Sounds silly, but cleaning with a ear kit really seemed to help. Reminds me of a guy my wife used to work with. He went in for a physical and the doctor checked his ears. Doc reached for some tweasers and pulled out part of an ear plug. Wife's friend was quite shocked; he had not worn earplugs since he went to a concert several years earlier......Colin

Flourescent light noise (shoplights etc) still drive
me wild. I do not and never could understand why
anyone would use these devices in their home-- esp. in
a basement shop with low ceilings which brings the sound
that much closer and louder. :-/

At my fathers house and in shop jobs I had when younger
I'd ask, "Can't you _hear_ that?"

"Hear what?" was the usual response.

There are more than one measure(s) of hearing acquity.  The above is one.  Another is the standard test of threshold of hearing / frequency.  In my youth (say, age thirty), the ultrasonic burglar alarms used by many retail stores would drive me right out of the place.  Fortunately, these monstrosities are no longer used, so I do not have to bemoan the loss.

My pal Ginger, the musician, loves to tease me about this, cupping her hand by her ear and saying, "What?, what?" when I ask her to repeat.  Then, she plays her mandolin ukulele for me (which I made for her), and I ask, "Is that fourth string right? It sounds cold, like a steel (rather than brass) wrap."

She stares at me like an alien, and shows me the uke; steel-wrapped fourths.  "They didn't have the brass .028", I had to take the steel.  Damn you!"

Threshold/frequency is not sonic accuracy.  Raw aural acquity is not skillful listening.  I would be afraid to take an aurigram at this point, fearing that it would disqualify me as a purist hi-fi gooroo; but I can listen to the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra play Bach in Ordway MT, and hear the tone of each individual fiddle.

Enjoy the music; let it bring you bliss, which you rightly deserve,

Poinz