hearing imbalance

I believe it is quite common to hear unequally out of your two ears. This is also true one it comes to sight, where one eye will often be dominate. We also have dominance when it comes to being either right or left-handed,with one arm or hand being stronger and better coordinated than the other. Of course it is possible to have suffered hearing loss in one ear. You might consider getting a preamp with tone controls or a good graphic equalizer so you can boost some of the high frequencies. Also high frequencies can be easily absorbed by room acoustics. Your hearing may also vary during different times of the day,change with your general sense of well-being and even weather conditions( low pressure or high pressure fronts)can effect it. If one feels relaxed and physically well, it is amazing how much better you will hear. Fatigue and stress can greatly affect hearing. Exercise which promotes circulation also can have a beneficial affect. Hope this helps.

Move the the bad ear side speaker forward about 2" closer to your listening position..Also try angling the tweeter a touch more directly towards your bad ear side..If you have a balance control set it to stronger to your bad side..After all that, just enjoy it and move on...The more you think about it the worse it will get..

first check all your connections speaker cable etc--make sure they are tight --which can cause imaging problems --then go to your doctor or ENT specialist and get your hearing checked--it could be something as simple as excess wax in your ear or something more serious --get it checked out---Rich

Plaser,

I wish you luck trying to find an individual with equal hearing in both ears. I assume that you have not had a sudden change in your hearing, and are talking about normal differences (for example, it's very common for people who drive with the window down to have hearing loss in the left ear). Of course, there may be benefits to having your ears checked, but keep in mind that hearing tests are generally limited to only 8kHz.
There is a long-standing misconception on this issue. Your brain adapted to your asymmetrical hearing a long time ago, and has made periodic adaptations as your hearing has changed throughout your life. You hear EVERY sound through the same ears, warts and all, not just your stereo. Try an experiment--have another person speak to you from various directions and, with your eyes closed, point to where you hear the voice. If you haven't had a recent change to your hearing, I bet your finger aims directly at the person speaking. I also suspect you don't have a problem when listening to live music.
If I'm right, go diagnose and fix your stereo (or have it fixed). If, as a relative newbie, you need help finding where the problem lies, e-mail me.

I've tested hundreds of people and never once was the curve the same for both ears. About 15% or so have a "noticable" difference between ears as you seem to. You cold spend many hours testing yourself and money/gear trying to correct it. You could play around with a supertweeter and an L-pad on the left side but as we don't know the exact curves of both ears no one could say how much improvement that would bring or any other method of correction. But I would try the tweeter/L-pad. My guess is you would want something that crosses at 3-5K - again a guess.

ET

Well, it seems like it was impacted ear wax from probably using q-tips. I used over counter ear wax remover and it did wonders to improve my hearing on the right ear. Thanks for all the feedbacks.

Glad to hear your problem was solved so quickly and easily, Plaser!

That being said, a friend of mine who also tested hearing routinely told me that most American men have better hearing in their right ears. Why? Because we have spent a fair amount of time driving with the window open - kind of an auditory "truck driver's tan".

Excellent! Glad to "hear" that!

ET

It's great that you resolved it. I've got close to a 10dB difference and I understand that's quite common. I've found that it's had little impact on my enjoyment of music.

What's really interesting is that accupucture has recently been improving it after decades of problem. I went to a new internist last summer and it was disclosed again in part of the normal testing. The testing included a pressure test that showed that my right ear (the problem one) didn't release pressure as it should. This means that the eustacian tube is not fully open. He gave me nasal sprays and some antihistimines, but nothing really changed.

Next thing, I go to an accupucturist for back pain and she asks me if I have any other issues, so I mention the ear. She says, "I think that I might help that." So, I've got needles all over (about 30) including a couple behind the right ear. In the middle of the very first treatment the ear pops and starts to clear. It's gotten steadily better.

Amazing. BTW, the back pain went away after two accupuncture treatments after months of no help from drugs and chiropracty.

Dave