Speaking of speech patterns, and not to change the subject, but am I the only one hearing what sounds like a disagreeable gravel creeping into Rush's voice, and disharmony in his higher pitches?
It's nothing at all like those warbles that surfaced before his general deafness was announced, but, if genuine (and not just some problem with my reception or my own ears) then this may be related to some narrow-ness in the bandwidth of his cochlear implant that needs tuning or replacement.
I know this is an older thread but I emphatically answer YES.
I have brought this up before on other threads and got shot down with extreme prejudice.
His voice has degenerated greatly over the last 3-4 years. He has an annoying growl or gargling sound at the end of his sentences and has a long, drawn out and exaggerated whiny pronunciation of words like "line", "dine" and "fine" He just used it now, pronouncing Mark Steyn's name.
Often he sounds like he's shouting at the upper edge of his voice to the point that it's shredding.
I was accused of having a crappy radio or some other such reason why I am "wrongly" perceiving a change in his voice.
I am not listening via radio, but rather to podcasts downloaded from his own site and comparing them to older podcasts from 4-5 years ago.
I'm a musician and pick up on even the slightest nuances in sounds.