty useless above, I have noticed sometimes at night if I lie on my right side with the pillow support my neck firmly that I get tints, a high pitched whistle as described by others. If I turnover then eventually the tints subsides.

I have been told that if you are a cardiac patient and on blood pressure lowering medication for a long term period then this can impact your ears, the is due was due to reduced blood supply to the ears which if I recall correctly the Cochlear hair cells in the ear need to remain healthy, once these hair cells are dead than that's it.

[hifi_dave]

For some time I was on Frusemide, a heavy duty Diuretic and this made me thirsty, I weed myself a couple of times on my way to work, it took the skin off the inside of my mouth and gave me Tinnitus. So yes, medication can give you Tinnitus. All the side effects ceased the day after I stopped the medication.