DSP available for people with high frequency hearing loss?? Any options / solutions / etc.?

[Alamar]

Are there any off-the-shelf receivers or even component systems that would allow you to remap high frequency audio to lower frequencies?? Can this be done digitally or would some sort of "man in the middle" piece of equipment need to process analog signals before they're sent to the speakers??

Specifics: I have quite significant high frequency hearing loss [starting as low as 6500 Hz in one ear]. While I may not be able to do a lot about getting my hearing back I was wondering if DSP was available [preferably off-the-shelf] to help compensate for my high frequency losses so I don't miss certain high frequency queues in movies [or music or whatever]. Specifically I was wondering if higher frequency sounds that I CAN NOT hear could be remapped [via DSP or similar] to lower frequency sounds that I can hear??

Think of it like a high pass filter but instead of filtering out the high frequency audio we're just downshifting it into ranges that I could hear ...

Example:

1. I'd like to leave audio frequencies below 5 KHz unmodified. Just the normal sort of EQ that you'd do in any home theater room.
2. I'd like to remap the SOURCE audio in the range of 5 KHz to 20 KHz onto a target range to be output by my speakers of 5 KHz to 6.5 KHz.
   • Source 5000 to 5009 Hz mapped to target output 5000 Hz
   • Source 5010 to 5019 Hz mapped to target output 5001 Hz
   • ... Source 19990 to 20000 Hz mapped to target output 6500 Hz

Is there any off-the-shelf equipment that can do this? Is there a better way to accomplish my goal of "hearing as much of the original intent as my body allows"??? Any recommendations other than "dude you need to see a Dr." or "stop doing whatever you're doing"

 

[mtrycrafts]

Interesting question.
How is your hearing in the other ear?
You cannot re-purpose the high frequency and turn them into lower frequency.
If you mess and boost lower frequencies, you are defeating the how the recording sounds in the lower bands.

 

[Matthew J Poes]

I thinknwhat younsre looking for is a subharmonic synthesizer. It would be the most musical way of reproducing high frequencies at lower frequencies. Simply remapping would likely sound bad. Such devices exist for pro audio use.

I believe there are free VST plug-ins for this. I would give that a shot before investing in anything. Make sure it meets your needs.

Are you totally deaf at these high frequencies or just diminished? Another option is to compensate through significant HF boost. Just be careful, some people cook their tweeters doing this.

 

[mtrycrafts]

... Another option is to compensate through significant HF boost. Just be careful, some people cook their tweeters doing this.

Exactly. A 3dB boost doubles power into the tweeter, easy to blow it.

 

[Alamar]

Sorry I didn't reply sooner.

Both ears have significant high frequency loss. In terms of perception a steep dropoff begins at roughly 6500 Hz. In one ear I'm stone-cold deaf at 7000 Hz and beyond. In the other ear I'm 99% deaf at 8000 Hz.

In my case making high frequency noises louder wouldn't help as I'm effectively deaf to those frequencies.

While I don't know my speaker specs I was thinking that anything at 5000 Hz or above was going to the tweeter anyway so remapping audio towards the lower end of the spectrum wouldn't necessarily make it "louder" it would just make sure that I could hear it.

Of course this would alter the musicality from 5000 Hz to 6500 Hz in a negative fashion but I would gain anything above 6500 Hz. Then again how many movie and/or musical pieces have important information above 6500 Hz?? This is what I don't know.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Samsung smartphones have interesting Adopt Sound system which allows testing your hearing and EQ the sound accordingly to compensate for the partial loss of hearing.
https://www.howtogeek.com/316375/how-to-use-adapt-sound-on-the-galaxy-s7-and-s8-for-better-sound-quality/
Unfortunately, I don't know exactly the same function system for other platforms, but there are many different places where you could EQ the sound on PC/MAC with software or in hardware like MiniDSP. The problem is neither will measure your hearing. You'd have to adjust it yourself afaik.

 

[Alamar]

Samsung smartphones have interesting Adopt Sound system which allows testing your hearing and EQ the sound accordingly to compensate for the partial loss of hearing.
https://www.howtogeek.com/316375/how-to-use-adapt-sound-on-the-galaxy-s7-and-s8-for-better-sound-quality/
Unfortunately, I don't know exactly the same function system for other platforms, but there are many different places where you could EQ the sound on PC/MAC with software or in hardware like MiniDSP. The problem is neither will measure your hearing. You'd have to adjust it yourself afaik.

I did a quick skim of the article posted. TY for the info.

If the adapt-sound is basically straightforward "EQ" then I don't think it would help much because I'm effectively deaf over certain frequencies. I'll try it out anyway as my business phone may be compatible with the above article.

 

[Pedro Alvarado]

Are there any off-the-shelf receivers or even component systems that would allow you to remap high frequency audio to lower frequencies?? Can this be done digitally or would some sort of "man in the middle" piece of equipment need to process analog signals before they're sent to the speakers??

Specifics: I have quite significant high frequency hearing loss [starting as low as 6500 Hz in one ear]. While I may not be able to do a lot about getting my hearing back I was wondering if DSP was available [preferably off-the-shelf] to help compensate for my high frequency losses so I don't miss certain high frequency queues in movies [or music or whatever]. Specifically I was wondering if higher frequency sounds that I CAN NOT hear could be remapped [via DSP or similar] to lower frequency sounds that I can hear??

Think of it like a high pass filter but instead of filtering out the high frequency audio we're just downshifting it into ranges that I could hear ...

Example:

1. I'd like to leave audio frequencies below 5 KHz unmodified. Just the normal sort of EQ that you'd do in any home theater room.
2. I'd like to remap the SOURCE audio in the range of 5 KHz to 20 KHz onto a target range to be output by my speakers of 5 KHz to 6.5 KHz.
   • Source 5000 to 5009 Hz mapped to target output 5000 Hz
   • Source 5010 to 5019 Hz mapped to target output 5001 Hz
   • ... Source 19990 to 20000 Hz mapped to target output 6500 Hz

Is there any off-the-shelf equipment that can do this? Is there a better way to accomplish my goal of "hearing as much of the original intent as my body allows"??? Any recommendations other than "dude you need to see a Dr." or "stop doing whatever you're doing"

I'm thinking of getting a pair of these. at the bottom of the page they have a sample you can hear with your own headphones.

https://www.weareeven.com/

I'm sure using their headphones with their software will be far better though.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

I'm thinking of getting a pair of these. at the bottom of the page they have a sample you can hear with your own headphones.

https://www.weareeven.com/

I'm sure using their headphones with their software will be far better though.

Seems very similar to Samsung's Adopt Sound. The mindblowing part is after you custom measure your hearing, then unfixed music plays and then you switch to hearing corrected one and your mind is blown away. Btw same tech could be used to fix less than ideal headphones to some degree.

 

[Pedro Alvarado]

after using my samsung phone to adjust my headphones, i thought the same thing when i tried the even sample online.

they act almost identical but there would be some litigation if it was the same software i would think. i even thought there might be a licensing deal but even has their own team that works on even.

still, they act almost identical. they seem to bring forward the seemingly faded frequencies.