How do you all manage mild hearing loss?


I’m 37, and have done a significant amount of concert going, clubbing and loud music listening in my life. As a result, I have what I perceive to be 3-6db of permanent hearing loss in my left ear. I don’t notice it as much when listening to my headphone setup, or home theater, but with 2-channel I end up needing use the balance controls in order to get a perfectly centered image.

I don’t particularly like using the balance control, because I see it like any other tone control, as affecting the output negatively.

So my question is, how do those of you with some hearing loss handle this situation? I’ve noticed that if I take my left finger and push my left ear about 3mm outward, I can center the image that way, without the need for the balance controls. This has led me to start experimenting with pieces of foam, shaped like a C with a graduated wedge that I can fit behind my ear to make it pop out a few mm. I’m wondering if a solution already exists for this problem? If not, I’ll probably keep playing with my design until I have something that works really well, and then have my brother in law 3D print it for me when I arrive at a final design.

Thoughts?
128x128dougeyjones
I have almost the same issue with my hearing.
For the most part, I just endure it. At worst, I will use the balance to compensate. 
And, since I mostly listen off axis, I really don't get too bothered by it.
B
Ya know they use to make BIG ears, for hearing issues, could use them and cut them down, one smaller for the better ear..

They had a few different names...

The best thing you can do.. Take care of what you got left.. You can learn to listen around it.. believe it or not.. You’ll learn... I’m a retired HD mechanic, you know how many of my fellow mec friends are deaf, A LOT. NO MORE LOUD.. plug those babies... I lived with muffs and plugs my whole life....Still do in my personal shop.. I never waver.. Take care of them FIRST....I’m 65 and still hear above 16KHZ, and some lose in the 60-200hz region, very little... No leaf blowers, lawn mowers, gunshots (especially magnums), heavy equipment idling or just running.. concerts (partial plug um). Be wise....

Regards
You're 37. That means realistically you could be looking at another 50 years. You want to spend it like this? Stuffing crap behind your ears? You know where this is headed. There used to be a stereotype of the old codger with a great big horn going into his ear. You could come up with something like that. If you keep on going this way.  

Reality check: no ones hearing is what it used to be. We all lose it. There's a fool-proof cure that will stop hearing loss dead in its tracks. Its called: death. Until then its all downhill. 

At least as long as you view your ears as microphones and your brain as some guy with a lab coat and clip board checking off the variances as they come in. In that case you may as well start working on the horn.  

The alternative is you accept it, learn about and understand it, and instead of lamenting what never will be you learn to appreciate what you still have. Which hopefully you love music. Because if you love treble extension you can kiss your musical enjoyment goodbye. But if you love music, well the feeling in that comes across just fine almost no matter how bad your hearing gets. I had one old guy with two terrible hearing aids tell me he never heard anything so good or enjoyed listening to music so much in years.  

Keep in mind there's people here who are such lousy listeners they think all wire is the same. They can't hear the difference between fuses, let alone the direction the fuse is going. They are that bad. But I bet their hearing tests just find. They can hear. But they don't know how to listen.  

There's the rub. And the solution.
Thanks for the feedback so far. On the upside for this entire community, there are promising technologies working their way through R&D that may be able to regrow the cilia (hairs on your eardrum) that vibrate and signal your brain that you're hearing things.

May be another 15 years until something is available according to an ENT that I know..

Anyway, I'll see if I can get my OCD to chill long enough to "hear" my way around this, while I work on contraptions.
At the next few concerts make sure your right ear is closer to the speakers.