Home Theater Setup Flaring Up My Tinnitus: What Settings Should I Change?

[R26NA]

I'll preface this by saying that I have been to many live music concerts, attended plenty of loud cinema screenings, used in-ear Samsung Buds, and gone to car shows and race events with loud exhausts—never once have I had any issues with burning ears or any kind of tinnitus flare-up.

But then I watch just five minutes of a film at home with the volume slightly above normal, and suddenly the tinnitus is ringing loudly, and my ears feel like they're burning.

How is this even possible?

I'm sure there are some settings I need to adjust, like dynamic EQ or loudness management… but at the same time, I do not want to sacrifice audio quality, especially with Atmos.

My setup:

• TV: LG 65 C3 OLED
• AV Receiver: Denon X2800H

Speakers:

• 2 × Jamo 809 Tower
• 1 × C81 Center
• 2 × 801 Bookshelf
• 2 × Eltax Atmos Upfiring

 

[Jupiterman]

A tinnitus sufferer buying a sound system like that is simply INSANE.

It is as if you are asking for your condition to get worse.

Heed the warning and return it to the store before you end up deeply regretting it.

 

[henkess]

Underpowered amplifiers can make speakers sound more fatiguing. Room treatments to reduce reflections, especially in the 6 to 15 kHz range, should help solve the problem. I treated my own setup, and it made a noticeable difference—it was much easier on my ears.

 

[Strife_84]

Turn down the volume.

 

[kingsfan]

Denon receivers usually come with Audyssey. I would suggest setting Audyssey's dynamic range compression to "night" mode. This helps keep the volume more consistent, which might reduce the chance of a flare-up.

Do you normally wear earplugs at concerts, cinemas, and racetracks? And are you not using them while watching movies at home? That could explain the difference. The earplugs might be attenuating certain frequencies during those events—frequencies that could be causing your spike when unprotected at home.

Your speakers all appear to use soft dome tweeters, which I believe are the smoothest type. If they were made of titanium, aluminum, or ribbon, I would be more inclined to suspect them as the cause.

A tinnitus sufferer buying a sound system like that is simply INSANE.

It is as if you are asking for your condition to get worse.

Heed the warning and return it to the store before you end up deeply regretting it.

I would say that using a sound system at a safe volume is probably the best way to watch TV with tinnitus. Higher quality speakers tend to produce a more balanced and fuller sound compared to cheap, small, tinny speakers—especially those built into televisions. This makes them less likely to aggravate the ears.