Hearing Loss & Equalization

A query like this is posted every six months or so. The problem is that there is no way to do it since neural adaptation will make the shift from real world to EQ-ed phones/speakers wrenching all the time. I have done this for a friend with severe losses and, after a short and enjoyable honeymoon with it, he always goes back to more general tone controls as the tailored EQ is "unnatural."

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Kal

40db down at 3000hz is not something you can restore with any equalizer I am familar with. You may find one with a 16db boost potential but I'd think it would be accompanied by a lot of distortion. 6db boost is probably do-able. Sounds like an inexpensive ten band one octave equalizer might succeed in giving you a modest broad band boost using the control at 1500/3000/6000 (+/-) bands. But that is all, modest. I fear your steep dip at 3000 hz may not be recoverable.

I'd check out something like an Audio Contol 101, a decent 10 band equalizer and see what it does for you. Used on A-Gon or E-Bay they are fairly inexpensive. If that works for you at all you could consider getting a parametric equalizer of the 3 band variety, they are usually much more expensive, but you can be much more selective in bandwidth and amplitude.

Good luck, I don't envy you for your loss.

First, I'd get a careful audiogram. The usual noise-induced hearing loss is a notch around 4 kHz. Your loss may not cover as wide a frequency band as you imagine, given that you seem to have good high frequency sensitivity.

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