Thank you Naim from a tinnitus sufferer who thought his audiophile days were over!

10 years ago after getting tinnitus and hearing loss from using a high pressure water hose, I had resigned myself to never enjoying hifi again. I switched off my system and tried to move on. Every so often I would punish myself by listening; hoping that things might change and the PRAT would return. It didn’t and literally brought tears to my eyes. Just by coincidence, my Naim xs amp had lost power in one channel and the badge started to bleed. I took the amp along to Criterion Audio in Cambridge who arranged for its repair for £350.00. I was disappointed to say the least but in the scheme of things the cost seemed irrelevant to me. I was considering spending thousands on hearing instruments, not hifi.
Well to cut a long story short, the last 2 years have been nothing short of a revelation and a stunning achievement. I don’t care how sycophantic I sound but whatever you did to this amp is miraculous. I have been crying again for all the right reasons. The detail, the grip and space around well produced music has been absolutely fantastic and this goes across all genres from rock to trance to classical. My Keilidhs and Aracm Alpha cd player have never sounded so good. What still amazes me, is that the amp keeps improving.
So thanks. You have made my heart sing again and remain an integral part to the soundtrack of my life !!!

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Welcome and that may give some hope to other sufferers on the forum?

I might be missing something here, but what is the relationship between tinnitus and PRaT?

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A great story, music is truly food for the soul!

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A friend at work is recovering from several months of severe tinnitus and hyper-acusis in his hearing which drove him to distraction and beyond. Amongst much else, he said that listening to music was one of the few things that could distract him from the despair-inducing tinnitus, so it’s good to hear others are gaining some measure of relief from what can be a truly dreadful condition.

Mark

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High pitch ringing and hear loss cause some frequencies to be canceled out, or not heard, as in……skip a beat. On the other hand, I hear certain tones that my wife can’t hear, and they are prevalent, which also affect my music listening senses. As a sufferer of tinnitus, it can be difficult to enjoy music some days. When the barometric pressure changes, and rain starts heading in, those days are worse than others for me.

Scott

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Hi I have already been diagnosed with tinnitus at Heartlands Hospital by an Audiolagist.Not a nice experience but after about 18 months I learned to live with it. Naim Audio is another experience I found about 4 years ago. I’m I’m my 70s now but still living my musical dreams listening to Floyd Klaus schulze. And other wonderful things. Enjoy my Friend

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I have to agree, my mild tinnitus is worse when there is a pressure change to low.

I too have tinnitus, and a naim system with the nap300. also the 803d3. And the ndx-2. When I’m in a listening session with my eyes closed, I’m happy. In fact, if I haven’t listened, the ringing in my ears can get really bad. So yes, naim is therapy.

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I have also suffered from tinnitus for about 10 years. Now I am trying to reverse it with Betahistine. Treatment is for 6 months. Hopefully I can improve. You are very lucky to recover

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I do not read that the OP has recovered.

Hi everyone. Thanks for all of your comments and responses. I really have really appreciated them. As Neilb1906 confirmed, my tinnitus is still very much with me as well as hyperacusis. I have to balance the need to protect my ears with earplugs in certain situations and always earmuffs if using the lawnmower or vacuum cleaner. If I don’t, the ringing spins markedly, increasing in volume and can take days to settle rather like a gyroscope. What always concerned me when I first got tinnitus was leaving critical listening behind. Naim, as we all know, has such unique qualities that set it apart from other hifi companies. It’s presentation takes a grip of the music with incredible solidity and now the soundstage and delicacies are present in abundance. My hearing seemed to lose that lower frequency grip and I found it had lost stamina. Despairingly, I sold my Rega Apollo Anniversary Edition and Naim Hiline din to rca leads as well as my Chord mains cables. However, I still kept the faith with my Naim lavender leads and Naim standard cables, NACA5 and my old trusty Arcam Alpha 5 plus CD player and Linn Keilidhs. They are not the best speakers in the world especially when you consider Kudos, Neat etc. but Linn and Naim do just work. I’m just glad I persevered. By some freak coincidence, my hearing started to go awry at the same time as my amplifier. I just hadn’t put the two things together. Then, the Naim repair was completed years later and as stated before has been such an absolute revelation. It is a definite upgrade and has perhaps given me a true insight to the more lofty amplifiers in the range.
I am still on an emotional rollercoaster with my condition with ‘spikes’ occurring on a regular basis especially when exposed to sounds of a certain frequency. I just have to ride these out and wait for things to settle down. I do get incredibly frustrated with this every day and sadly my family have to put up with this. However, we are all so lucky to appreciate Naim. This company has left an indelible mark on the soundtrack to my life, without question.

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What an awful coincidence to have your gear and your hearing deteriorate at the same time. I’m happy that you persevered and are getting some joy from your audio system.

I also developed a mild case of tinnitus in my right ear about 15 years ago, just as I purchased a pair of Spendor SP100s and thought that I had put the finishing touches on a lifetime quest to build a quality, Naim-fronted system. Turns out I was wrong on the finishing touches. In the last five years I swapped a CDX2 for a NDS/PS555 steamer, an 82 for a 252 and a chrome bumper 250 for a non-DR 500.

I was fortunate that I could easily tune-out the ringing while working or watching TV. However, it did take more effort to ignore it during focused listening to music. I found over time that certain recordings seemed to exacerbate the ringing while others calmed it, but I can’t say for sure whether it was actually the recordings or just my state of mind at the time. One surprising thing that I found was that the tinnitus became easier to ignore after I put the entire audio system onto its own electrical circuit, grounded separately from the rest of the house.

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Ok this is a bit wordy but…
I have Tinitus and the hearing in my left ear is very poor (can’t hear a dial tone in my left ear).
But I can enjoy music on my system (not so much on headphones) and still perceive a stereo image!
The brain is powerful (yes, even mine, when I’m not thinking about it) and though the left ear does not work so well, sound from both speakers reaches both ears. So with ACCURATE timing the brain makes corrections that then depict a full range soundstage - as though I can hear it through both ears. This is called Psychoacoustics.

This is why I have joined the Naim forum - and this post from [hrig3] is indeed inspirational. Thankyou!

Of course this may be because I currently own a Quad 34 and 909 and may be about to “see” the light :smiley: but this is why I have joined this forum.

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Good thread and good to hear you’re back enjoying musical emotions in great ways.

I lost most hearing in my left ear when I was 11 and perforated my ear drum diving / swimming, I had a merigoplasti then (1981) to skin graft the ear drum, but it wasn’t that sucessful, very limited hearing in my left ear in my teens, it affected how I socialised and projected myself, but never put a dampner on my love of music.
In my 30’s I noticed that my hearing improved when I had a cold and was conjested so got it looked into and had another patch up, the hole had been open for years and one of the bones diseased. The surgeon was great and turned the bone around and reconfigured what was left to work. patched things up and cleared my sinuses over 3 operations and a couple of years. 80% hearing returned in that ear and stereo enjoyment was better, although it had never completely gone away.
Now my psychoacoustics allow me to sleep without hearing anything from my left ear, right ear to the pillow, or enjoy great stereo sound and hear people sat on my left like I couldn’t before.
I hadn’t heard of psychoacoustics before now, but I’m very familiar with psychogeography, putting up with folk driving the wrong/long way to get places, because they know it to be quickest!

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So just to say I am changing my system, replacing the Quad 34 with Nac102, Hicap and Nspsc.
Interconnects arrive next week.
:grinning:

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I too have tinnitus. On bad days, I can even hear the ringing even while driving with all the road noise. Aside from the constant ringing, both my ears have started to loose it’s hearing capability on certain frequencies. Worse, both ears have different levels of loss on different frequencies. It’s basically not balanced anymore.

Being a serious audiophile for close to 4 decades, this was dreadful. Gone were the “black backgrounds”, pinpoint imaging, and near perfect timbre I always appreciated in the past (yes, I was on that camp before). I went on a stage of depression for the next 3 years…… sold all my gear, and only listened to music in while in the car. I was even already thinking of selling my record collection.

My “recovery” started when I got a Muso. Yeah, it’s not real stereo, but I said to myself, I still like to listen to music to keep me sane. A year or so later, I said to myself; “Hey, snap out of it, damn it!”. I then decided to build a decent stereo system again. But what? Where will I start???

Back in the 90s I had a Nait 3. I remember the sound. It was different from what I had throughout my audiophile life. Probably not the best (for me at that time), but different. And yes, this is why now I have my humble ND5XS2 + XS3 + NAC A5. No matter how bad my tinnitus gets, or my hearing sensitivity getting worse, I can really appreciate the dynamics and liveliness of my Naim system.

F@&k you, tinnitus! You don’t own me.:slightly_smiling_face:

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BBC news reports KT Tunstall has cancelled tour due to hearing problems, keep the volume down people.

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I too have hearing loss. It’s come from loud live music, riding motorcycles without hearing protection, power tools, and the final straw Chemotherapy. It’s worse in the left ear. I have hearing aids to help but strangely enough my system sounds better sans hearing aides.

WEAR HEARING PROTECTION!

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I can pin point exactlywhen my tinnitus started, a 12 mile commute to work with no ear protection on Triumph Trophey 1200. Got to work high pitched ringing initially I though is was something electronic maybe printer, except no one else could hear it, that was about 25 years ago.
It is possible to adapt to it. Brighton RSCH audiology/ent/RNID ran a two day course of treatment, which helped greatly, expect that’s not an option these days.

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