Pianist
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Jan 3, 2007
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So after spending several days comparing my left ear to my right, I came to the sad conclusion that my left ear just can't hear as well as my right. When listening to music with my right ear, I can clearly perceive more detail and also separation and imaging seem to come through much more clearly in my right ear vs. my left ear. When listening to music through my left ear the imaging suddenly collapses and I can no longer tell where each instrument is located in the headstage, and also the detail decreases and I can't hear subtle details in my music anymore, like sounds of musicians breathing and certain harmonics of instruments. It seems like sounds through my right ear are much more natural, while through my left ear, the same sounds loose detail and definition and sound sort of forced. I tried all kinds of headphones, all kinds of sources and all kinds of music, encoded in low bitrate and high bitrate and the results are consistent - my left ear appears to have some form of hearing loss, or at least hears very, very differently than my right ear.
Now, the strangest thing is that I don't actually have official hearing loss at all - I just checked my hearing recently and the ear doc said that my ears look perfectly normal, my hearing test results are perfectly normal - even in the high-normal range for my age actually (I am 21 by the way) - and the the frequency response in both of my ears is nearly identical (well, at least in the 250Hz - 8 kHz range that is). I tested my hearing on my own many times as well using tones of lower and higher frequencies than the ones used in the standard hearing test and seem to be getting good results with both ears. My left seems to be a bit less sensitive in the upper highs though (8Khz and up) and rolls off a bit earlier than my right ear. Specifically, my right ear begins to roll off at around 15.5 Khz and 16 Khz is barely audible at low volumes. I can hear up to 17.5Khz with my right, if I crank up the volume to very high levels though. My left, on the other hand, begins to get quieter at around 15 kHz and 16 kHz is already inaudible at low volumes. At very high volumes - I can hear up to 17 kHz with my left ear. When running tone sweeps from 20 Hz-20kHz I also notice that my right ear seems to be a bit more sensitive somewhere in the mid frequencies as well, but, again the difference is rather subtle.
This is really depressing and I have no idea what's going on. The worst thing is that I am not sure whether my ears were like that since birth/childhood, or whether I just started loosing hearing in my left ear recently. I remember noticing this difference between my right and my left ear about 2 years ago, but for some reason I didn't pay any attention to it back then and it didn't bother me at all. Recently, it began to seem to me as though the sound is clearly leaning towards the right channel when I listen to headphones and I find it very bothersome.
I am really wondering whether I really have hearing loss in my left ear, or whether it is something psychological or perhaps has to do with left vs. right brain hemisphere differences. Any thoughts and input will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks for reading.
Now, the strangest thing is that I don't actually have official hearing loss at all - I just checked my hearing recently and the ear doc said that my ears look perfectly normal, my hearing test results are perfectly normal - even in the high-normal range for my age actually (I am 21 by the way) - and the the frequency response in both of my ears is nearly identical (well, at least in the 250Hz - 8 kHz range that is). I tested my hearing on my own many times as well using tones of lower and higher frequencies than the ones used in the standard hearing test and seem to be getting good results with both ears. My left seems to be a bit less sensitive in the upper highs though (8Khz and up) and rolls off a bit earlier than my right ear. Specifically, my right ear begins to roll off at around 15.5 Khz and 16 Khz is barely audible at low volumes. I can hear up to 17.5Khz with my right, if I crank up the volume to very high levels though. My left, on the other hand, begins to get quieter at around 15 kHz and 16 kHz is already inaudible at low volumes. At very high volumes - I can hear up to 17 kHz with my left ear. When running tone sweeps from 20 Hz-20kHz I also notice that my right ear seems to be a bit more sensitive somewhere in the mid frequencies as well, but, again the difference is rather subtle.
This is really depressing and I have no idea what's going on. The worst thing is that I am not sure whether my ears were like that since birth/childhood, or whether I just started loosing hearing in my left ear recently. I remember noticing this difference between my right and my left ear about 2 years ago, but for some reason I didn't pay any attention to it back then and it didn't bother me at all. Recently, it began to seem to me as though the sound is clearly leaning towards the right channel when I listen to headphones and I find it very bothersome.
I am really wondering whether I really have hearing loss in my left ear, or whether it is something psychological or perhaps has to do with left vs. right brain hemisphere differences. Any thoughts and input will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks for reading.