Custom Musician’s Earplugs, Car Stereo, and Headphones — Any of This Too Risky?

I’ve had my tinnitus for 26 months now, and while I am no longer terrified of it, I have been avoiding listening to music. I miss listening to music as I am a bit of an audiophile. I recently purchased Westone Tru custom earplugs with -16dB, -20dB, and -25dB filters. I wear the plugs with mostly the 16 and 20 filters while driving with the car stereo on. I have upgraded custom stereos with subwoofers in my cars, and set the volume so that the peaks are at around 83 dB C or 75 dB A. I don’t turn up the bass at all, just enough to add depth to the music but definitely does not rattle the windows. The earplugs quiet down the road noise to a hush, allowing me to hear the music more clearly without cranking it up. I THINK I am safe doing what I am doing as long as I wear my earplugs. I am now thinking about starting to use my open backed headphones (Sennheiser HD650), while wearing my musician’s earplugs. Even before tinnitus, my headphone listening volume was set at 60-65 dB C (I coupled the ear muffs with a sound meter while sealed with a cardboard). With my earplugs, the music I hear will be about 50dB.

Can anyone tell me if any of the above is too risky? For background, I believe my tinnitus resulted from multiple acoustic trauma—loud firecracker exploded very near me 30 years ago, and my baby screamed into my ear 26 months ago which started the tinnitus. I miss listening to music and the emotional high I used to get from hearing good music. But I don’t want to make my tinnitus worse as I know I won’t be able to tolerate that. Any advice will be appreciated.

 

Yes, many people can tell you (and many in here will), but I'd only trust someone who has your medical history in mind and a background to make reasonable suggestions. What I did was to talk to doctors about it, and it was a consensus among them of various professions (ent, audiologist, neurotologist) so I knew it was fairly reasonable.

What they told me is that I could still listen to music (it was actually recommended to me, in particular because I am a musician), as long as I kept the volume at reasonable levels. The delivery medium didn't seem to matter (headphones, speakers, in ear monitors, etc...) as long as the volume was in check.

I'm not sure why you wear earplugs while driving: overprotection can lead to hyperacusis, so if it's not necessary you could be making things worse. Again, doctors can help you there. They aren't perfect by any stretch of imagination, but they are still orders of magnitude more reliable (in terms of quality of advice) than random forum users on the internet (who do have good intentions generally, but that is not enough to provide good advice).

Good luck!

 

Thank you for your reassuring advice. I have discussed my condition and options with the ear specialist, audiologist, dentist who specializes in TMJ, and they all agree that I should continue listening to music to maintain the quality of my life. But none of them have tinnitus, so it is easy for them to say “carry on” because they have no idea how difficult it can be. So I thought I’d seek the advice of fellow sufferers. I wear earplugs while driving for a number of reasons:

1. I drive my twins to daycare everyday, and they are in the yelling/singing loudly stage.

2. Lots of rough pavement, as well as bridge expansion joints on my route. Those elevate the interior noise of my car to 85 to 90 dB.

3. In stop and go traffic, I have often been alongside super noisy trucks or busses. And then there are the too many Harley Davidson bikes splitting lanes at all speeds passing me within 3 feet of my door.

4. Emergency vehicle sirens.

5. And finally, the custom plugs lower the road noise to a hush, which allows me to listen to the car stereo at a reasonable volume. Otherwise, I would have to crank up the stereo volume to 90+ dB so I can hear the music above the road noise.

I did have H for about 3 months at the onset of T. Squeaky shopping cart wheels, the high frequency hum of computer equipment, the sound of utensils and plates, and similar sounds were unbearable. Thank goodness the H eventually went away. But thanks for the reminder about over protection. I am mindful about that, so I don’t wear earplugs for short drives around town, or other situations that I am sure won’t expose me to dangerous sound levels.

 

Hi sorry to hear about this, did you ears ringing when this firecrackers went off in you ears.How do you know this was part of your problem ?

 

I remember my ears, including the sides of my head, felt full and numb for a number of days. I don’t remember hearing any ringing, but it was 30 years ago. The firecracker was thrown in my direction, and exploded to my right. As a result, my right ear is not as as good as my left ear. But before T, my docs told me my hearing in both ears were much better than most people’s. This was confirmed by an audiologist. I read somewhere that acoustic trauma is cumulative, so I thought that the firecracker explosion set the stage for tinnitus that started after my baby screeched into my ear in the middle of a tantrum. I measured my baby’s screaming one time and it went up to 100dB, very dangerous especially because it was high frequency screeching.