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Hearing Loss & Equalization

I'm looking for advice on the use of an equalizer to compensate for some hearing loss. I've considered myself an audiophile for many years, but age, abuse, and genetics have finally taken their toll. My hearing now starts to drop off at about 1500-2000hz, bottoms out about 40db down at 3000, and then comes back up at around 8000. In the real world I use hearing aids, but they don't do much for musical enjoyment. I do a lot of headphone listening using a Woo Audio tube headphone amp, and am wondering about whether a good equalizer in front of the amp could compensate somewhat for my curve. Any opinions, or suggestions for a good, high-quality equalizer that won't add too much distortion of it's own?
antonmb
kr4's avatar
kr4
3,680 posts
 
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."

Google for past discussions.

Kal
newbee
4,767 posts
 
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.
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dbphd
1,628 posts
 
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.

db
buconero117
2,311 posts
 
I am hearing impaired also, have been for over 50 years, still enjoy the music. Antommb, take a clue from the digital hearing aids, the latest units do a good job at being a parametric equalizer. Since these new units can be programmed, it provides many opportunities to find something that works for you. The key is to find an audiologist that has many musicians as clients. Also, look into the products and work that Meade Killon has done. Meade's commercial products are the ER line of earphones. Also, the next time it comes to purchase new hearing aids, look into the Finetone line that uses the K-amp circuit.
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