I have a hearing issue - need more above 8k

RAJBCPA said:

So I've lost some hearing in the higher frequencies. Can this be solved using an equalizer? What about boosting the higher frequencies in a multi-channel home theater?

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While you CAN eq audio to counteract your hearing loss, you may find this is not desirable.

Think of it this way: If you hear a violin in real life and then a recorded one, you want them to sound similar (except in extreme cases). If you EQ the **** out of the recorded instrument, it may no longer sound like what a violin actually sounds like to you in real life.

And of course anyone else listening to the system will find it strangely unpleasant.

And while it seems like having diminished hearing above 8khz means you are missing a lot of content, the reality is that humans can hear about nine octaves of content, and the amount above 8khz is just about one octave. So you are still able to hear roughly 89% of the range of human hearing, including basically all musical instruments, except for some harmonics:



That being said, it's worth experimenting with just to see what you like. I would recommend that instead of using detailed EQ you simply use the Treble control on your system and turn that up a bit to sweeten the sound in a manner that is less likely do strange things than messing around with more narrow corrections.

I have a different take on this situation... this applies to hearing aids and adjusting audio equipment to compensate for hearing loss. Hearing aids aren't just increasing the volume level of every sound (if they do that, they should NEVER BE USED), your hearing is profiled and the inverse of that profile is what the hearing aid amplifies. Raising high frequencies with a tone control or equalizer does the same sort of the same thing. One thing to remember... if you have hearing loss and EQ the sound so it seems more linear to you means that sounds above 8000 Hz could be VERY LOUD in comparison.. an adjustment of 3 dB higher takes DOUBLE the number of watts from the amplifier. Just because you can no longer hear, say, 8500 Hz doesn't mean that loud sound at 8500 Hz won't cause additional hearing loss for you. What causes hearing loss is large excursions of your eardrum that cause large inputs to the fine hair-like nerves in your cochlea. If you can't hear a sound, making that sound louder means your hearing loss will get worse for all sounds! And you'll have to raise EQ or tone control repeatedly to hear those sounds. And the more you turn them up, the faster additional hearing loss will happen. This is a danger of hearing aids you don't hear about much. And you can cause the same thing to happen with EQ or tone controls. You may not think it sounds too loud, but it could be causing on-going hearing damage. The biggest source of large eardrum excursions in almost everybody's life is the wind that comes in your windows when you drive with the windows down. Your eardrums are BATTERED by the wind reaching your unprotected ear drums. Drivers can lose half the hearing in their left ear in 10-20 years just by spending a lot of time with the windows down while driving (right ear is in danger in country with right-hand driving sides). Using ear plugs stops 100% of the wind battering your ear drum and will give 100% hearing loss protection if you like to drive a car or truck with windows open or if you ride a motorcycle without a helmet the protects ears from wind.

Essentially yes if you pull your EQ curve off of your audiogram you could easily do a quick and dirty test this out and reverse the findings with a cheap graphic EQ before making more of an investment on a multi band compressor etc.

While the medical profession does not typically measure over 8k (i think their equipment stops there?) due to addressing people’s ability to interact and live a productive life, rather than maximize their audiophile aspirations, you could simply adjust the EQ to taste above 8k. Not sure how others in the room will like it, but i digress…

I do this to my studio monitors, and with popular music today there isn’t much in the way of dynamics, so that is actually helpful. Because the loss of hearing is more complicated than what one would intuitively think - instead of losing linear gain at a given frequency, you lose natural compression of the ear. If you were to look at our sensitivities to volume at any given frequency on the fletcher munson curve for example, it would be like applying a strong milti-band gate or expander on your ear. The lower bands (softer volumes) get wiped away at given frequencies and you can only hear the loud ones. So, if you are watching, say, an indie movie where the music is loud but then some scene of dialogue is painfully quiet, the EQ may not help that much.

Not sure if that was clear but that is my 2c, worth price paid!