So I’ve searched the forum archives and a can’t find anything that really answers my questions so thought I’d bung a thread in.
Since new year I’ve noticed a deterioration in my left ear resulting in a weird distorting/reverb effect at certain frequencies. Most obvious on female vocals like Clannad/Enya/Everything but the girl but manifests itself in many other genres. The result is that it’s almost impossible to listen to my system.
I’ve had a Specsavers hearing test and the results showed my left ear significantly worse than the right at higher frequencies so I’m now waiting on NHS audiology to assess me.
I messed with a tone generator and found that around the 4.5kHz range my left ear hears a distorted tone where my right ear hears it as pure. Also that higher up the range left hears nothing whereas right does. Note also that I’ve had tinnitus in the left ear for a few years.
It would be great to hear from anyone who has had similar symptoms treated successfully so listening to HiFi is still enjoyable as at the moment it feels like my hobby has imploded and I’ll have to sell up. I’m going for the negative angle in the hope that positive things will happen in the near future.
Very Sorry to hear about this situation. There are a few of us here on the forum with hearing loss. I have hearing loss in my right ear and some of the symptoms you describe match my early experiences.
Quick question, how soon is your appointment with the NHS?
If it’s any help I have been through two separate periods of hearing loss in one ear, strangely for me I lost lower frequencies rather than upper. So I get a bit of distortion in that ear but also had periods of tinnitus.
What helped me was receiving injections of steroids through the eardrum, but sadly these were not offered through the NHS. The specialist who did them told me the sooner they are done the more likely any positive effects might be. Although the injections of course may or may not help in any particular case.
The frustration I had with the NHS was that everything took so long to get anything done. In hindsight I wish I had gone outside the NHS sooner.
By the way my hearing test through Specsavers some 15 years or so ago was pretty lousy. They claimed my hearing was perfect!
The post from Badger above is very informative. Sometimes, initial hearing loss can be as a result of the body’s immune response to infection. It is the body’s response that harms the hearing. This is the situation that happened for me. Waiting until March 13 for a hearing assessment with the NHS may be too long.
What follows is advice I would have given myself if I had known this all those years ago…
Have you recently (e.g. since Christmas) had any viral or bacterial infections anywhere on your person? If so, have you been seen by a qualified medical professional such as a General Practitioner?
Are you registered with a GP practice in the UK? If so I strongly recommend that you use the online NHS access methods to escalate your case.
If the above seems quite alarming - it is simply that time is of the essence.
If it subsequently turns out that your hearing deterioration situation may not be improved, do not worry, I have managed to recover almost all of my ‘remembered’ hearing experience - so no need to think about selling Naim kit (yet?).
I can empathise with your situation. In 2020 during Covid I suddenly lost nearly all hearing in my left ear, other than distorted high frequencies. Nobody would see me and by the time is saw a specialist six months later any chance of injections was long gone. There were some bumps along the way that I won’t bother you with, and now I have some excellent Cros aids supplied by the NHS. The aid in my left ear is just a receiver that sends the signal to the right aid, which is a standard aid. Along the way I had some expensive private aids and the free NHS aids are much much better. I suspect this is what you need, but the distortion is a concern. You certainly won’t want the left ear amplified.
The NHS initially sent me to Scrivens, who omitted to tell me that they cannot do NHS Cros aids, the contract for which is held by the local hospital. Once I got to the hospital they were superb.
Keep the idea of Cros aids at the top of your mind and ask about them. They are not widely known but are very clever. I cannot enjoy the classical vocal music I used the enjoy, which is a nuisance but jazz, folk and all sorts still sound good and I can thoroughly enjoy them. I find that sitting off axis helps, as it avoids the everything from the right feeling to the sound. All is not lost!!
Hi Edmund, no Ive not been aware of any infections. It’s been nearly 2 months since I started noticing and it doesn’t appear to be getting any worse so a couple more weeks hopefully won’t hurt. My GP wouldn’t give me an appt unless I was in pain or any sort of discharge was occurring. They directed me to Specsavers.
Thanks HH I think I’ve read some of your posts on this. I suppose I’m hoping that hearing aids will help and that modern digital ones can either filter the offending frequencies or cancel them. Not really too worried about the hearing loss to be honest just being able to listen to music. Just don’t understand enough about how aids work. If they simply amplify then that’s not going to work.
OK, that’s good news re lack of any infection - and your GPs response is understandable re that situation. Re the other post from HH and information regarding hearing aids is definitely something that is worth keeping in mind.
Also important (in my view) is that the brain continues to adapt even as we age. My understanding is that is why wearing hearing aids is important - it can prevent further neural and perception degenerative hearing loss. In my own case, I wear one hearing aid (I have never needed two) and when I was fitted in the hospital with the hearing aid - I specifically asked for a music ‘setting’ that did the least amount of ‘processing’. My recollection of what happened next was that the audiologist went to consult with the most senior staff member (Consultant?) at the hospital and they gave me a ‘child’ setting for the hearing aid.
It has been long (and sometimes difficult) journey - however, having acoustically treated my room to the extent that I have, I now have balanced soundstage perception left to right and with full depth as I recall from my youthful listening! I have not needed to revisit the hospital for audiology assessment for many years.
Hi Paul, I did have something similar a few years ago. I was unable to listen to female voices in particular, which distorted in one of my ears. I found myself unable to discern what was being said or sung in the frequencies affected. This lasted for several months and numerous audiology tests and a scan failed to explain the issue.
After a few months normality was restored. The problem has returned a couple of times since , on both occasions in springtime. Bizarrely it appears it may be related to a pollen allergy. The problem did not occur last year and I’m hoping it does not happen this year. I have no previous history of this type of allergy or any other!
As others have alluded to, sometimes these things are not easily explained. In my case it is hopefully something which just disappears as quickly as it comes on. Hopefully something similar for you, so don’t sell that system yet!
Obviously , get yourself thoroughly checked though.
Just thought I’d share my experience as it illustrates that sometimes these things can be transient or intermittent in nature. Hope all goes well.
You need to have an MRI scan for a Acoustic Neuroma (Vestibular Schwanoma). This is how mine started with female vocals as you describe. Contact your GP for a referral.
I’ve found Specsavers very poor, they just want to sell you aids. Also their own brands tend to be old models.
Go to an independent audiologist. I went Audiological Science who have branches nationwide, very good test and real depth explanation afterwards showing me graphs of what frequencies I have lost and what I might not hear,
Prices very good as well and fitting and setting up was done with just as much care
I had one 2yrs ago due to the tinnitus in one ear. Didn’t show anything. GP referred me to Audiology as they suggested ENT would be a long wait and probably not find anything. I’m just going with it now and will gently insist on alternatives if no progress appears to be being made. I’ll see how the assessment goes before considering private but things seem to be moving reasonably well compared to what I’m used to with nhs.
I notice the effect mildly when watching tv and also some road noise triggers it also.
I’m really interested in knowing whether there are aids out there that can noise cancel a particular frequency range. The hearing loss I can deal with, it’s the distortion that’s ruining the sound.
No there aren’t such aids. But you could have a standard aid fitted to the affected ear and have it adjusted so that in the music program setting, the gain is lowered at the frequency where the problem occurs.
Distortion of the sort you describe is usually due to damage to the cochlear. This is most likely to be the result of a viral infection, but there are lots of other mechanisms. Unfortunately a damaged cochlear doesn’t necessarily show up as missing frequencies, it can also show up as distortion at some frequencies or even that one ear hears a tone as a semitone higher or lower than the other ear.
Apart from getting an ENT specialist to assess things, you probably need a proper audiologist to spend the time to think how to understand and deal with your issue. It’s a good idea to crack on with getting this sorted. Hearing loss rarely improves on its own and to the extent improvement is possible, every day counts.
My episode of temporary hearing loss will probably be of little help to you. Following a cold my hearing deteriorated drastically. At the walk in centre, and after examining the ear I was told I had fluid behind the ear drum, try adding Vics vapour rub to hot water and inhaling the steam. If I still had problems after a couple of weeks I should consult my GP. Two weeks later I did. GP said she could not examine the ear because of wax, but upon going to nurse for de-waxing I was told there was no wax in the ear. Despite the GP saying the nurse would also be able to examine the ear after removal of wax she said she could not do that and wanted to refer me to an audiologist for consideration of a hearing aid. The GP refused to see me again about the possibility of trapped fluid. To cut this rather long story short normal hearing returned a couple of weeks later. Perhaps of interest to you I did look up hearing aids that worked well when listening to music, and although most are more speech specific, there are some out there that are designed with music listening in mind. You would not get them through the NHS though.
So I’m resigned to the fact that my hearing issue might be permanent but there is good news, there is much music I CAN listen to without the distortion being triggered so I am focusing on listening to that now and discovering more that works for me.
However, I’ve been thinking about downsizing for a while now and there have been compelling reasons to do it, this issue being just one more although I’m finding that it can be managed. My Olive system is around 35yrs old and coupled with the fact that I tend to listen for an hour during the day now rather than 2-3 hours at night, it doesn’t get the usage it once did. So I’ve decided to liquidise my assets leaving a good chunk of cash for a new car next year whilst retaining a fairly decent quality system. I’ll see how I get on with it over the next year.
So seven Naim boxes have been replaced with one used Linn box and a pair of active speakers. It feels a bit like decluttering as well. So trying to remain positive about things and getting on with it.
