hearing imbalance



I got into hi fi last year and loving every minute of it and constantly upgrading my system. However, I noticed that most music I listen to lean slightly to the left. I thought it was room acoustics or the stereo recording (since strings in an orchestra are on the left). However, it seems my left ear has better hearing than my right ear especially with high frequency (just plugged one ear at a time and tested). This is very unnerving as I can't enjoy music fully, is this common for many people? How do you go around these problems?
plaser
first check all your connections speaker cable etc--make sure they are tight --which can cause imaging problems --then go to your doctor or ENT specialist and get your hearing checked--it could be something as simple as excess wax in your ear or something more serious --get it checked out---Rich
I believe it is quite common to hear unequally out of your two ears. This is also true one it comes to sight, where one eye will often be dominate. We also have dominance when it comes to being either right or left-handed,with one arm or hand being stronger and better coordinated than the other. Of course it is possible to have suffered hearing loss in one ear. You might consider getting a preamp with tone controls or a good graphic equalizer so you can boost some of the high frequencies. Also high frequencies can be easily absorbed by room acoustics. Your hearing may also vary during different times of the day,change with your general sense of well-being and even weather conditions( low pressure or high pressure fronts)can effect it. If one feels relaxed and physically well, it is amazing how much better you will hear. Fatigue and stress can greatly affect hearing. Exercise which promotes circulation also can have a beneficial affect. Hope this helps.
Plaser,

I wish you luck trying to find an individual with equal hearing in both ears. I assume that you have not had a sudden change in your hearing, and are talking about normal differences (for example, it's very common for people who drive with the window down to have hearing loss in the left ear). Of course, there may be benefits to having your ears checked, but keep in mind that hearing tests are generally limited to only 8kHz.
There is a long-standing misconception on this issue. Your brain adapted to your asymmetrical hearing a long time ago, and has made periodic adaptations as your hearing has changed throughout your life. You hear EVERY sound through the same ears, warts and all, not just your stereo. Try an experiment--have another person speak to you from various directions and, with your eyes closed, point to where you hear the voice. If you haven't had a recent change to your hearing, I bet your finger aims directly at the person speaking. I also suspect you don't have a problem when listening to live music.
If I'm right, go diagnose and fix your stereo (or have it fixed). If, as a relative newbie, you need help finding where the problem lies, e-mail me.
I've tested hundreds of people and never once was the curve the same for both ears. About 15% or so have a "noticable" difference between ears as you seem to. You cold spend many hours testing yourself and money/gear trying to correct it. You could play around with a supertweeter and an L-pad on the left side but as we don't know the exact curves of both ears no one could say how much improvement that would bring or any other method of correction. But I would try the tweeter/L-pad. My guess is you would want something that crosses at 3-5K - again a guess.

ET
Well, it seems like it was impacted ear wax from probably using q-tips. I used over counter ear wax remover and it did wonders to improve my hearing on the right ear. Thanks for all the feedbacks.