is one ear usually stronger?

Unless you have tinnitus. In which case one ear can be markedly better than the other. Enter myself. My right ear is better than the left due to this hobby for the last 35 years. Or should I say the abuse I've inflicted on them. No fault of the gear. Just irresponsible use of it. "Hey, can you keep it down, please".

Al,

Thanks for the mention of the ENT as I used to have some pretty bad ear wax when young and the when they removed it, my hearing acuity went through the roof. I can remember how good it felt to hear all the little details.It's been decades since I've had it checked out and now I'm going to make an appt. with my HMO to check them out.

All the best,
Nonoise

:-) Thank you! I never thought about ear wax accumulating in my ear even though just today I was talking with Mom about how I regularly use q tips to clean my ears and she said when she does that it actually pushes it (wax) into her ear and builds up. Who would have thought that my next upgrade should be to see the ear Doc. You guys are great, thank you!

This used to drive me crazy until I realized the azimuth was off on my cartridge setup. When I got that dialed in the problem went away.

You are on to something very important, your ears, the gateway to hearing music. Regular ear cleaning, only by a doctor, is a must. Medicare pays for two cleanings each year. Find a great audiologist, one who has many musicians as clients. Get to know the hearing response curve in each ear by having in-depth hearing tests done, at least every five years as hearing response changes. I've been hearing impaired for sixty five years, yet with the aid of my many fine doctors and audiologists, have enjoyed music for all of the time.