Mine comes and goes. I spoke with my doctor about it and of course he suggested that I stop doing everything and anything that might be any fun (Coffee, liquor, aspirin(?), cigars, loud noise, late nights, etc). A friend of mine who also had this problem described it as his "default" sound.
Can you hear a faint "background" ringing or hissing in your ears when it is dead quiet?

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I have been motorcycling for nearly 30 years. For the first 20 years, I did not wear earplugs. I feel that this is the reason for the tinnitus, I think it is called. I have been very careful with my hearing recently. You don't recover from this problem.

I hear a high-pitched noise, somewhat like that of CRT TVs, especially when I plug my fingers into my ears after being in a loud environment. The noise fades quickly but never completely, and I wouldn't want to live being that noiseless forever! However, I believe there must be a certain level of "noise" in all our sensory organs that is detected only in unnaturally degenerate situations. For example, in a completely black room, with eyes adjusted (i.e. no residual images from bright lighting), there will be a faint and very finely-grained "TV static" image overlaying the entire field of view. That is the background noise of our optical system, and it would be foolish not to expect a similar phenomenon with our auditory system. Now stop reminding all of us that our ears aren't perfect!

I have full-on tinitis in all ears and significant high-frequency hearing loss in my left ear (per medical testing) due to my 41 year industrial management career. But, I still find I detect nuance in both performance and equipment at very high level. A friend bought a new solid state preamp from a fine manufacturer and didn't hear the hiss comiong through both channels until I pointed it out. Another (yesterday) had the phase wrong on his new Grado and , once I re-connected it, saw how much better it was. I have no regrets that I just bought the new Audio Research VS115 'cause its timbral purity and depth of full-range sound enhace my enjoyment of the music. Now about those scientific auditory testing procedures....

A faint hissing in my left ear at around 3kHz. I saw the ear doc and had an audiogram. Aside from that my hearing was exceptionally good. I am much more careful at live venues now. No standing in front of the amp stack. It is not bothersome while listening to music.

Though it varies from day to day I hear multiple tones in my ears 24/7. If I were a critic for "high-end" stereo listening, I think I would have had to disqualify myself a few years back due to this ringing. Still, I know a great midrange when I hear one and fortunately I believe I have several years of reasonable music listening left.
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