[Pianist]

I am just wondering. I got some loss in my left ear. I have no idea how bad it is, because I did a hearing test recently and my results were equally good for both ears, but the hearing test was only from 500 Hz - 8 kHz. My left ear has problems with frequencies above 10 kHz, has a weird distortion around 5.9-6.5 kHz, and can't pick up spacial cues anywhere near as well as my right. I suspect it might be otosclerosis. My right hears above average. For me this can be extremely frustrating when listening to headphones - I can clearly hear more high range on the right side and that side also sound a lot more open, while the left side is much grainier and there's little sense of headstage.

Please vote and describe how bad your hearing loss is and which frequencies are affected. And most importantly, how much does it affect your headphone listening? Are there moments when you just throw your headphones aside in frustration and swear you will never listen to them again? Perhaps this thread will help those who have unilateral hearing loss to feel a little better knowing that they are not alone and that others have problems like that too.

 

[oqvist]

Nobody want to admit to having bad ears

Okay I will be the first. Some months ago I got a cold. I had to cycle in rain for 5 km to the airport which probably didn´t make things better. The flight was absolutely hellish. After that pretty much deaf in both ears for two weeks. My right ear haven´t recovered like my left ear though. I got a new cold following the old one pretty quick... Dunno if it´s permanent but trying to clean my right ear with water and those solvents just make it swollen for some reason. Doesn´t at all behave like my left. Going to give it two more weeks then have to find some specialist somewhere. Dunno how much you can trust on line hearing tests.

 

[ericj]

I have for the last 20 years or so. My left ear is less sensitive in some ranges, but I'm not certain of the event that caused it. I had one or two inner-ear infections every year until i was in my 20's.

I've been told that, what i can hear, i hear quite well, but only in the sense of casual observation. I haven't seen an audiologist since i was in elementary school and see no reason to trust an online hearing test.

Oh, and they tend to even out if i take some pseudoephedrine, but not in the sense that the left becomes as good as the right, but that my hearing changes in both ears and becomes equal.

 

[DaveBSC]

Quote:

Originally Posted by oqvist /img/forum/go_quote.gif Nobody want to admit to having bad ears Okay I will be the first. Some months ago I got a cold. I had to cycle in rain for 5 km to the airport which probably didn´t make things better. The flight was absolutely hellish. After that pretty much deaf in both ears for two weeks. My right ear haven´t recovered like my left ear though. I got a new cold following the old one pretty quick... Dunno if it´s permanent but trying to clean my right ear with water and those solvents just make it swollen for some reason. Doesn´t at all behave like my left. Going to give it two more weeks then have to find some specialist somewhere. Dunno how much you can trust on line hearing tests.

There's a good chance you could have fluid in your right ear, or possibly in both. If you haven't had it checked by a doctor, you should make an appointment right away. Any doctor can check them for you, you don't need to go to an ENT.

 

[JazzVinyl]

An audiologist told me I had a dip in ability to hear at 3,000hz in my right ear. I was surprised as I always 'thought' my left ear might have had some problems. But she said "no"...

...

 

[Superfrag]

I have around 65% hearing loss in both ears since birth. Originally when I used onboard sound etc, I would not like it as I had to crank it up to full, and then it would sound distorted. But ever since I started buying good HP's and AMP's, I started loving the sound, so much so that its already starting digging well into my wallet. But I am absolutely loving each minute of it. When I listen to my music, I remove my hearing aids, and it feels as if I have normal ears. Really really awesome.

 

[Pianist]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaveBSC /img/forum/go_quote.gif There's a good chance you could have fluid in your right ear, or possibly in both. If you haven't had it checked by a doctor, you should make an appointment right away. Any doctor can check them for you, you don't need to go to an ENT.

++ He should go ASAP, or it might be too late! If I was in his place, I would've already went a long time ago, otherwise I wouldn't be able to sleep at night. lol

 

[Pianist]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ericj /img/forum/go_quote.gif I have for the last 20 years or so. My left ear is less sensitive in some ranges, but I'm not certain of the event that caused it. I had one or two inner-ear infections every year until i was in my 20's. I've been told that, what i can hear, i hear quite well, but only in the sense of casual observation. I haven't seen an audiologist since i was in elementary school and see no reason to trust an online hearing test. Oh, and they tend to even out if i take some pseudoephedrine, but not in the sense that the left becomes as good as the right, but that my hearing changes in both ears and becomes equal.

Lucky you. I wish I could even mine out somehow, but alas, I don't think that is possible. I tired using various channel balance/panning controls, including one on my Rockboxed Sansa Clip, but they don't seem to help, because I just can't hear as much detail in my left no matter what.

Here's the really strange part. My hearing in both ears is absolutely equal up to around 5.8 kHz when testing using sine tones. I tested tens of times and I just can't find any problems with my left ear on sine tone tests. I can hear the tones just as loudly in my left as in my right. Beyond 5.8 kHz, I can detect some slight dips and some weird distortion in my left ear when testing with sine tones. So I decided to do an experiment: I opened a song in Cool Edit Pro, cut out all frequencies above 5 kHz and then compared my right ear with my left on the same channel. Guess what - my right was still better!

I just don't understand this. I can clearly still hear more detail in the midrange and low frequencies in my right than in my left. My left sounds blurry and muddy in comparison. Professional hearing test cannot detect this problem, so just what the heck is going on?! Too bad I am very busy these days - I guess I should get an appointment with ENT for more serious testing. Maybe my brain got messed up or something, or perhaps there's something wrong with my eardrum that prevents it from responding to sound the way it should.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Superfrag /img/forum/go_quote.gif I have around 65% hearing loss in both ears since birth. Originally when I used onboard sound etc, I would not like it as I had to crank it up to full, and then it would sound distorted. But ever since I started buying good HP's and AMP's, I started loving the sound, so much so that its already starting digging well into my wallet. But I am absolutely loving each minute of it. When I listen to my music, I remove my hearing aids, and it feels as if I have normal ears. Really really awesome.

Wow, you are crazy lol. I wish I could be as satisfied as you seem to be. My hearing imbalance drives me insane. I guess it may actually better to have crappy hearing in both ears than crappy hearing in only one ear, because when both of your ears are crap, you can get used to that eventually, but when only one ear is ****** up, you can always compare it with your good one and always be depressed about how much worse one ear is than the other.


BTW, it's interesting how this thread took off. One brave soul posted and others followed.

 

[miloxo]

I have very bad ears

Since i was born, I have a pretty bad hearing loss. I dont know how much %, but its really hard to follow conversations with more then 2 people. on one one is usually fine (if the surroundings are silence).

Im 17 now, and have 2 hearings aids (friggin expensive, $1800 each

) but they helped me allot!

Besides my hearing loss, I have slight tinnitus in my right ear, nothing serious.
And, on top of that, both ears sound TOTALLY different. not just slight, they really sound like 2 different ears! But I dont know wich ear is worse..

 

[JadeEast]

I have a bit of a peak in the upper mid range and treble on my right ear. Caused me no end of pain in setting up speakers and having the center image shifted slightly to the right.

 

[Pianist]

Quote:

Originally Posted by miloxo /img/forum/go_quote.gif I have very bad ears Since i was born, I have a pretty bad hearing loss. I dont know how much %, but its really hard to follow conversations with more then 2 people. on one one is usually fine (if the surroundings are silence). Im 17 now, and have 2 hearings aids (friggin expensive, $1800 each ) but they helped me allot! Besides my hearing loss, I have slight tinnitus in my right ear, nothing serious. And, on top of that, both ears sound TOTALLY different. not just slight, they really sound like 2 different ears! But I dont know wich ear is worse..

Oh wow. LOL Judging by that

you put in the beginning, you sure don't seem to be very depressed. Of course that's becuase you had the hearing loss from birth. Interesting. Personally, I wouldn't consider myself hearing impaired, but I do have significant eyesight loss from birth, and my eyes see totally differently!

My left is nearsighted and has about 30 % vision left and my right is farsighted and has about 80%. The last time I checked my eyesight 6 years ago, the optometrist told me that my eyesight in my right eye is slowly improving, while my left is getting worse. lol She was also very surprised how I could see properly with two totally different eyes. It turns out that at any one time, I only see with one eye, while the vision from the other gets blocked out by the brain. I use my right to see far distances, like watching TV, and my left to see close by, like computer screen or when reading. And I don't feel handicapped at all.

I know I am a bit off topic here, but my point is that it's very interesting how well our brains can compensate so well for deficiencies we have from birth, or those we had for a long time.

 

[Superfrag]

Quote:

Originally Posted by miloxo /img/forum/go_quote.gif I have very bad ears Since i was born, I have a pretty bad hearing loss. I dont know how much %, but its really hard to follow conversations with more then 2 people. on one one is usually fine (if the surroundings are silence). Im 17 now, and have 2 hearings aids (friggin expensive, $1800 each ) but they helped me allot! Besides my hearing loss, I have slight tinnitus in my right ear, nothing serious. And, on top of that, both ears sound TOTALLY different. not just slight, they really sound like 2 different ears! But I dont know wich ear is worse..

The parts in bold apply to me too. Need hearing aids to converse in a group or far distance. Expensive one's too.
But the ears sounding differently, that's sad. I dont have such a problem!

 

[Hanafuda]

Yes I have slightly worse high frequency loss in my left than in my right. Easily explained ... as a child I was brought up hunting and shooting skeet with shotguns, frequently. And my father had no use for hearing protection, apparently. Because I'm right handed, the left ear was always facing in the direction of the muzzle, while the right ear was turned away and protected from the direct blast of the shotgun. My hearing was tested last week due to "acute media otitis" which I tell about in this thread I just posted tonight.

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f11/ac...sed-up-469026/

But I already knew about the uneven hearing loss since when I was a teenager. According to the test I had last week, for 42 years old, even with the high frequency loss my hearing is 'normal' for my age. I'm being treated right now for the acute inflammation which gave me some horrible tinnitus, and it looks like I'll be okay. (knocking on some wood right now)

 

[El_Doug]

Upon my primary care physician showing me the huge wad of freshly removed wax that had been accumulating in my right ear for the past 23 years, I can happily say that it turns out my right ear CAN hear as well as the left

 

[Pianist]

Quote:

Originally Posted by El_Doug /img/forum/go_quote.gif Upon my primary care physician showing me the huge wad of freshly removed wax that had been accumulating in my right ear for the past 23 years, I can happily say that it turns out my right ear CAN hear as well as the left

Wow, congrats!

You must be very happy. I wish I also had wax in my left ear that needs to be removed, but alas, my audiologist told me that I don't have excessive earwax build up.

I am still not ruling out the possibility that I may have fluid build up though.