Hearing loss buy Naim!

Hearing loss buy Naim!


As you guys from the GH forum know, I have been having hearing problems in my left ear. After the operation I still have tinnitus (not as much). I went back to the hospital today for a hearing test then to see the consultant. I mentioned to the consultant that I listen to music, and then went on to tell him what system I have. He said that he is into hifi and has a Wadia, Chord, Dali system. He then said that in the past, when patients who are into hifi have hearing loss, they are best having a Naim system as Naim do not have sibilance problems and concentrate on slightly lower notes in the treble band, giving a different sound which people with slight hearing loss seem to like. I didn't disagree with him, but I find this hard to understand. So if I believe him I now will like the sound of Naim, which in the past I thought was to forward. Does this mean all you Naim lovers have hearing loss???

GAZZ

 

Whaaaaaaaaat??


dont give up the day job mr consultant! hehehe

 

Gazz,

Maybe he's right, my hearing is pretty rubbish above 2khz.

 

:ffrc: :ffrc: :ffrc: :ffrc: :ffrc: :ffrc: :

 

have you posted this on the Naim forum?

 

i think your consultant has grabbed hold of a bit of technical info about naim amps and run with it... to the other end of the field and scored an own goal...
naim pre amps limit their ultrasonic output to about 24khz (this is the older gear i'm talking about) for a variety of reasons...
1) origionaly (and still in a lot of cases) vinyl was the primary source and vinyl can have some ultrasonic noise characteristics.
2) you can;t hear this highly so why waste power amplifying it and possibly degrade audibel sounds?
3) speakers (of the time) couldn;t reproduce frequencies this high so why amplify them?

so yes your consultant is right but only if you are a half deaf bat with a taste for violins...

that said i'm sure that all the clubbing i did in my yoof has totally shagged my hearing and that's why i like naim gear
cheers


julian

 

Not only speakers...
We've been shopping for some new mics. Guess what.. there is F*** all above 20k - looking at mic response curves charts is a truely instructive experience.
Consultants, dontcha just love em

How many consultants does it take take to change a lightbulb?
Six to make the powerpoint presentation, 12 for the change management study, and approximately 25 to sit in at meetings checking their email and drinking coffee.
oh, and 25 billion quid, now, please.

 

Some things that may endanger your hearing:

Plaing high harmonic content instruments (the piccolo, for instance, but also the bassoon, trumpet, the flute and even violins, piano anf organ if played very loud).

Driving in your car with an open window (I always close it and turn the air conditioner on)

Listening at home to a very distorted sound (most amplifiers) at high level.

Plain age. Over 40 your listening begins to loose precision.

Going to discos.

Going to rock concerts. I know at least of three cases where permanent deafness resulted from exposition to a loud rock band.

Using headphones - they are sure to impair your listening.

Tinitus is one of the most fearsome consequences. The other is plain deafness: you will want to crank up the volume a little more as time goes on.

 

Thanks, RdS, you've just explained my Mana problem!

 

Tones, I believe your Mana "problem" is a less severe case than some .....

Only joking, couldn't resist.

Cheers

 

na all ya need mate is some sm58's
i seem to recall reading that sennheiser had realeased/were about to release a new range of studio mics mainly for dvd-a recording,bet they aint cheap though

 

I'm only telling you what the consultant told me. No i haven't posted this on the Naim site.

 

I suggest valves....they don't get much above about 40 watts for mortals, and due to internal capacitances and transformers, roll off the treble...

...that sounds like a load of bull what the consultant says though...he should know its caused by excess spl's...

as to frequencies, I trained as a teacher and we did an experiment with a signal generator...me with my positronic brain could he upto 17khz...barely...I think most people the older ones (late 30s and 40s) had trouble after about 12khz...seriously!!!

 

I couldnt even hear 17 KHz when I was 16. With all my recent headphone listening, god knows what its down to now

 

My god she ain't half pretty!

 

Robbo said:

Funny you should say that, she's the same bird everyone was callin minging the last time











YUMMY!!

 

Looks a bit like Denise van Outen after a heavy night to me

A someone the wrong side of 40, last time I tried (about a year ago) either my hearing or the PC's soundcard gave up at 16.1kHz.

Actually your consultant may have shot himself in the foot slightly, as the one downside of the Digimaster filter on the Wadia is that it does roll off the treble slightly - by about 1dB at 16kHz and 3dB at 18kHz. Although maybe that Chord compensates?

 

No I don't think I have. Because:

1) There is huge variability between persons. When I was very young I could hear up to 24 KHz; the girl I dated with at the time went up to a bare 12KHz. Even now - and I'm past forty, I still hear up to about 18KHz.

2) People with a trained ear manage, even if their higher frequency hearing is attenuated, to get very subtle nuances. Take very old musicians, such as Günther Wand or Claudio Arrau: the sound they took from the orchestra and the piano was quite good. As a matter of fact, many musicians (I mean classical ones) are a little deaf; they still have higher resolution than most normal hearing people (see footnote *)

3) Finally, this is controversial: I never believed in the sound effect of a stand. As a matter of fact, I don't believe anything I read about hifi. What is a good sound? There was a thread here about the comparison between true acoustic sound and electronically reproduced sound. Being such a critic issue, I would have expected that most people would be interested. It got very few answers. People don't care for sound, they just care for flashy gear. :clint:

4) If you like Bach, you can trust your ears

--------------------------

* By the way, normal hearing is being constantly redefined. Because of discos, rock concerts and headphones, a normal person of today would have been quite deaf 10 to 20 years ago. I got this information from a researcher in audition. But I can sense it in my lectures: I have to speak louder than I used to.

 

And thats a bad thing???

 

With a high frequency hearing loss you need to make up the loss rather than excentuate it with an amp thats low on the top end [I do not subscribe to the idea that Naims are top light].

She looks pretty damn good to me preffer the more normal pic rather than the poses.

Have you tried Hoopi ear candles, have heard a number of people claim great relief from titinus and other ear complaints after being treated by this method.