Equalizers - don't listen to the nay sayers

Because of age related hearing issues and my inability/reluctance to wear hearing aids, I decided to experiment with a pro audio type graphic equalizer. To summarize my hearing problem, even though my hearing loss is ALMOST balanced between the right and left ears, the left is somewhat more compromised in the 1500 to 6000hz range by a few dB. This presents no problem for voices and some instruments but when frequencies get into this range where sound is more directional the sound stage moves right toward my better ear.

I thought that if I were to adjust just the left side frequencies upward a few dB for those that were weaker than the right the problem would be solved. To do this, I used a tone generator on a test disc and for each generated frequency I raised the left side amplification until the tone centered from my listening position, leaving the right side flat throughout the range to 8000Hz which is the upper limit of my hearing.

This pretty much centered the sound and required some getting used to but still didn't resolve the overall high frequency hearing loss that I experience in both ears, and it also seemed to move the soundstage somewhat to the left for lower frequencies. So I raised the left channel gain slightly to compensate for that perception and adjusted the right side ranges in the upper frequencies to nearly the same slope as the left but slightly lower because of my somewhat stronger right ear at those frequencies.

I know that I still have some tweaking to do but this improvement for me has so far been so significant that I recommend ignoring those who would direct you away from at least experimenting with equalizers; it's cheap and fairly easy to play with.

This advice may not apply to those with normal balanced hearing with the good fortune to have a dedicated perfectly balanced listening room but there are not that many of us living in that world. I haven't, for many years, owned amplification equipment with balance or frequency control and even if I still owned some of these that did, I don't think I would have been able to do what I have accomplished here with the wider range of control available with various available pro equalizers.

My present system is Shanling CD or AppleTV as sources, Peachtree Audio Nova as preamp, Peachtree Audio 220 amp and Martin Logan Theos speakers.