Originally Posted by
Robert
Hey Ascend fans,
Just had a question for the group and wanted to get further opinions on speakers for people with tinnitus.
My dad went through cancer treatments a few years ago and is doing really well. So far so good on keeping it at bay! I spent some time this past weekend updating the system by making a basic music streaming system for my parents.
I also gave them my older Bluesound Node 2 for my dad to stream his favorite songs. Overall, he knows enough to work his iPad and stream away. It's a small 10'x10'x9' (WxLxH) room. He currently uses an Onkyo TX-8020 in direct mode with two PSB Alpha B1 speakers.
Over the last few years he has complained about the higher end PSBs and the titanium tweeters and how they aggravate his ears. We've worked with speaker placement and basic EQ settings (he just likes a receiver with a bass & treble control only, but now prefers the direct no EQ mode), but it still bothers him. Room treatment options are probably off the table. He finds the aluminum tweeters on the Alphas are a bit better, but he initially placed them up in the corners near the ceiling. He recently moved furniture and also moved them to speaker stands at ear level. The new placement tends to bother him much more.
I'm tending to focus more on the RAAL ribbons or perhaps a lower cost soft dome tweeter. Have either been easier on your ears? He will be visiting my house next week and I may have him demo the RAAL towers to see if it bothers him. Those are well outside his budget, so obviously either the Sierra 1s, Lunas, or Sierra 2 EXs would be the other options. Thank you!