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Hearing protection

Author: CMW
Date: 2022-02-19 04:23

I am experiencing permanent ringing in my ears now which comes from about 40 years of playing in large ensembles. I'm trying out lots of different forms of hearing protection, but none of them are very good for oboe playing. I tried the Entymotic, Earos and Earasers. They were all very good at reducing the decibel levels, but they all distorted the sound of my own instrument so much that I wanted to give up on them.

When I wore the plugs, I heard my own oboe much louder in proportion to the rest of the ensemble, but I kind of expected that. What I didn't expect was how my perception of the timbre of my instrument would be distorted - all I heard was the raspy reedy sound, and not the full rich sound that was actually being generated by my horn. It was really unnerving, and made it super difficult to "blend" my sound during the quiet parts.

I'm thinking about visiting an audiologist, but it's going to be tough to describe exactly what my needs are, since the doctor will likely not be a musician. I don't want to spend a ton of money on custom ear plugs that are "specially designed for musicians" (i.e. drummers and guitar players).

Have any oboists on this board had any luck with hearing protection that does NOT alter the perceived sound of your own instrument?

Thanks,

Christine

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