Have you tried matching a stereo to your hearing?


Have you ever had a hearing test done to determine your actual hearing curve? It is my understanding that the average human hearing range is essentially an arc that tails off at high and low frequencies, but isn't necessarily a smooth line. It might be possible to tune a system to compensate for dips or peaks in ones personal hearing. It might sound terrible to everyone else, but perfect for you.

Has anyone ever tried or thought about this concept? I wonder how similar the hearing curve is for people that commonly enjoy a particular system above all else.
mceljo
I think that three different things are being talked about here, which are not being adequately distinguished:

1)Adjusting the system to compensate for the Fletcher-Munson Effect. This is what I interpreted the original question as referring to.

2)Adjusting the system to compensate for particular hearing deficiencies an individual may have.

3)Adjusting the system to compensate for deficiencies in the recording.

Regarding item (1), in general you don't want to do that. If the goal is for the system to recreate a live performance as closely as possible, and assuming that the listener has reasonably normal hearing, and assuming the system is playing at volume levels close to those of the live performance (as perceived at the listening position in both cases), any compensation for high or low frequency rolloff that our hearing will have at that volume level will cause the reproduced sound to be perceived differently than the live sound.

On the other hand, if circumstances force one to listen at much lower than real-life volumes, then perhaps some electronic compensation for the Fletcher-Munson Effect can be appropriate, if the particular circuit implementation is of sufficient quality to not do more harm than good.

Regarding (2), electronic compensation would certainly seem to be appropriate for some listeners, who may have significant hearing issues.

Regarding (3), there is no one right answer, and in previous threads lots of diverse opinions have been expressed about this. It comes down to individual preferences, and the kind of material that is listened to.

Best regards,
-- Al
Al - I wouldn't have come up with the Fletcher-Munson Effect specifically, and I'm not sure that it's exactly what I was thinking. Let me propose an option (4) and see if it is different from the option (1) you describe.

(1) adjusting the system so that the audible frequency response curve matches that of a particular listener. There isn't an audio system that produces a perfectly smooth frequency response, especially when room accoustics are introduced. Ideally, one could adjust the nearly infinite EQ to allow the complete system to have a response that would match the hearing response curve for the listener. The goal would be to eliminate "loud" or "soft" areas in the two curves compounding.

This is similar to what the room optimization software doesn't now to match a system to a particular room, this would just be the next step requiring specific user input. Essentially, the user would provide the "goal" for the system to match rather than whatever baseline Audyssey or other company used.
Bad idea in my opinion.With the system equalized to your hearing,that is going to be your reference for everything.You will adapt to it and call it normal.Then if you listen to anything live,it will sound wrong.Even live unplugged music. We all hear live music and sounds with these flaws.Our body is used to it.Keep the live music as a reference,not a adjusted audio system.Nature takes care of this for us.
but what about other factors...such as the mood we are in when listening at any particular moment and how that will affect our listening experience..or changes in the atmospheric pressure, or changes in our hearing...why not just put together a staireo and enjoy playing music over it. why complicated a very simple thing...maybe.

i understand this is all just acedimic.
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