Help finding software to boost frequencies as a result of moderate hearing loss

[hedghehog]

Hi thanks for reading,

 

I've got a hearing aid and moderate hearing loss in my right ear and I'm looking for a way on my pc/laptop to boost certain frequencies in my right ear. This is such a niche little corner of demand that I've had lots of trouble finding anything to do this. I'm thinknig that maybe I could use software that isn't actually intended for this purpose but would do the job. 

 

Any help is much appreciated

[Kilrah]

Any EQ software should do?

[hedghehog]

24 minutes ago, Kilrah said:

Any EQ software should do?

Thanks! Ill have a look

[Ralphred]

58 minutes ago, hedghehog said:

I've got a hearing aid and moderate hearing loss in my right ear and I'm looking for a way on my pc/laptop to boost certain frequencies in my right ear.

Welcome to the club. I've never found anything for windows that allows me to EQ on one side only, I resorted to cutting and re-soldering the headphones to have a small cap on the left channel to boost the higher frequencies a bit, then use the balance in the realtek manager thingy to drop the volume on the RHS.

In linux I use jack and eq10q, everything gets routed through, essentially, an 8 channel EQ, I boost/drop each output for the 5.1 speakers and the headphones independently, and at the right frequencies.

It's a chore to set-up, but once it's done it's done, and is transparent to everything that plays sound.

If you don't find anything to do what you need, if you know your loss in DB at specific frequencies we could probably work out a hardware box to put between the headphones and whatever is producing sound, if you are over about 15db loss at any freq though it'll need to be an active unit which will exponentially increase complexity of the build.

[hedghehog]

5 minutes ago, Ralphred said:

Welcome to the club. I've never found anything for windows that allows me to EQ on one side only, I resorted to cutting and re-soldering the headphones to have a small cap on the left channel to boost the higher frequencies a bit, then use the balance in the realtek manager thingy to drop the volume on the RHS.

In linux I use jack and eq10q, everything gets routed through, essentially, an 8 channel EQ, I boost/drop each output for the 5.1 speakers and the headphones independently, and at the right frequencies.

It's a chore to set-up, but once it's done it's done, and is transparent to everything that plays sound.

If you don't find anything to do what you need, if you know your loss in DB at specific frequencies we could probably work out a hardware box to put between the headphones and whatever is producing sound, if you are over about 15db loss at any freq though it'll need to be an active unit which will exponentially increase complexity of the build.

Wow what are the odds you stumble across this thread! I've done several proffessional hearing tests which all basically say the same thing that after about 2000Hz I have moderate-severe hearing loss all the way down to ~85DB.

 

I believe i'm actually covered under the (Australian) gov. scheme and can get a free pair of these Audeara headphones which do exactly what I want but within the headphones, so It works on any device you use it with. Have a look at it here, https://audeara.com/

[Ralphred]

Oh, they sound great, that's a really good price too.

And fuck me 85Db, how long have you had it, took me about 3 years to understand people in conversation to the same level again, I'm about 15Db up to 4KHz, then ramp up to ~40 by 6K, staying flat to the end.

On the plus side, your cut off point sounds great for chatting with the lads in the pub, but not being able to hear the Mrs whine about it when you get home :P.

[Kilrah]

23 minutes ago, Ralphred said:

 I've never found anything for windows that allows me to EQ on one side only

Doesn't Equalizer APO work? https://sourceforge.net/projects/equalizerapo/

[Ralphred]

Just now, Kilrah said:

Doesn't Equalizer APO work?

The problem is inserting it between the low end of the windows sound api and the card drivers, you need it to work on EVERYTHING, and that's not a lowest common denominator market.

[Kilrah]

6 minutes ago, Ralphred said:

The problem is inserting it between the low end of the windows sound api and the card drivers, you need it to work on EVERYTHING,

That's exactly what it does! When you install you select your sound output, and it hooks into it to alter everything going through it.

[Kilrah]

You can also use Voicemeeter Banana/Potato, they both can do different EQs per channel, and even per output. Simpler to use than APO.

 

[Ralphred]

On 7/1/2020 at 9:25 AM, Kilrah said:

That's exactly what it does! When you install you select your sound output, and it hooks into it to alter everything going through it.

Ah, cool, there was nothing around 10 years ago when I started looking for this stuff, but there is an interesting looking fork jack which would be quicker to use 'cus I have the eq curves saves as files.

Thanks for the info tho, will take a look next time I boot windows.