The Sound of Silence

[MSI]

I just make sure to play music really loud so I don't hear it

 

[TedTheLed]

Like Bart the tone changes pitch for me ocassionally. I am usually unaware of it, unless my attention is called to it (as in reading about it now) or find myself in a quiet environment after exposure to a noisey one.. I used to get that effect much more profoundly when I lived in Manhattan and would ride the train to a quaint quiet town out on the island, when I got off the train and sat down in someone's house the ringing was very loud for a while, this is when I would experence the most profound changes in pitch.. I never noticed the relation of pitch to stress; interesting idea. Maybe it's just the ear getting used to the quiet?

The article mentions the tone possibly being " the brain listening out." I'm not certain what is meant by that -- but suggests to me some background matrix of sound that the brain lays the tracks it hear's against as sort of "carrier signal.." - or something..that most pepople just never become aware of.

It sounds like old color TV sets to me too. I used to be able to hear what I was told were burglar alarm systems in department stores when I was younger, a very unpleasant sound that made me hate Macy's (on 34th st. )
..maybe that's how that "mosquito" drone that repels teenagers was invented..!?

 

[cheapo]

i dont hear a high pitched sound, but i hear a voice telling me to send my lights to greenled... hmm, i wonder if i should listen to it- naaaaaaaaa :nana:

-David

 

[ABTOMAT]

Yes, they sure are... Everything around you sounds like a bad movie soundtrack, only it's real. Shows you how sophisticated your hearing is, to pick up environmental cues from multipath echoes.

My father was in one years ago when he was an engineer. Used to say how two men could stand back-to-back and yell at the top of their lungs, and you could barely hear anything.

 

[bfg9000]

It is believed that the brain "turns up the gain of its preamp" to try to receive signals from the hair cells in the cochlea that have been long destroyed. The destruction is progressive, and there is even a famous ring tone which adults cannot hear.

 

[Illum]

i dont hear a high pitched sound, but i hear a voice telling me to send my lights to greenled... hmm, i wonder if i should listen to it- naaaaaaaaa :nana:

-David

GreenLed will be very happy to hear that...trust your intuition and send them over:lolsign:

 

[NeonLights]

Yup, its called tinnitus, and should serve as a warning sign to people who don't use hearing protection when appropriate. I didn't as a teenager and when in my early 20's, and I'm suffering greatly now (at 36) because of it. I went to quite a few concerts as a youth, and never used hearing protection, and I also shot a lot as a teen (mostly 12 ga shotgun and .357 magnum pistol) and only used hearing protection about half the time. I would get the ringing in my ears after particularly bad incidents, but it always went away after a few hours, or a couple of days at the worst.

Fast forward to age 26 and my wife and I were enjoying an Irish band (traditional/rock) at a local outdoor Irish festival, we were sitting towards the back and the concert wasn't really that loud, but it was the last straw. The next morning my left ear was ringing very loudly and my right ear somewhat less so. My ears have been ringing ever since. I haven't heard "silence" for more than ten years, and even in noisy environments the ringing is still quite audible. I've been to several different doctors, and ENT specialist, audiologists, etc, and nothing can be done. I do have some hearing loss at the higher ranges (especially at 4kHz-8kHz) some of which is just "masked" by the loud ringing. My hearing falls off very rapidly abover 12-14kHz. I've had audiograms done professionally twice, and have the equipment to do them at home now, to track the digression of my hearing.

The noise is exacerbated by caffeine (I work nights, so that is a tough one to avoid) as well as some medications like antihistamines, and of course certain pitches and intensities of noise. I had been heading towards and education and career in music priduction when the tinnitus became permanent in my mid-20's, and have since abandoned that dream. It kills me to see younger people I care about not use hearing protection when it is obviously needed.

-Keith

 

[smokinbasser]

I guess I can lay part of the blame on jet engines as well but I always had some sort of hearing protection on. I am sure my dropping the hammer on more than one large(and noisy) caliber hangun did its share of damage as well. Believe it or not but driving a vehicle with the drivers window rolled down causes significant hearing issues. I thought it was funny a friend couldn't hear the crickets outside my window then I found out he was on the flight line as a ground power specialist so there is the jet engine connection once again.

 

[taiji]

I have it and definitely can say that Tesla and Def Leppard caused it.

 

[yuandrew]

Normally, I have an aquerium going so there's always the sound of water running at my place but when I shut off the pump to change filters, some sounds become very evident.

First off, I could hear three different quartz clocks ticking even though they are in different rooms. Another thing that can be heard is a 60hz humming sound which I think is from the 14 transformers I have plugged in all over the house.

 

[TigerhawkT3]

I'm hearing it as I type this. Well, not literally as I type, but every time I take a moment to think.

I have noticed that the monitor attached to my dad's computer (its status indicator LED, actually) makes a faint, high-pitched buzz when it's receiving no signal from a "sleep"ing computer (orange LED lit). It goes away immediately when I wake up the computer. It's not what I'm hearing now, because that monitor is across the house and on the other side of my room's solid-core door.

I hope it stops soon... :hairpull:

 

[Lunal_Tic]

I have it too but can still hear the high voltage transformer in a TV and the noise a dog bark suppressor uses. It would be nice if I could get it to change pitch on command then I could whistle to myself in my head.

-LT

 

[jayflash]

I'll bet most people have this "nerve noise" to some degree but are unaware of it because it's usually at a low level.

Close your eyes in a dark room and I'll bet what you see isn't completely black. There's always some level of nerve activity, otherwise known as noise.

When the ringing in my ears turns into voices and the random background visual effects become pictures...I still won't check myself in.

 

[ledlurker]

Wierd, I always hear a high pitched whine but it goes away when I am out in the wilderness and there are no power lines around or when the power goes out in my house. I can actually hear a power outage happening in the middle of the night with no visual cues of it happening.

 

[WAVE_PARTICLE]

Wierd, I always hear a high pitched whine but it goes away when I am out in the wilderness and there are no power lines around or when the power goes out in my house. I can actually hear a power outage happening in the middle of the night with no visual cues of it happening.

OK...now you are freaking me out.....

WP

 

[PhotonWrangler]

I have it too but can still hear the high voltage transformer in a TV and the noise a dog bark suppressor uses. It would be nice if I could get it to change pitch on command then I could whistle to myself in my head.

-LT

The pitch of the horizontal deflection circuit in a tv is precisely 15.734 khz. I can hear it also. I could always hear when an older tube tv fell out of horizontal sync without seeing it. I've had some fun with that.

And when it's really, really quiet, I hear a tiny little whisper that says "you need another flashlight."

 

[cyberhobo]

Could be radio waves from the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP), Alaska. They've gone full power recently.

http://www.brojon.org/frontpage/bj0201.html

 

[BigHonu]

WP,

You are just a freak man!





Actually, I hear the same but like others, the pitch and 'volume' seem to change depending on the environment.

 

[Lunal_Tic]

And when it's really, really quiet, I hear a tiny little whisper that says "you need another flashlight."

Count your blessings, that particular voice howls like a banshee in my head.

-LT

 

[Tree]

Good to know I'm not the only one with Tinnitus. I used to listen to loud sounds for a living (live sound engineer for over a decade) wearing earplugs or headphones not plugged in when I could but often couldn't, the high pitch whine is there for sure. If you go to a concert and don't want to wear earplugs, I would wear ear plugs on the way home and keep them in for at least an hour in a somewhat quiet environment. The ringing would be loud as hell while they are in, but when you take them out even the quietest noise floor would drown out the whining. That would help me get to sleep much better because my ears wouldn't be ringing as much in the quiet house as I laid down.

I have found vitamin B12 to reduce it a bit, but it's not bad enough to take it every day. If someone wants to try B12 and report back (if it helps reduce the whine) I'd be interested to see if it was just me or if I was having a placebo effect.

Be careful with cell phones! I've found the hearing response in my left and right ears are becoming different from each other (verified by hearing tests). I used to only use my cell phone on my right ear and had it pretty loud because a certain phone company that rhymes with Zextel always had a bad signal and it was hard to hear. Switch ears on the phone whenever you can to keep it even. Like headphones, it may not sound loud but when it's pressed up against your ear it can be dangerously loud without you knowing it.

Now I work in a soundproof room everyday and when I'm not doing critical listening I'll keep the door open to keep the noise floor over the Tinnitus. It has gotten better, but only a little.