Coffee with noise – Conclusion –

Hyperacusis, hypersensitivity to noise, is less well known than tinnitus, but there are many people who suffer more or less severely from it.
In this section “Marga hears too much” Marga van Hintum blogs about her experiences with Hyperacusis regularly.

Well, my fully automatic espresso machine was broken. I wrote about it before. No more delicious freshly ground coffee. No more fun. No more noise in the house of hyperacusis*. The hellish noisemaker kept quiet. And so I ground it firmly with the bean grinder and the crank. I already told you about it. It made a lot less noise than the fully automatic machine. That was nice; then I wouldn’t have to put my fingers in my ears anymore. I couldn’t do that at all now; after all, I needed my hands to grind. Twice a day. With the hand grinder between the knees. And I became completely zen from the minfull moment.
The coffee from the filter was also delicious. I have to admit that. Ground and homemade. Really good. But the moment soon came when I started to reflect. What would I do with the broken machine? Have it repaired? Of course it was just out of warranty, you can always wait for that. Or get rid of it and buy a new machine? A more expensive one perhaps, with which I could hopefully do many years? Saying goodbye to my cherished coffee maker. I wasn’t really ready for that yet.

Black coffee
The Internet, as always, brought help. I Googled like crazy. What about a new machine? What brand would I take, and what were the annual maintenance costs? Because that can be considerable! I soon found out.
Eventually I came to a choice. I would get another machine with which I could only make black coffee. Almost the same as my old machine. Without a steam pipe or milk pipe. Because you don’t have to clean what isn’t there, do you? It was a lot more expensive than the old one, though. And the maintenance would be more expensive than with my old one, too. But then I had that really good coffee. That’s for sure!

Help and hope
In the meantime I had contacted the shop where I had bought the old machine by e-mail. Then I waited and waited; they just didn’t respond. I sent a second mail. And then I had a lightbulb coming on. And after some google work I found out. The shop was bankrupt. As a consumer there was nothing left to get there.
The next step was to contact the manufacturer of my old machine. I called in their help via e-mail. And got a long mail back, about possible repairs. But also with an explanation; I could try it myself first! Maybe there was still hope for my broken darling. Fine !

And … ?
I am proud of myself. I got my machine working again. For how long? I don’t dare say that. Let me not think about it any further. I put the hand bean grinder with the crank back on the cupboard, for decoration. I cherish the memory of the grinder, which was the answer to a coffee lull in distress.
And … now I’m drinking coffee again from the hellish noisemaker. Tasty coffee! Mmmmm…..

* Hyperacusis, literally “I hear too much”, is a condition where you are hypersensitive to ordinary everyday sounds. Everything sounds too loud. “The volume knob of ambient sounds stands for someone with hyperacusis permanently at too high a setting” (source: foundation Hoormij)
Hyperacusis occurs in many forms. For me, especially higher frequencies are very annoying and hurt my head. I also have tinnitus. Concentration is more difficult and focusing on a sound source is more difficult.