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[francis231]

I'm losing about 40db at 4k 50db at 6k and 60db at 8k

Each ear is slightly different this from SSHL, I've seen folks EQ their output to do it, I know how to use the parameter in the MC EQ, my issue is more translanting my audiogram results, I can't seem to do it right

I would really appreciate any kind of help or suggestions, thank you.

[mattkhan]

can you shared what you have tried so far? and in what sense it is "not right"?

[zybex]

This issue is unfortunately common. Here's a previous discussion which may help:
https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,112187.msg775351.html#msg775351

There's also a wiki topic with more links:
https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Audio_and_Hearing_Loss

[francis231]

Hello thanks for your replies.

mattkhan  I simply took my audigram and increased the frequencies I was losing, it didn't work

I then did the APO Peace ear test for headphones, it tests you and then it makes an eq for you, didn't work

The only thing that works a bit so far is the Parametric

I'm including my audiogram

[mattkhan]

I then did the APO Peace ear test for headphones, it tests you and then it makes an eq for you, didn't work

what EQ did it suggest?

[eve]

I'd recommend not going as dramatic as your hearing test indicates, that amount of EQ is going to be weird. Maybe use the hearing test as a guideline of what frequencies you should be looking at.
Remember, to implement the EQ according to the hearing test, you'll need to make adjustments to the frequencies you don't have an issue with (EQ should be subtractive, you never want to be 'adding' if it can be avoided)

[mwillems]

The other advice you've received is all very good.  You don't want to try and compensate fully for the loss as that won't sound good (a little EQ can go a long way), and you definitely don't want to add net gain.  Your ears are a little different from each other, but have a lot in common too.  So I think the most sensible place to start is with a shelf filter as your audiogram isn't particularly "bumpy": both ears mostly fall off sharply above 3k or so. 

Just as a simple starting test, I'd be tempted to start by opening parametric EQ, reducing the overall volume by about 10db (to get some head room) and then dial in a high shelf filter.  The filters you should add in parametric EQ are an "Adjust the Volume" with a -10dB gain, then an "Adjust the high frequencies (High Shelf)" filter with a Bandwidth(Q) of 1, a frequency of of 3500, and a gain of 5dB.  Try that out listening for a little while.  If it doesn't sound any different, try stepping up the shelf filter's Gain 1dB at a time until you definitely hear a difference and see what you think.  Once you've got a difference you can hear, you can try raising or lowering the frequency a little (you might want to try it at 3000 or 4000 to see if that "fits" better).  I would resist fiddling with the Q very much though.  One important thing to know is that if you wind up adding more than 10dB of gain to the shelf, you need to change the adjust the volume filter to reduce the overall volume more to compensate (you never want to add more gain than you're subtracting as you can push the audio into clipping/clip protection).  My guess is that you'll hear a difference right away with 5dB, but everyone is different. 

It would probably be worth trying to compensate for that 1KHz dip on your left ear, especially on headphones (it might be a little weird to try to fix that on speakers out in a room).  But if you want to take a try, a good place to start might be an "adjust a frequency (equalizer filter)" with the frequency set to 1000, the bandwidth(Q) set to 1.5 and the gain set to 2 or 3dB.  Make sure that it's only set on the Left channel, your right ear looks just fine in that band.  If you have headphones on, you could try increasing or reducing the gain to try and "match" what your ears hear.  I think the shelf I mention above will make a bigger difference by far, but 1KHz is an important frequency range for human voices so it might be worth trying to fix it.

Paddle around and see what you think, and report back what you hear! 

[francis231]

Well Thank-You everyone for your help, I will try with the sugested settings

Should I flatten my headphone first? Found this on an HP forum for my DT 990
Preamp: -7.3 dB
Filter 1: ON PK Fc 31 Hz Gain 7.2 dB Q 1.41
Filter 2: ON PK Fc 62 Hz Gain 1.6 dB Q 1.41
Filter 3: ON PK Fc 125 Hz Gain -2.4 dB Q 1.41
Filter 4: ON PK Fc 250 Hz Gain -4.0 dB Q 1.41
Filter 5: ON PK Fc 500 Hz Gain 2.1 dB Q 1.41
Filter 6: ON PK Fc 1000 Hz Gain 2.3 dB Q 1.41
Filter 7: ON PK Fc 2000 Hz Gain 1.6 dB Q 1.41
Filter 8: ON PK Fc 4000 Hz Gain 2.8 dB Q 1.41
Filter 9: ON PK Fc 8000 Hz Gain -4.6 dB Q 1.41
Filter 10: ON PK Fc 16000 Hz Gain -13.2 dB Q 1.41

I haven't applied that yet, because when I had my good hearing (I can't believe I'm typing "when I had good hearing") it didn't do much for my headphones, so I was thinking of just ignoring this


When you get sudden ear lost, it's horrible to say the least, that 1K spike that you noticed is from when my hearing sorta came came back but all screwy. I've been doing a lot of research.

I read a thread yesterday where two ENTs were arguing about EQ and amplified EQ, the one that said that EQ is better IF DONE correctly won the argument, he was citing hearing science stuff.

They make a DAC for people with hearing issues but it's way too pricey for me, it has separate EQ outputs.

Anyway thank you very much for taking the time

[francis231]

mwillems,

this already makes a huge difference with your settings, seems like you hit it on the head, I'd like my left ear brighter, but I don't think it's going to happen

the results of the audiogram in the 4k and 8k I think are lower now, my hearing might be slightly worse than the audiogram -+10db more or less, I have to go to test my ears again, I keep putting it off, too scared.

[JimH]

I posted a link to this thread on the Audiophile Style forum.

https://audiophilestyle.com/forums/topic/67653-using-an-equalizer-to-compensate-for-hearing-loss/

[eve]

I posted a link to this thread on the Audiophile Style forum.

https://audiophilestyle.com/forums/topic/67653-using-an-equalizer-to-compensate-for-hearing-loss/

It's wild how far DSP driven audio processing has come for people with hearing deficits and issues. I'm shocked when I see my grandfather able to 'hear' conversations in a noisy room, just using his apple earpods and an application for filtering the incoming audio to attempt to isolate the relevant conversation. These used to be insanely overpriced, low performing devices and now? The possibilities are endless man.

[davelr]

It's wild how far DSP driven audio processing has come for people with hearing deficits and issues. I'm shocked when I see my grandfather able to 'hear' conversations in a noisy room, just using his apple earpods and an application for filtering the incoming audio to attempt to isolate the relevant conversation. These used to be insanely overpriced, low performing devices and now? The possibilities are endless man.

Would you mind posting what app he is using? I have the "noisy room" problem and would like to try something that would help. Thanks

[Marpow]

The other advice you've received is all very good.  You don't want to try and compensate fully for the loss as that won't sound good (a little EQ can go a long way), and you definitely don't want to add net gain.  Your ears are a little different from each other, but have a lot in common too.  So I think the most sensible place to start is with a shelf filter as your audiogram isn't particularly "bumpy": both ears mostly fall off sharply above 3k or so. 

Just as a simple starting test, I'd be tempted to start by opening parametric EQ, reducing the overall volume by about 10db (to get some head room) and then dial in a high shelf filter.  The filters you should add in parametric EQ are an "Adjust the Volume" with a -10dB gain, then an "Adjust the high frequencies (High Shelf)" filter with a Bandwidth(Q) of 1, a frequency of of 3500, and a gain of 5dB.  Try that out listening for a little while.  If it doesn't sound any different, try stepping up the shelf filter's Gain 1dB at a time until you definitely hear a difference and see what you think.  Once you've got a difference you can hear, you can try raising or lowering the frequency a little (you might want to try it at 3000 or 4000 to see if that "fits" better).  I would resist fiddling with the Q very much though.  One important thing to know is that if you wind up adding more than 10dB of gain to the shelf, you need to change the adjust the volume filter to reduce the overall volume more to compensate (you never want to add more gain than you're subtracting as you can push the audio into clipping/clip protection).  My guess is that you'll hear a difference right away with 5dB, but everyone is different. 

It would probably be worth trying to compensate for that 1KHz dip on your left ear, especially on headphones (it might be a little weird to try to fix that on speakers out in a room).  But if you want to take a try, a good place to start might be an "adjust a frequency (equalizer filter)" with the frequency set to 1000, the bandwidth(Q) set to 1.5 and the gain set to 2 or 3dB.  Make sure that it's only set on the Left channel, your right ear looks just fine in that band.  If you have headphones on, you could try increasing or reducing the gain to try and "match" what your ears hear.  I think the shelf I mention above will make a bigger difference by far, but 1KHz is an important frequency range for human voices so it might be worth trying to fix it.

Paddle around and see what you think, and report back what you hear!

Thank you for this, I am extremely interested and you explain very well, I like the baby step approach.
I listen to a lot of surround music, my system is 5.2.4, stereo, 4.0, 5.1 and Dolby Atmos. JRiver is perfect. I have a bit of tinnitus and my hearing, age 67, considered normal, fall off towards the high frequencies, mid range and bass, no problem. The high frequencies, seems mostly vocals get a little tinny/bright sounding.
I want to experiment as you suggest, I located the Parametric EQ, easy, I can see the add or remove as you suggest.
My question, should I do all my speakers (9) and subs (3)? I guess if I am listening to stereo and all speakers are set as you explain, won't matter that they are set as I am not listening to them.
I own B&W speakers with the little top cone tweeters, probably not the best speakers for a person such as myself?

[mwillems]

Thank you for this, I am extremely interested and you explain very well, I like the baby step approach.
I listen to a lot of surround music, my system is 5.2.4, stereo, 4.0, 5.1 and Dolby Atmos. JRiver is perfect. I have a bit of tinnitus and my hearing, age 67, considered normal, fall off towards the high frequencies, mid range and bass, no problem. The high frequencies, seems mostly vocals get a little tinny/bright sounding.
I want to experiment as you suggest, I located the Parametric EQ, easy, I can see the add or remove as you suggest.
My question, should I do all my speakers (9) and subs (3)? I guess if I am listening to stereo and all speakers are set as you explain, won't matter that they are set as I am not listening to them.
I own B&W speakers with the little top cone tweeters, probably not the best speakers for a person such as myself?

I'd suggest starting with just the stereo pair and testing with stereo music as a test.  Then maybe try setting all of the speakers except for the subs.  The sub isn't playing back any of the high frequencies so I wouldn't expect you to need to EQ the subs in the same way, if you see what I mean.

I wouldn't worry about the type of tweeters, it's really just a question of frequency response and directionality.  As long as they're working correctly they should be fine. 

[Marpow]

Great, thank you. I did just as you suggest. Left and right fronts only. Will try for a few days. I noticed maybe a bit of added sub, just turned down a bit. Maybe reducing the high frequencies leaves more room for LFE?

[slerch666]

I am one of those "weirdoes" that has hearing loss in one ear, not so much the other.
I mean, both have issues but the right ear is normal "you are getting old" hearing loss.

My left ear is real hearing loss.

I went to the audiologist.
She saw the left ear was off more than the other, so off to an MRI for checking for tumors.
No tumor.

Got hearing aids (did both hearing aids because they are magic at pulling speech from noise; like real magic).

So I can still use earphones and headphones, I did the parametric left ear changes according to the chart (or as best as I could decipher).
It wasn't right, so as mwillems mentioned, I started dialing down until it seemed to even out.

I adjusted to a happy medium for the left side that works OK for the headphones, earphones, and speakers I use.
None of them are perfect but good enough.


One thing I might like to see is a way to group or apply a Parametric EQ to a group.
I would create a PEQ group for headphones #1, then one for earphones #1, and then one for Speakers #1 but never thought to ask as I assumed I was the only one messing with this.
I can probably accomplish this with different zones for each listening type... hmm...
Anyone know of a good way to have a playlist continue across a zone? Not a big deal to copy/paste or load a playlist but would be cool to do one list for all listening situations and it follow me around...


To be clear, I don't wear the hearing aids with earphones, headphones, or speakers when I am using my adjusted EQs.

[mwillems]

I would create a PEQ group for headphones #1, then one for earphones #1, and then one for Speakers #1 but never thought to ask as I assumed I was the only one messing with this.
I can probably accomplish this with different zones for each listening type... hmm...
Anyone know of a good way to have a playlist continue across a zone? Not a big deal to copy/paste or load a playlist but would be cool to do one list for all listening situations and it follow me around...


To be clear, I don't wear the hearing aids with earphones, headphones, or speakers when I am using my adjusted EQs.

Zones are one way to do this, but you can also save and load DSP presets.  Go into DSP Studio and then look in the bottom right, there's a button labelled presets and you can use that to save and load DSP settings.   

[eve]

Zones are one way to do this, but you can also save and load DSP presets.  Go into DSP Studio and then look in the bottom right, there's a button labelled presets and you can use that to save and load DSP settings.

This is definitely easiest to address with Zones.

I have a number of Zones that handle different playback situations and have their own 'DSP'. DSP Presets do work but I find them more unwieldy and less useful within Media Center. For example, I like being able to right click on an item and send it to a specific Zone. That's easier at least for me, than having a more generic Zone, and changing my DSP Preset, especially since it's not like I want to just flag an item to 'always' use a DSP Preset.