Hearing affecting soundstage

what was that you said?

Andy, i have the same problem,im always adjusting the balance on my preamp

As a result of 30+ years of playing drum kit and habitually monitoring from my right, I have a bit of high frequency roll off in my right ear. It can be really frustrating to say the least.

Tweaking the gain in the left channel a bit helps some, but spacial relationships are never what they used to be. The mix of most everything I listen to invariably feels slightly less dynamic and dull to the right. *sigh*

Although my HF sensitivity is degraded (flying airplanes was my downfall) I don't have any problem with soundstage. Maybe that's because my old ears are equally bad.

Andy,

I have the same problem (intermittantly) due to my allergies. The hearing in my left ear comes & goes.
I did own a Rowland Consonance preamp that was the best pre I've ever seen for balance adjustment. You could push right or left balance, one channel would go up a click, at the same time the other would go down. The digital display showed exactly where you were at.
It was a breeze to use.....
I can't use headphones when the problem is extreme, it makes me wince!

The problem I have is not that the soundstage shifted one way or another. The center mix is still there. Vocal is still right at the center.

But with recordings that have a diffused background sound or a background orchestra, the back soundstage is partly truncated on the right side due to HF roll-off of my right ear. A good example would be Diana Krall "I've Got You Under My Skin" on When I look into your eyes CD. On this song, the left soundstage extends all the way past the left speaker on the opening. When I did an experiment by switching left-right channel cables so that the left-right soundstage now also switched, the right soundstage (which was left originally) is truncated to somewhere halfway between center and right speaker.

I don't think the balance control will help me. I may have to reduced the treble response of the left speaker by putting a series resistor on the tweeter.