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hearing imbalance


I got into hi fi last year and loving every minute of it and constantly upgrading my system. However, I noticed that most music I listen to lean slightly to the left. I thought it was room acoustics or the stereo recording (since strings in an orchestra are on the left). However, it seems my left ear has better hearing than my right ear especially with high frequency (just plugged one ear at a time and tested). This is very unnerving as I can't enjoy music fully, is this common for many people? How do you go around these problems?
plaser
electroid
283 posts
 
I've tested hundreds of people and never once was the curve the same for both ears. About 15% or so have a "noticable" difference between ears as you seem to. You cold spend many hours testing yourself and money/gear trying to correct it. You could play around with a supertweeter and an L-pad on the left side but as we don't know the exact curves of both ears no one could say how much improvement that would bring or any other method of correction. But I would try the tweeter/L-pad. My guess is you would want something that crosses at 3-5K - again a guess.

ET
plaser OP
16 posts
 
Well, it seems like it was impacted ear wax from probably using q-tips. I used over counter ear wax remover and it did wonders to improve my hearing on the right ear. Thanks for all the feedbacks.
trelja
3,215 posts
 
Glad to hear your problem was solved so quickly and easily, Plaser!

That being said, a friend of mine who also tested hearing routinely told me that most American men have better hearing in their right ears. Why? Because we have spent a fair amount of time driving with the window open - kind of an auditory "truck driver's tan".
electroid
283 posts
 
Excellent! Glad to "hear" that!

ET
dcstep
1,518 posts
 
It's great that you resolved it. I've got close to a 10dB difference and I understand that's quite common. I've found that it's had little impact on my enjoyment of music.

What's really interesting is that accupucture has recently been improving it after decades of problem. I went to a new internist last summer and it was disclosed again in part of the normal testing. The testing included a pressure test that showed that my right ear (the problem one) didn't release pressure as it should. This means that the eustacian tube is not fully open. He gave me nasal sprays and some antihistimines, but nothing really changed.

Next thing, I go to an accupucturist for back pain and she asks me if I have any other issues, so I mention the ear. She says, "I think that I might help that." So, I've got needles all over (about 30) including a couple behind the right ear. In the middle of the very first treatment the ear pops and starts to clear. It's gotten steadily better.

Amazing. BTW, the back pain went away after two accupuncture treatments after months of no help from drugs and chiropracty.

Dave
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