Follow-up on hearing protection

[pmc033 at earthlink.net]

HI, Geoff:
    You may want to bite the bullet and have a REAL evaluation done by a "professional".  You need to keep track of your progress, so regular visits are recommended over time.  
    I have a hearing loss which begins at around 4000 hz, so any further degradation for me is going to be devastating.  I've known about this since I was in 8th grade (I'm 55 now), and I've had regular checkups over the years.  It hasn't changed much, if at all.  Luckily, I can still tune (Thanks, Dr. Sanderson!).  Anyway, I also have a problem hearing in a crowd, and had a very similar experience diagnosing a splinter between two keys.  I just couldn't hear it, but eventually the lady pointed it out.  
    At least, get SOME kind of protection, so it doesn't get worse.  In my case, no hearing aid is going to help much.  I don't know if they would help you, but you could check into it.
    I'm also interested to "hear" about those Zem plugs.  I like mine, though.  I use Hearos Musician Plugs from Musician'sfriend.com.

    FWIW, 
    Paul McCloud
    San Diego


----- Original Message ----- 
From: Geoff Sykes 
To: Pianotech at Ptg. Org
Sent: 06/10/2006 2:40:41 PM 
Subject: Follow-up on hearing protection


Well, my original question about the Zem ear plugs never even got addressed, but the thread turned into something interesting anyway. Now let's take it a step further. 

I had an experience yesterday that suddenly slammed this subject home for me. While prepping a new piano at a store the manager claimed to be hearing a squeak in two adjacent keys. I could hear a slight rubbing, but no squeak. Everyone else in the store, (much younger than me btw), could hear it. Just by chance a fellow tech walked in. This person is a little younger than me but what makes a real difference is that this person is female, and it has been proven that women have much better hearing then men, and keep it longer. She could also hear it fine. She also found the problem and fixed it. Turned out to be a small piece of wood shaving between two of the keys. She blew it out and the squeak was gone. 

So, today I decided to check out just how my ears were behaving. Just what COULD I still hear? Surely there must be an online resource that could provide some clue prior to actually paying to see a doctor. Well my friends, there is! A company called Digital Recordings offers a free "professional" hearing test online. It offers 24 test frequencies from 20 Hz to 20KHz with SPL ranging from 0 - 80 db in 1 db steps. It requires the Java plug in, some VERY good headphones and a VERY quiet room. I could not get it to run in IE but on Firefox it ran perfectly. Check it out.

http://www.digital-recordings.com/hearing-test/www-ht-pro/ht_help_p.html

Needless to say I was extremely disappointed in my results. But, as an excuse, I have old crappy headphones, live next to a busy street and there is street construction going outside. I plan to find some decent headphones and try it again in a quiet place, but I don't expect significantly different results. (- sigh -) Fortunately the top note on a piano, (C8), is only around 4186 Hz. Well below where my HF degradation started to kick in. (Whew!) Still...

Enjoy. I expect reports.

-- Geoff Sykes
-- Assoc. Los Angeles
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