[mammal]

Many reasons for inbalance in hearing, loss of sensitivity in one ear more than in the other, so wondering how do you all cope with that? I have never noticed it until I upgraded my setup to something more resolving and now I have (what I suspect to be) an uneven frequency response between my left and right ear. At first, I tried to intuitively set my amp's balance knob so that the image is in centre, but then it felt I am fighting base/treble regions, not until I did an online test and noticed that my right ear sensitivity to higher frequencies (starts at 2k, reaches max at 8k) has around 4db roll off. I tried to EQ it (reduce on the right ear) and now the image is perfect. However, this is via Roon's DSP, so I am no longer "bit perfect" (but better than without it, or just -4db flat on the right channel). I know there are other means of achieving the same (aka convolution filters), but unsure as to how to measure them. What has been your experience folks? Thank you

 

[skhan007]

I don't have a lot of experience with hifi products, but I recently purchased the RME ADI-2, which has the capability of setting different EQ parameters for the L and R channels. They specifically address their feature set for those with different hearing situations (such as partial hearing loss, etc.) in the user manual.

 

[sacguy231]

I had a hearing test last year from my ENT, and while my hearing is in the excellent range for my age, I do indeed have a difference between the ears where my right ear has a slight dip approx. between 1-2 k. Knowing this has been so helpful because I can specifically target those frequencies with a parametric EQ, and in fact by using the parametric EQ to adjust the differences between the ears I can leave the balance in it’s center position. It has made everything sound “right” If you are using standalone gear, you will need something like the RME (which is indeed awesome!), or some other equalization that will allow you to address the left and right channels separately. Of course, at a computer this is pretty easy with the abundance of different software programs.

 

[mammal]

or some other equalization that will allow you to address the left and right channels separately

Thanks for your reply. I am wondering, have you noticed a significant decrease in quality when using software parametric equalisers? I noticed that when keeping the audio bit perfect, and rather fixing the imbalance in the analogue stage (on my amplifier, which had balance knob) I did not hear any audible difference (else than moving the center to the right place) but when I try to do it with Roon's DSP, altering the frequency response, it feels as if it lost resolution. Just doing -3db gain on one channel is fine, but not parametric EQ, for some reason.