Be aware of possible discomfort having your ears fully plugged by a device. My ears don’t like it at all. “Venting” of them will allow some natural sound in. You would want complete control over the sound delivered to your ears. I really hope this is a workable idea for you.
I still think you might still want the neurologist though.
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Jesus this is such a nightmare. I’m sorry to sound complaining, it’s just difficult to understand you have a condition that can’t be treated, at all. I’m not going to compare my sufferance to others, but if I had a recognizable impairment at least I could find a device to help. But I can’t. I’m posting this rant because I gave the earplugs a try. They absorb huge amounts of HF thus making everything very muffled, but not nearly as offensive. Close to smooth sibilance I can hear. BUT, putting these in my ears triples the volume of my tinnitus. So the sound is more forgiving but I can’t properly hear it with a 60dB+ hiss in my ear and instead of headaches from distorted sibilants, the screeching tinnitus drills my brain.
Don’t know what I’ve done to deserve this. I haven’t been exposed to loud noise for long period at least in the last 10 years. I’m so frustrated.
You may need special ear plugs. I’ll ask my friend who has both tinnitus and hyperacusis what he uses.
Reconsider the Nuhearas. You may be able to lower the damaged frequencies below pain threshold but retain enough sound not to spike your tinnitus. You can experiment with your own sound therapy. You can dial in soothing sounds and mix it with the sounds of the outside world. You get a 30 day trial.
What you’re saying about cbt makes perfect sense. Try it anyway. What do you have to lose? Same with mindfulness training, Try to find a tinnitus counsellor if you can.
There are people on the Tinnitus Talk forum with conditions like yours. They will understand what you’re going through if nothing else. Some of them have an all or nothing mindset I think is unhelpful ie they don’t want learn how to live with their condition. They want it gone.
All the best.
Hello again friend.
I would gladly try the nuheras, I just need to see how I can do that since I am outside US (around 4000 miles… Israel).
Fortunately tinnitus is not the main issue here. I’ve had it 15 years. It’s been louder, it’s been lower, lately seems my right ear is much louder, but my whole tinnitus condition is quite habituated. Tinnitus is dynamic in volume but remains a relatively static sound, so whole it’s loud and extremely unpleasant, in this case CBT and psychological techniques are very useful, because by breathing properly, accepting the sound on your ears as part of you, learning to live with it and forgive the tinnitus, as well as masking techniques, it is certainly possible to live with tinnitus. HOWEVER if I had silence in my ears, and only once every few seconds the tinnitus would strike, fade, strike, fade, that would drive me crazy. That’s the effect of my frequency issue, it strikes at random, but constantly throughout speech. That is impossible to get used to, and I have gotten used to very terrible conditions in my life, believe me.
One of the famous Chinese tortures is placing someone in a quiet room and playing an offensive sound every few seconds.
This is what I experience.
which is why I was suggesting the nuhearas. Imagine this scenario. You are in a social situation. You are playing a soundscape (water lapping on the shore for example) through your buds. At the same time the nuheara’s mics are picking up the conversation (with sibilant frequencies dialled down maybe). You control the balance between inside and outside.
That’s kind of what I was thinking. I don’t have your condition, so that might be laughable. Anyway…
I thought Nuheara mailed everywhere
Very interesting issue you’re having, yuvalfrr, and it doesn’t sound at all pleasant, and you say that as part of trying to address it you’ve already seen 3 ENT’s and an audiologist and all testing has come back normal.
Have you booked in to see a neurologist yet?? From all that you’ve written in this thread, and even though you might not be so keen, do this and see a neurologist as recommended. The neurologist should take a thorough medical history including onset, current and any changed symptomatology, medication and/or environmental changes, and a number of physical health investigations. It may reveal what’s going on.
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I use the IQbuds MAX earbuds. They enable you to manually tune/control sounds around you. Increasing or reducing bass/treble, enhancing frequencies of speech vs. ambient noise, etc.
They are not intended as hearing aids, but more as hearing augmentation devices for situational use.
Here’s a screenshot of the World EQ feature from the companion smartphone app:
That’s an interesting product, I’ll check it out.
I HAVE SOME GOOD NEWS FOR ALL YOU KIND REPLIERS.
My only tool for investigating what’s going on in my ears (or rather my brain) has been my Sony WH-1000XM4 headphones. Thanks to a useful Android app I can perform extensive EQ, with a different EQ for each ear. This equalizer has 31 bands, not as accurate as a Parametric EQ but certainly a good way to investigate the matter.
I am quite sure to this day that my most affected frequencies are the relatively high treble frequencies, the magic number, to my assessment, is 8Khz. But also 6-7Khz and 9-10Khz seem problematic. I believe the worst sibilants are in this spectrum. Even though sibilance can even start at 3-4Khz.
So up till now all I did was destroy treble on my stereo speakers, and same on headphones.
While deadening treble does provide relief from some of the harshness, the sharp distorted sibilance is still prominent and drills my head.
So I found out a nice fact… Phone calls only deliver frequencies up to 3.3Khz. Phone calls through this process have been very forgiving on my ears. Perhaps the only way I can communicate with ease.
So I used the EQ to drastically reduce (around 20dB or more) high treble frequencies, but keep lower treble normal (2-3Khz). I then apply a big boost at around 1.5Khz, which is upper midrange. In addition boosted the midrange, around 400Hz,which is the area of fundamental voice frequencies.
The result is a muffled speech but fully understandable, the sharp sibilance is not only reduced but fades quite a bit because of the dominance the EQ is giving to the lower voice frequencies (400Hz & 1.5Khz).
So this works quite well on my headphones. But what about my speakers?
Well, I got a decide called MiniDSP 2x4 HD. This small device allows full control of a stereo system and includes a vast Parametric EQ.
I haven’t set it up yet, but if I can get a similar result to my headphones EQ, then we’ve got a breakthrough.
This does not solve the problem at its core, but if this allows me to have some comfort in my digital life, I’m all in.
The problem is not as severe in real life interaction anyway. It’s bad, but i wouldn’t call it torture.
I will report back as soon as I get the time to setup my MiniDSP.
Cheers to you all.
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@yuvalfrr, as I was reading responses I was thinking about trying a parametric EQ. I’m glad you know what it is. Here’s an idea: Maybe buy a used fully parametric EQ on a used equipment website. Even an old one should do fine.
Hook up the EQ between your computer sound output and your headphones. Maybe use Google to find an online tone generator or find a TED talk on YouTube. Use the parametric EQ to find the frequency range that triggers your distorted sibilance and gradually tighten the bandwidth of the EQ band around the offending frequency. Also move the EQ band around. The idea is to find the exact frequency where the distortion happens, or at least the narrowest frequency range that includes the offending frequency.
You also might try a notch filter. I think you can probably buy one of those used. Same idea: Trying to find the narrowest frequency band you can that contains the offending frequency.
Here’s a link to an article by a prominent American audiologist named Marshall Chasin. It is about treating diplacusis. It has a humorous tone to it, and it is not directly related to your problem, but it might give you some insight.
Once you identify the narrowest band that contains the offending frequency, try out one or a pair of HAs, whichever is appropriate. Get some HAs that will occlude your ears.Have the audiologist boost the amplification up to a level that approximates what your normal hearing would be if not for the occlusion. BUT, have the audi drastically CUT the amplification at, or as near to as possible, the narrow offending frequency band that you identified with the parametric EQ and/or the notch filter. If the problem is in only one ear, then this only needs to be done in the offending ear.
Sorry for the long post, but the OP has really stuck with the discussion and many respondents seem really interested in the issue, so I posted a response rather than sending a PM. Good luck @yuvalfrr. I hope this might be one piece of your puzzle.
I too thought of Notch Therapy when I read OP’s last post. If it does seem worth a try, Signia and Rexton hearing aids come with it built in. Still doable with others, but perhaps not as straight forward.
Yes! A notch filter seems to be what I’m looking for. Two questions:
- What’s the maximum attenuation possible with a notch filter. Most EQs can attenuate up to 10-20dB. Due to the severity of my distortion I could need even a more drastic cut on certain frequencies.
- How narrow does the frequency band have to be? I am thinking that my affected frequency range is very wide, covering vast amount of HF. I doubt this can help if all I can cut is for example 8000Hz-8200Hz.
@yuvalfrr, I’d say the first step would be to determine the width of the frequency band where the problem lies. You would have to do some extensive research using your parametric EQ. Another audio tool I just thought of that might help is a pink noise generator (or maybe it’s a white noise generator). If I remember correctly, a pink noise generator generates sound across the entire audio spectrum all at once. You would use the white noise generator to produce that very broad-spectrum sound and then use the parametric EQ to boost or cut at various frequencies as I described previously to see where the problem frequency is and how wide of a frequency band is affected. Then, as MDB suggested, try HAs that allow for notch filtering and have the audi use whatever tools might be available in the programming software to notch out the offending frequencies as best as the HA software programming tools allow.
I’m not an audio expert at all. I used to play in rock bands. The technology I’m describing was available in the early 80s. Undoubtedly it is much better and much cheaper now. If there are experts here reading this post please correct any misconceptions I might have or please expand on my ideas.
I have no idea how much a notch filter might be able to attenuate. There are probably notch filters available that can provide radical attenuation. I’ll bet you can find one if you do some research. Good luck.
I don’t know if this would help or not, but a little while ago Dr Cliuf mentioned new ear plugs from Phonak that were designed for shooting, work etc. I was thinking that the work one should reduce the high frequencies, I don’t know by how much or what other frequencies are reduced as well, but they are supposed to still allow you to talk to people. Maybe if you get in touch with a Phonak rep or an audiologist who knows Phonak products very well, that maybe they can shed some light on what’s available. Just my 2 cents worth, and that might be overly inflated. 
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Definitely a unique problem.
I don’t want to sound like I’m peeved or anything (he said peevishly) but I think what you people have been calling ‘notch therapy’ is what I’ve been suggesting all along with the Nuhearas. “Attenuation” (correct me if I’m wrong) is only limited by the isolation of the device. You amplify the frequencies around the ‘notch’ and leave the notch alone. Whether this is a desirable thing to do is another question. I mentioned the Nuheara becaude it’s cheap enough to experiment with, it’s self-programmable, it’s got good isolation, and you can balance streamed sound with what the microphones pick up.
'm not sure what the goal is here e[ther. Therapy or relief? Different things.
Yes that’s my understanding of what notch therapy is. Leave the notch alone and amplify around it. Have no idea if it would be beneficial.
The Nuheras buds might not fit the bill. As far as I understand they allow you to apply a tone control. You can reduce bass/treble. General treble reduction is not a good idea, since I have problem in certain frequencies and not the entire treble spectrum. From my experience even destroying the treble making everything dull, dead, muffled, doesn’t cut it, because it reduces the entire treble range, lowering a moderate amount throughout the spectrum, each frequency a certain dB cut. Thus not applying a heavy enough cut to those problematic frequencies. The result is a terrible sound profile that doesn’t even do a good job at smoothening out the distortion.
If notch therapy just amplifies around a certain range then that’s no good either. I need heavy attenuation to certain frequencies and then amplify my healthy frequencies around the problematic range.
The only thing I am really curious about is frequency lowering/shifting.
If used with fairly occlusive earpieces, the earpieces provide the attenuation and then the hearing aids can provide gain whereever it’s needed. I’m skeptical about frequency lowering in that it often generates the sibilance you are trying to eliminate.
Through all these suggestions and observations, I think those that make sense are the ones regarding consultation with a neurologist. My recommendation is that you schedule a neurological evaluation ASAP to rule out any abnormal intracranial condition. Don’t waste time and money on devices. Find out what is causing these strange symptoms.
Looks like you’re right. I checked the manual and from what I can see they haven’t exposed controls for each individual frequency band. I was sure they had. Sorry for the misinformation.