Denix8

Wow interesting, I thought since WiFi is so high in frequency it couldn't cause problems but I guess we learn something new every day Yeah I'm still a bit suspicious about metal drivers, but can't pinpoint anything on them (yet). That's why I went with speakers with at least soft dome tweeter. Its hard to find speakers that have everything one wants I measured those ELAC speakers that I ordered as a replacement a few days ago with UMIK-1, they have metal midrange and woofer, I appended the file to a few posts back, but I don't know how to read other charts (than SPL) Yeah I would too, maybe mine aren't high end enough haha I would guess that since they have horn and metal tweeter its the detail and high frequencies (paired with wrong amp?). This agrees with some people and disagrees with others True, but today I went on testing with vintage Pioneer SA-610 and it had less negative impact than Yamaha RX-V450. It was still not completely comfortable, but not nearly as horrible. I measured SPL with UMIK-1 and it rarely went over 83dBC. Which leads me to guess its detailness of speakers + detailness of amp that can sum up and play with brain? Those crispy sharp highs? Hmm

Personally that's because I read a lot of topics that they are bright and fatiguing, that metal tweeters can be pretty sharp and that horns can be shouty and I was almost certain it was that, looks like I was wrong as the Elacs have a soft dome tweeter... Not sure if this is a joke, but I've been having a WiFi router a lot longer than I had problems with ears, also the problems are closely related to speaker use. Its not just high frequency tone (cca 15kHz), 2 days ago i got a bit nauseous a few hours later, the ears take a bit of time to get back to normal I'm loaning a Pioneer vintage amp from a friend in a few days to test again, at least that way I will rule out class D amps I would really like to enjoy my speakers, I like the sound and some weird problem is preventing me from doing so

I know what you mean but I'm otherwise okay, I only have problems when using these specific speakers even at normal volume (I can raise up volume on other speakers and not have these problems). I will go to hearing check but I am also considering other factors. I used UMIK-1 to measure speakers that cause me trouble vs those which don't. If anyone here knows how to use REW to check for problems he/she is very welcome, I attached file to this post (only file to problematic speaker due to size limits) Nov 27_Elacs_moved_forward_a_bit.mdat

Since I see some people asking as to what I did afterwards and to clarify things here is an update: I just got a pair of Elac Uni-Fi 2.0 UB52 today (waited for Black Friday) to see if I have similar problems with those. Unfortunately after very short listening session my tinnitus came right back at full intensity together with unpleasant feeling in the ears (the speakers are excellent otherwise). Now I am not claiming that any of these speakers caused me the problems that I have, only that they bring them out. When I stopped using those speakers (experimented in the last half a year) I did not have this problem (used Yamaha yamaha nx-p130 and Logitech Z5500 in the meantime). When I use 80€ AKG headphones I don't get this problem either. The tweeter in ELACs is totally different than the one in Klipsch so it cant be that. I can only see two external factors that can be the cause: 1. untreated room reflections or 2. (wild guess) metallic cones on woofers - the only thing these two speakers have in common. Maybe the cheaper speakers that dont have good tweeter dont cause the problematic reflections and thus no tinnitus worsening. Heck wish if I knew what was causing this, I already spent 1000€ on speakers that I cant enjoy I also must admit that sudden noises (ie horn on the road etc) make me very nervous, maybe I have hyperacusis...

Thank you very much for your suggestions! I'm thinking if maybe for my room I should have bought RP150M instead of 160, since its only 5m x 3.5m (although I'm still not sure if bigger speakers make everything seem more powerful even if you already have a sub). Deciding whether to buy another set of 160s for satellites or are 150s good enough. In any case, when I have TV in place on the wall I will try your suggestion by putting one of the 160s under the TV and check if the sound is coming from too low or not At one point I came to an idea to put one 160 under TV and one above and if they are both connected as center speaker maybe there will be a phantom center in the middle, but then I'll probably need bi-amp for center. Putting another 160 to the side is a no-no, right? Thanks again!

Hello! I know this topic has been discussed many times and that timbre-matched (identical) speakers are the best combo (although some say its more important that its good for voice even if it isnt timbre-matched), but I have a few additional questions. I am trying to figure out the best thing to add to my RP160M-s. So I was searching through various topics on the internet and came to the conclusion, that if speakers can be put at same height, best thing for centre is another identical bookshelf. But, I cannot put them all at same height since I use 55'' TV, not a projector. I would have to put the center speaker above or below the TV. That is not a big problem since sound quality comes first, even at the expense of a little bit of aesthetics. My concern is that since the speakers I have are quite big, should the speaker be placed below TV, the woofer would be far away from centre of TV and it would sound unnatural due to voices coming from far below. Also similarly, if I put it above TV, tweeter would be (possibly?) too high and same effect (maybe not with voices but other sounds). Does anybody here have any experience with this? Is my fear warranted? I really wanted to buy a dedicated center speaker but then I read about the problem of horizontal woofers (MTM), someone posted that RP250C becomes unclear if you go more than 10 degrees of center and that RP450C would also have even more problems due to 4 woofers placed horizontally. Thanks for any advice!

Actually you might be onto something, 2 years ago about the similar time that I started having problems I also switched to Yamaha receiver(before this I rarely used it, it was in the living room). Not sure if it really is Yamaha's fault but timing matches. Maybe these better speakers can better express problems in signal Thanks! Today when I woke up it was almost as loud as narrator on the radio, damn, it horrible. But I definitely agree that mind plays a big role in it (especially stress) Yep thats what Im trying now, unfortunately it can take a week or two to calm down usually, its not an instant process. As soon as this crisis with corona is over if it doesnt get better Ill get an appointment Im 29. Wow up to 22kHz? Thats impressive! On my current temporary replacement speakers I can hear up to 17 kHz, but its very annoying to listen to this frequency. Maybe speakers cant reproduce higher than that and I can hear higher, not sure. But tinnitus came suddenly, and it really correlated with using NC for first time, so I though that it "broke my brain". Or maybe I had it but never noticed it before that, if thats even possible And you are right, it is a medical condition, it just seemed that brain can get confused and "ramp up the volume" if some trigger signals come in (just an observation) Yep, thats what Im trying to find out - what exactly is causing it so that I can find a solution for it, either by avoiding it or maybe if its specific fequency I can use a DSP and filter it out. I dont smoke and drink alcohol in very very modest quantities, but if that could possibly be a problem Im prepared to ditch it alltogether. But these habits I didnt change recently when it got worse Actually no, I havent ruled it out! I did have a few episodes of horrible vertigo but that was years ago and then it stopped (no ringing though). I get horrible feeling when I drive with someone in a car, on a country road, really horrible feeling. You got me thinking I really have to see a specialist about all of this I will definitely try that, thanks! And yes I definitely have some sort of sensitivity, sudden louder high frequency sounds really annoy me. I intend to buy an UMIK-1 to see how pronounced are high frequencies, if they stand out in any way. I will have to do it in software though because there are only "bass" and "treble" settings on the receiver, too broad settings probably

Hmm you're right, actually now that you mention it I am a bit on the sensitive side to sudden loud noises in the high range. If I think back, especially metal hitting metal and producing loud "ka-ching" sound made me really nervous and was very unpleasant. Thank you for pointing out that there could be distortions in the actual recording, I didnt think of that. Mostly I listened to YouTube music as I didnt have time yet to get myself some quality recordings. I will try to find some high quality recordings and play them from a bit higher quality DAC (I have FiiO K10 that has line level output) and see if that also bothers me, like you suggest. Actually there shouldnt be any precursor for tinnitus, nobody in my family was ever complaining about it, my grandma actually has very good hearing and shes 78, and I didnt really use headphones much in the younger years or go to many concerts or clubs. I did join the bellringers group but I always used ear protection, only a few times did the bells catch me without ear protection but I quickly put the earplugs on. So no apparent reason for tinnitus When I was at doctor for tinnitus the first time I got some pills called Betaserc (from Mylan) for a short time. I hope my tinnitus never gets so bad that I will have to actually take pills to counter it, but thanks for mentioning them, I will keep in mind I will see a more specialized doctor, but atm its a bit harder where I live due to this corona crisis. Its interesting that audiologist has made such ridiculous claims

Thanks for suggestion! I did not mean to ask for analysis about developing medical condition, at least not in medical sense. I have already been to a primary care provider and she said tinnitus is still largely unexplored and can appear for variety of reasons, even if ears are not damaged, and the only thing I can do is wait and hope it gets better (and not use noise cancelling since that was first thing that triggered it for me). That does sound like more like a general advice yes, maybe I should get in contact with a professional if it gets worse What I was asking is if there is a possibility that these better speakers with a quality tweeter, which are known to also be on the bright side, could trigger tinnitus because brain was not used to hear music at such high frequencies and with such sharpness. I never had any speakers that would be considered high quality by any means, these are my first. I thought maybe could be people here (Im just guessing) that have found out that they have sensitivity to pronounced high frequencies (I dont even know if thats a thing) I agree, I was already looking at UMIK-1, I will buy an SPL meter together with it I guess, never thought that speakers could actually not sound loud but be loud (these are my first high quality speakers). I am not in any way implying that its the speakers fault (please dont understand me wrong), the problem is in me in any case, but I just thought that if I happen to be oversensitive to some high frequencies (which these speakers can reproduce because they are high quality and a horn) it could be a bad combo. On the other hand its probably quite possible that a short burst of volume has broken my brain (and its an SPL thing, like you said) The speakers indeed are very crisp and clear, that's why I really don't want to stop using them. I'm just exploring all possibilities for this problem and wanted to ask here, where people more into HiFi audio are hanging out (and could have potentially encountered this problem). I will definitely buy an SPL meter, thanks for advice!

Hi! Two weeks ago I bought a pair of Klipsch RP-160M speakers. The sound was friggin' amazing, but since I have little room atm, I use them as my computer speakers with Yamaha RX-V450 (that means they are 0.8 - 0.9 m from my head with tweeters pointing towards me at ear level and speakers are right at the wall but angled so port is not blocked). Since I work entire day on this computer, it was logical choice to get good quality music at the same time. I dont listen to loud levels, its more like for background, only a few times for a short time did I raise the volume. I did, however, get a bit unsettling feeling in the ears (not yet tinnitus, just unsettling, unpleasant) I started having problem with tinnitus after buying BOSE QC35II headphones two years ago and using them for two days with NC. It never went back to zero but it was totally tolerable. Now Im experiencing worsening, yesterday in the evening it was very loud even with all the sounds surrounding me. Mind you I am barely ever on loud concerts (cant tolerate loud music) and dont work (never did) in noisy environments. I am afraid that I gave so much money only to have speakers I cant listen to 😕 I switched back to Yamaha NX-E130 and the sound quality difference is enormous, but I dont get that unpleasant feeling in the ears, although its too early to tell if tinnitus will widthdraw (as it needs some time to settle). Could it be the much better frequency response and horn tweeter that are causing this? I wanted to eventually add center speaker and maybe surrounds all from Klipsch to make home theater from them but now Im afraid to put more money in these type of speakers if they can cause problems for me. Could it be the listening distance? Please share your thoughts on this Regards, Dennis