[78-L] A doubt about EQ curves

[Graham Newton]

Kristjan Saag <saag at telia.com> wrote:

> Many of us who work with audio restauration or audio distribution in one 
> way or another are close to or above the age level when progressive 
> hearing loss sets in. 30 to 35 percent of adults between the ages of 65 
> and 75 have some hearing loss, usually affecting higher frequencies.
<snip>
> As long as our audience is our age there's no problem: the listeners 
> hear what we hear and are happy with that. But what about younger 
> audiences? And our younger colleagues? Could it be that the age factor 
> is involved in some of those "insensitive" transfers that we complain 
> about every now and then? And what about our own changes in hearing? Has 
> anyone of you thought of "compensating" for the increasing difficulty to 
> hear higher frequencies when doing restauration work?

Robert M. Bratcher Jr. <rbratcherjr at yahoo.com> wrote:

> I'm 55 now & haven't been to an audioauligist for years but then as far as 
> I know I can hear normally for a person of my age. On the other hand my 
> computer speakers seem to drop off at around 13.5 kiloherts when I've run 
> an audio sweep test on them with the graph on my computer moniter. The 
> question is, is that my hearing (with whatever earwax is there) or is that 
> where my computer speakers start to really drop off? I don't know.

and joe salerno <neechevoneeznayou at gmail.com> wrote:

> I am not aware of having suffered any hearing loss.

and further he said...
> Another way of cleaning out the ears is called ear candling. 

and Malcolm Rockwell <malcolm at 78data.com> wrote:
> Spend some money and get a GOOD hearing test (not from someone trying to 
> sell you a hearing aid! Their parameters are not broad enough for true 
> audio applications). They'll plot your hearing loss EQ curve. 

Referring to the above comments here are a few of mine:

Kristjan is pretty well "on the money"

If Robert has not had his hearing professionally tested, then he can't be sure 
because people often aren't really aware of their declining hearing as they 
age.  It is a very slow insidious process.

Joe is not aware for the same reason as Robert.

Oh yes, ear candling is worthless and is grade "A" number one QUACKERY designed 
to separate you from your money.  Ask any competent medical Doctor, preferably 
an ENT Doctor.

Malcolm nails it.


Here are a few more comments relating to Kristjan's question:-

Fortunately living in Canada, I get the benefit of our health care system, so 
my MD can order hearing tests at reasonable intervals (which he does) and it 
doesn't cost me anything.  Even if it did cost me, I would invest in it.

Given that I am 68 years old, and having recognized by testing that my hearing 
is not what it was years ago, I use a number of methods to confirm what is 
happening with the restoration processing work that I do.

CEDAR's Cambridge processes incorporate a very good and versatile Spectrum 
Display which I make good use of, as well as a DK Audio MSD-200 audio display. 
  Using these, or similar, tools you can see what good balanced sound should 
look like, and this will prevent you from "over" or "under" doing it when it 
comes to applying equalization which is probably the most important part of the 
audio restoration process.