how is your hearing?

I've always thought I had really excellent hearing. I believed that I could hear very quiet sounds as well as sounds at extreme frequencies. I suppose this is kind of a fantasy, something I want to be true and want to believe in--I used to believe that dogs could sense my kind intentions or could perceive a friendly aura around me and would place their trust in me before any other strangers, unfortunately this turned out not to be the case--but I did take an unofficial hearing test in a college biology class over a decade ago and I scored much higher than anyone else in my group when it came to perceiving sounds of different pitches and very low volumes. I could have faked this but I didn't.

I've always tried my best to avoid exposure to loud sounds, especially for long periods of time. I have always played music on headphones at a modest volume. The television volume in our home is consistently really low, especially compared to every other house I've ever been in where someone has been watching TV. I think I've done a good job of taking care of my ears? I probably shouldn't be Q-tips the way that I do but I'm really not the problem user that they're worried about, I definitely don't jam it all the way in. I did go for a checkup two years ago and my doctor mentioned that he saw some wax buildup in one of my ears that he was going to take care of but then before I knew it the appointment was over and nothing was done. Perhaps I should investigate a safe solution for addressing that at home?

I've always listed to music in the car with the car stereo (standard car audio package, no additional woofers or amps installed in the trunk, etc.) set to 15 out of a possible 40. Lately I've found that 15 doesn't quite do it for me anymore, I need to turn it up to 16, 17... even 20 sometimes! I only do that when I'm driving alone.

Same goes for headphones attached to my phone. I always set it to a volume like this:



But now I find that I need to drag that slider up just a little bit higher. I'm trying to avoid that but something feels off about the music I'm listening to and I feel like everything just needs that extra little bump for it to resonate with me like it used to.

Is this the beginning of the end for me? Have you had experiences like this or is your hearing still acute and undiminished?

Did you make this thread after reading my post about the Boris/Merzbow? Just curious because I mentioned my hearing in that post. This isn’t some medical test that I’ve done where I can tell you definitively, yea, my hearing is worse now. However, like I mentioned in that post, stuff that used to hurt my ears doesn’t have that effect anymore. It could be my hearing doesn’t allow for those higher, more punishing frequencies anymore or it could be I’ve gotten used to punishing stuff so it doesn’t feel as punishing anymore. Hasn’t bothered me that much just something I’ve noted the last couple years

BGwaves wrote:Did you make this thread after reading my post about the Boris/Merzbow? Just curious because I mentioned my hearing in that post.

I actually did but I've been meaning to make this thread for a little while now.

BGwaves wrote:Did you make this thread after reading my post about the Boris/Merzbow?

I kinda assumed you made that comment because of this thread.

I think my hearing's OK. At least not fucked in a worrisome way just yet anyway.

eh? what's that?

I score pretty well on the hearing tests I’m forced to take every year, but I’m worried that this is only because I’m trying.

That sound you get in your headphones when one of the phones is broken?? That is frequently my left ear. I need to turn the volume down when I start hearing bad noize. The staticky, fizzy, this ain’t going well noise - for lack of a better term.

The fact that “trying to hear” has thus far negated this situation in my anual physical exams is… bad?