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Thread: Serious question. Hearing

  1. #31
    Join Date: Apr 2016

    Location: Gravesend and France

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    I'm paul.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Stranraer View Post
    Stating the obvious we all presumably spend a considerable amount of time and / or money on music, and it's becoming increasingly apparent that my left ear is in far better shape than my right.
    I blame it on being in the firing line of a Marshall guitar cab most nights over a 12 year period. I wasn't even the talent. This was colateral damage.

    So rather than thinking about the next cable or box of electronics, I'm wondering if anyone out there's invested in hearing aids, and how it panned out.
    I definitely don't yet need them in my day to day life but like reading glasses, am fairly sure I could upgrade the sound quality by giving my ears a helping hand

    Anyone been down this route ?
    same for me back in the seventies, night after night with a Marshall stack in my left ear. Always noticed using a phone in my left ear was not as clear as my right. Not so bad that I felt the need for hearing aids. Nowadays bands use some kind of specific ear plugs
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  2. #32
    Join Date: Mar 2017

    Location: Seaford UK

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    I'm Dennis.

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    A factor which makes it difficult for me is the change in dialect/enunciation from the time of my formative years. If I listen to any TV showing Pathe News it is always intelligible, and Auntie spoke correctly in the 60s and 70s, but they gradually changed.

    I struggler with American films to understand much speech, and R4 obscures its lack of really valid argument with poor enunciation, and some inserts are absolutely wordless to me.

    Of course wide band speakers makes this worse because of a lack of attention to mic. usage in media generally, and we have proximity effects most of the time. If you listen to the TV news on wideband speakers, you will hear the lavalier mics. under the chins producing a really adulterated FR.

  3. #33
    Join Date: Nov 2011

    Location: Wakefield west yorkshire

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    I'm James.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Pharos View Post
    I have severe hearing loss in my right ear, nothing much above 5k, and some in the left. In my last job as a BT field 'engineer' I had to trace lines using a detector which produced at maximum a level of 131.5 dB in the headphone, and high levels were necessary when in a noisy environment, eg. 105dB at London Bridge.

    irony, after litigation I purchased my current loudspeakers which go up to 50kHz.

    At the BBC in '70 we used to clean uniselectors, and used an aquarium full of Inhibisol with our arms emerged in it up to the elbows; it is not unlike carbon tetrachloride.

    At the Lab of the Gov't Chemist I used to maintain gas chromatographs, lined with asbestos, and on the notice board were the three types, white, blue, and brown, listed as a serious hazard to the lungs.

    I do think that hearing aids are a no no for me because they are unlikely to be transparent, and as with glasses, I insist on making myself work to maintain what I have, and, although briefly, listening at 130dB at 30 ft on ATC 100s which I did in about '98 does not improve intelligibility. I restrict myself to about 75 max now, and hear everything, (except due to hearing loss, the ding bells on Enigma).
    If you dont fancy a regular hearing aid you could look at a bone conductive one,they can fit on your glasses I tried a cheap Chinese one and found it incredibly natural, I lost it when we decorated
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  4. #34
    Join Date: Mar 2017

    Location: Seaford UK

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    I'm Dennis.

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    I do not consider that a hearing aid will (yet), improve my hearing, and with a change of diet I have improved it and got rid of tinnitus, even gaining a return of some HF in the right ear.

    I do not wear glasses, I do eye exercises and eat for my vision.

  5. #35
    Join Date: Mar 2017

    Location: Seaford UK

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    I'm Dennis.

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    Regarding intelligibility, after years of the Hi-Fi fraternity talking about flat responses, and then a downward sloping one, I have just come across this from an apparently respectable source, and it seems to make a mockery of flat and sloping graphs.

    https://www.audiosciencereview.com/f....17598/page-88

  6. #36
    Join Date: Apr 2012

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    I'm Geoff.

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    Doesn't surprise me. Let a non-discerning listener loose on a Hi-Fi system that has a multiband graphic equaliser and I expect you'd find they'd set it up like that. Plenty of boosted presence and bass!

    The top end roll-off is also to be expected, as the average listener may either not understand treble or not be able to hear it clearly.
    It is impossible for anything digital to sound analogue, because it isn't analogue!

  7. #37
    Join Date: Feb 2008

    Location: South Wales

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    I'm NotTakingLifeTooSeriouslyTheseDays.

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    An interesting one Dennis,
    Obviously we all hear sound diffrently to a degree, but for someone to state that Graph as the norm to strive for i think is a bit misleading.
    I did a sweep of my system a while back using a calibrated Mic into a real time analyzer [Mic was placed at the listening position at head height] anyway; i did the sweep using a signal generator and got the result below.
    Quote Originally Posted by Pharos View Post
    Regarding intelligibility, after years of the Hi-Fi fraternity talking about flat responses, and then a downward sloping one, I have just come across this from an apparently respectable source, and it seems to make a mockery of flat and sloping graphs.

    https://www.audiosciencereview.com/f....17598/page-88
    Attached Images Attached Images
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  8. #38
    Join Date: Aug 2009

    Location: Staffordshire, England

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    I'm Martin.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Pharos View Post
    Regarding intelligibility, after years of the Hi-Fi fraternity talking about flat responses, and then a downward sloping one, I have just come across this from an apparently respectable source, and it seems to make a mockery of flat and sloping graphs.

    https://www.audiosciencereview.com/f....17598/page-88
    if you read the thread it is relating to headphones, not speakers.

    For loudspeakers, studies show preference for a downward curve, level at 20Hz to be 10db higher than level at 20Khz. This is a 75% preference, there will be 1 in four who are outliers who don't like it like that.

    if a speaker measures flat in an anechoic chamber then when placed in a room bass frequencies will be boosted by room gain and high frequencies will be attenuated by soft furnishings, thus delivering (roughly) the generally preferred balance.

    This is why it's a good idea to design commercial speakers to have a flat response anechoically, more people will like them and you will therefore sell more of them.
    Current Lash Up:

    TEAC VRDS 701T > Sony TAE1000ESD > Krell KSA50S > JM Labs Focal Electra 926.

  9. #39
    Join Date: Mar 2017

    Location: Seaford UK

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    I realised that Macca, but it is seemingly rather extreme, and to me rather unexplainable.

    I also agree with Geoff's point re. graphic equaliser, but not about the top which can often stick out as a separate entity.

  10. #40
    Join Date: Aug 2009

    Location: Staffordshire, England

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    I'm Martin.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Pharos View Post
    I realised that Macca, but it is seemingly rather extreme, and to me rather unexplainable.

    I also agree with Geoff's point re. graphic equaliser, but not about the top which can often stick out as a separate entity.
    Back in the 1980s when 5 band equalisers were quite common on midi-systems you'd more often than not see them set to 'smiley face.'
    Current Lash Up:

    TEAC VRDS 701T > Sony TAE1000ESD > Krell KSA50S > JM Labs Focal Electra 926.

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