Have you ever "heard" quiet?

[gnappi]

When I worked in the tech field I regularly worked in an anechoic chamber to do FCC radiated emissions studies. This article is the first I ever read about the experience and if you never "heard" nothing, zero, nada this article explains it.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/...-bell-labs-reveals-the-hidden-sounds-of-your/

 

[eveled]

It must be a crazy experience. I bet my tinnitus would be deafening

 

[Jeepnik]

Wouldn't matter. In fact, the ringing in my ears would deafen me.

 

[txramfan]

My ears have been ringing since 1977.

I have experienced total darkness at Carlsbad Cavern.

 

[bergmen]

Been in several anechoic chambers for a variety of technical test reasons. Some large, others smaller. It is a bit eerie.

Dan

 

[Watertender]

It must be a crazy experience. I bet my tinnitus would be deafening

Mine too. It's whistling and clicking now

 

[gnappi]

Been in several anechoic chambers for a variety of technical test reasons. Some large, others smaller. It is a bit eerie.

Dan

My first time in one I likened it to being six feet under, the eerie feeling is spot on.

 

[redhawker]

I've had a few times in my life where I've heard quiet. They've been either far out in the desert or high in the Sierra Nevada mountains. You sit quietly, and you can hear your heartbeat.

 

[s4s4u]

Seems like a lot of us have tinnitus. Mine started over 4 decades ago, haven't had a moment of silence since.

 

[gnappi]

Seems like a lot of us have tinnitus. Mine started over 4 decades ago, haven't had a moment of silence since.

Mine began very young shooting my dad's 30-06 without hearing protection. An audiologist tested me and he said the frequency of my ringing aligned with gunfire and asked if I were a shooter.

 

[Cofaler]

Not since tinnitus. When I was servicing elevators, machine rooms were very loud places. When all of the sudden everything stops and it's dead quiet, THAT silence is deafening. I bet Watertender can relate, and probably many others

 

[s4s4u]

Mine began very young shooting my dad's 30-06 without hearing protection. An audiologist tested me and he said the frequency of my ringing aligned with gunfire and asked if I were a shooter.

I remember the exact moment as well. We were at a Nazareth concert, only a few rows back from the PA stack. Dan belted out the chorus to Beggar's Day and I felt it, literally. We used to brag about how long our ears rang after a heavy metal show. Too proud to wear earplugs. My ears never stopped ringing after that night.

 

[TestEngineer]

I've experienced silence and something weirder. My boss sent me and a coworker to a "science & technology expo". It was a quite large area with more than 1000 people milling about talking and so on. The ambient noise level was very significant.

At opposite ends (about 200 yards apart) of the expo were 2 elevated platforms with parabolic dishes aimed at each other. Each dish was about 12 feet tall at the opening, and the focal point was marked on the floor of the platform.

I climbed the ladder of one and headed to the focal point to wait for my coworker to get into the other one. The ambient noise dropped quickly as I entered the dish and it was dead silent while I stood on the focal point. That was weird enough. But...

When my coworker reached the same point in the other dish, we could each whisper very quietly to the other and hear what was said like they were right at your ear. That was the coolest thing we saw that day.

 

[Watertender]

Not since tinnitus. When I was servicing elevators, machine rooms were very loud places. When all of the sudden everything stops and it's dead quiet, THAT silence is deafening. I bet Watertender can relate, and probably many others

A machine room is a symphony of sound. A Powerhouse on cold iron watch makes noises all the time. As the machinery cools it creaks and ticks and pops. The dead silence of a down Powerhouse is spooky! Startup is another chorus of sounds. Hopefully they make beautiful music because one sour note will shut you down again.

 

[Watertender]

When my coworker reached the same point in the other dish, we could each whisper very quietly to the other and hear what was said like they were right at your ear. That was the coolest thing we saw that day.

I forget which politician it was but I believe it was in the Congress hall. He would sit in one particular spot and could hear a whisper from anywhere in the room.
When I was a kid under certain atmospheric conditions we could hear people on the next road over talking just as clearly as if they were sitting next to us. I measured the distance and they were 3/4 of a mile away. They had a patio with an arched sheet metal cover that acted like a speaker. I never let on that I could hear them and learned some pretty juicy things!

 

[protoolman]

Every time I'm alone in nature, I can't believe all the different noises. I can always hear wind, trees creaking, rustling of bugs or rodents in the forest floor, woodpecker tapping 100 yards away etc. No sound would be weird but like others I've got tinnitus and high frequency hearing loss so my experience is different.

 

[Danjet500]

I too, suffer from tinnitus. I worked at stone quarry for about five years when I was 20. My job there was "kiln shooter". There were times I shot up to four thousand 8 gauge shells, each with a 3 ounce slug of lead. The hearing protection provided was mediocre at best. Been ringing for 50 years.

A whispering gallery is an interesting and fun experience. There is one such place at the Union Station in Cincinnati.


From Wikipedia;
The rotunda features a seemingly unlikely whispering gallery. The east wall's arch around its windows features decorated flues, elements typical in Art Deco design. The flues act as sound channels, allowing people 30 meters apart at the base of each arch, by symmetrical drinking fountains, to hold a private conversation with ease.

 

[s4s4u]

I've experienced silence and something weirder. My boss sent me and a coworker to a "science & technology expo". It was a quite large area with more than 1000 people milling about talking and so on. The ambient noise level was very significant.

At opposite ends (about 200 yards apart) of the expo were 2 elevated platforms with parabolic dishes aimed at each other. Each dish was about 12 feet tall at the opening, and the focal point was marked on the floor of the platform.

I climbed the ladder of one and headed to the focal point to wait for my coworker to get into the other one. The ambient noise dropped quickly as I entered the dish and it was dead silent while I stood on the focal point. That was weird enough. But...

When my coworker reached the same point in the other dish, we could each whisper very quietly to the other and hear what was said like they were right at your ear. That was the coolest thing we saw that day.

There is a similar display at the Museum of Man and Nature in Winnepeg, MB, Canada

There are all kinds of noises going on in that area, but when you get behind those cones it quiets down and you can literally hear a whisper from the other end of the room. Super cool. If anyone of y'all gets up that way that place is a must visit. That, and Ichiban

 

[wproct]

My tinnitus sounds like locusts all the time. When I am outside in the summer evening I can't tell if locusts are singing or not, because they always are for me. I've told before, I was a farm kid and remember when we would grind feed with a hammer mill I couldn't hear for an hour after we finished. I spent countless hours plowing with the exhaust of the tractor virtually in my face. I haven't gone to hearing aids yet because everyone I know that has them are always fighting them to get them working right.

 

[Dan in MI]

There was an anechoic chamber at work. I checked it out a couple times. All I can add is don’t go in one if your friends like to play jokes.

I was in there getting used to the dead silence when Mike turned off the lights too. THAT was freaky.

 

[Wyandot Jim]

I also have tinnitus from working the SAC flight line in the USAF. At the time 1960-62 we did not have ear protection and the B-47s would taxi by you the 6, SCREAMING J-47 engines would hurt your ears. Doing a lot of shooting without ear protection probably didn't help.
My question to you guys with tinnitus. I not only have the ringing all the time but at times I hear sounds like a sympathy playing and voices. The Ear Doctor told me this can happen and all sorts of sounds can take place

 

[s4s4u]

My question to you guys with tinnitus. I not only have the ringing all the time but at times I hear sounds like a sympathy playing and voices. The Ear Doctor told me this can happen and all sorts of sounds can take place

I also hear a clicking sound once in a while. It is not always the same noise.

 

[protoolman]

Sometimes I think I hear my wife griping incessantly but I figure it's just the tinnitus so I ignore it!

 

[WendyZXZ]

I would just listen to the voices in my head, never heard quiet since then...

 

[bedfordboy]

Went in one of those chambers at the MACK truck museum this summer and yes it was strange to say the least. Also, as mentioned above when the paper mill shuts down it’s eerily quiet but no where more so than in the powerhouse and it’s not a good quiet. Funny thing for me is even with severe tinnitus when I’m in the woods I can still hear a deer walking 100 yards away, but like protoolman says the wife can sound like the tinnitus and ignored.. well almost

 

[Busterswoodshop]

I haven't heard quiet in 45 years.
Come to think of it , that is how long I have been married.

 

[wproct]

I also have tinnitus from working the SAC flight line in the USAF. At the time 1960-62 we did not have ear protection and the B-47s would taxi by you the 6, SCREAMING J-47 engines would hurt your ears. Doing a lot of shooting without ear protection probably didn't help.
My question to you guys with tinnitus. I not only have the ringing all the time but at times I hear sounds like a sympathy playing and voices. The Ear Doctor told me this can happen and all sorts of sounds can take place

No, I have not had that.

 

[Jeepnik]

Not since tinnitus. When I was servicing elevators, machine rooms were very loud places. When all of the sudden everything stops and it's dead quiet, THAT silence is deafening. I bet Watertender can relate, and probably many others

And you pause for a second, then it's a$$holes and elbows.

 

[Mobuck]

Oddly, my tinnitus seems to be on the same frequency as the 'full bale' alert beeper on my baler monitor. I just watch for the blinking light.
Spent yesterday in/on/around tractor and combine so my screeching (it's far beyond crickets) is seriously distracting.

 

[GasGuzzler]

Pretty quiet in here right now at 04:31.

I have some tinnitus from shooting a 10" barrel 5.56X45 from the waste with no protection for my ears. Six rounds about three years ago. I was pretty much deaf for a week. Mostly better now.