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

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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Also a tinnitus sufferer here for more than 25 years and also my Naim system with Neat speakers brought musical joy to me again and enjoy my music every day now. Nice to read that other people also find their happiness in music again.

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My Naim Nac 102, Napsc, HiCap and sundry cables have now arrived, and they’re great! :slight_smile:

Thanks to all who contributed good advice and best wishes to my call for help :smiley:

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I can pin my tinnitus down to being trapped by the bass bins at a Bowie gig in around 1997. It’s mild I am told but always there. It gets worse with prolonged exposure to music and better inexplicably but also if I reduce dairy. I can still occasionally wake up in the night because if it. I wear ear plugs for gigs or skip them completely.

So sad that there are so many fellow sufferers of that insidious Tinnitus. Mine has developed during the past year, much as I’ve been enjoying a Naim-based retirement. Basic set-up is Supernait with CDXS and PMC Twenty 23s, but also use Bluesound (am I allowed to use that name???:?) for streaming as unable to afford a complete Naim system throughout the house. Didn’t like the sound of the Vault so bought 2nd-hand Naim DAC-V1 which improved sound no end. Planar 3 through Stageline for the analogue, although I find the Elys 2 rather lacking in top end so thinking of upgrading to Goldring.
Have tried to ignore the ever-loudening high-pitched whistling in right ear, but this now is intrusive almost all the time - more so if I play energetic sports (is this to do with blood pressure maybe?). Anyhow, it’s good to know that others are still able to find enjoyment in the Naim environment, so I’ll keep persevering and play with the volume up much higher when there’s no one around.

Winding the volume up may exacerbate the Tinnitus :flushed:

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I also have tinnitus. Since this year.
What bothers me the most is hyperacusis.
Not being satisfied with the sound of my equipment made me find the diagnosis. Before I started the change and that’s how I got to Naim.
There is no apparent cause of tinnitus so it appears to be for life. I insist that the annoying thing is not so much the tinnitus, but the hyperacusis that sometimes makes it difficult to listen

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Have you tried Tinnitus relief tracks? I found some on Tidal and they help more than I thought possible.

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