Greetings fellow TA's. I'm hoping someone out there may be able to shed some light on an unusual hearing issue that I've just started having. Last night I was fiddling with a multifx plugin when a particular preset with high resonance, feedback, and wacky modulation resulted in some jarring noises for about 3 seconds before I had the wherewithal to hit the kill switch. Aside from the nasty surprise, I appeared to be none the worse for wear and went to bed.

This morning I woke up to find that my hearing now has an extreme sensitivity to bass sounds. It is as if there is a subharmonic generator or a big low frequency EQ boost on any sounds in the bass register I hear. It is not a constant sound, in that if there is no bass present in the environment, I do not notice a difference. High frequencies appear to be unaffected as well. However, any bass sounds have a disturbing boost that is accompanied by the sensation of an unnatural pressure in my ears. My own voice is particularly disturbing since the lows are conducted through my head directly to my ears. The sound of the furnace running sounds like a stampede, and the faucet running in the bathtub sounds like a waterfall. I mean this in terms of tone moreso than sheer volume, as it's not painful, but completely unnatural and distracting with regard to bass content.

I'm familiar with tinnitus and have had the occasional ringing in the ears the morning after a loud night out, but this is nothing like that. It lacks the constancy of tinnitus and only appears to be triggered by bass frequencies. If I could sit in a room with total silence I would not notice anything was awry. Has anyone else had an experience like this or know what the medical explanation would be? I'm hoping things will go back to normal in a day or two, but I'd like to be informed in case it does not.

I'm not sure if this is relevant, but yesterday there were a few times during the day (before this incident occurred) where, for a split second, my equilibrium felt a bit off. It was so brief and mild that I hadn't given it much regard, but now I'm wondering if that was related to what I'm experiencing now. Any input from those with similar experiences would be appreciated.

First off, good see you here Max! Been a long time and I remember you being one of the really old school regs.

Back OT, Palm might well be right and it may just be a bit of a cold but you could have also bruised your drum and/or sensitized you cochlea. We used to test kit all day long when I was a service engineer and with all that hot plugging it was bound that at least a couple of times a week someone (myself included) would plug the wrong thing in somewhere, and you get either a massive sub thump from the speakers or a shrill feedback tone that is usually reserved only for interrogation methods on terrorists.

When you get a massive high or low frequency tone at high spl's, the result can be to temporarilly lose the top end of your hearing (it happened to me under the above circumstances) at least 3 times, but I've also had it with specific low frequencies and that does mess with your lower register.

I know this is going to sound weird, but run a bath, and submerged your head so your ears are completely under water. Try to make sure there's nothing in the house that makes noise through vibration like a washing machine or hoover going while you do this. Do it several times. I found that depriving yourself of ambient noise for periods really helps reset your hearing and the warm water will also help with any inflammation if you did bruise any part of your hearing mechanism.

Thanks for the advice everyone. I really doubt that this is a cold symptom, as I have no other cold-like symptoms, and I've never experienced anything remotely like this during a cold or any other circumstances for that matter. I may give the submergence thing a shot if I don't notice any improvement in the next day or two. As of this evening, things feel pretty much like they did this morning.

I had something like that once some years back...everything sounded a little bit dulled except certain frequencies and it felt like the inside of my ears were vibrating whenever I or anyone else spoke. I chalked it up to my ears being waterlogged, though I'm not sure that was the case. Either way, it worked itself out eventually. If you aren't feeling any pain, wait for it 1-2 weeks, it may clear itself out. Also try cleaning out your ears with a q-tip just in case you may have blockage.

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I posted about a similar issue recently. For me it is mid highs that make my right ear ring.

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Just to update the situation, it has been almost 4 days since the incident and things feel like they're pretty close to normal again. The first day was rough, but it was a little better day #2 and much better day #3. I'm optimistic there was no permanent damage, even if it was kinda freaky for a while there. Thanks to all who chimed in.