In the Ear of the Beholder

My initial impression of my 3WC build was a weaker mid-range compared to my W5-2143 and something off with the bass. The speaker measured flat and I had reached my target so taking a step back and analyzing the situation made me come to the following conclusion. Either my measurements are off or my ears. I already knew my ears had taken a beating through life. Loud music through concerts and headphones but also my work environment and a dive accident. I just didn't know exactly how bad it was so I booked a meeting with an audionome. She conducted some tests and finally handed over something looking like a response diagram. I didn't have to be an audionome to understand that it was quite bad, my ears did not measure flat, not even close.

I contemplated my options. I could buy a DSP and EQ my speakers according to  my ears response curves. It would work for me but not for the rest of my family. I finally realized that I had to bite the bullet and buy myself a DSP for my ears. And that is going to be the topic of this post. The fact that you should care about how your ears measure just as much as you care about how your speakers measure. And some ideas about what you can do if it turns out that your ears doesn't measure flat.

I personally opted for a pair of modern hearing aides. They are little marvels of technology with built in DSP doing real time processing based on environment analysis. But more importantly, they got a bunch of separate programs that I can lock in manually, music being one of them. This prevents them from switching to another program if someone starts talking while I am listening to music. These hearing aides takes care of everyday listening and listening through speakers. They correct the unevenness between my two ears and they also enhance the registers needed to better pickup speech in noisy environments etc. But they also come with additional gear like a DAC with analog and digital input that you can attach to your TV or preamp for wireless listening. They also provide full Bluetooth integration so I can use them as headsets with my phone and as in-ear headphones listening to Spotify etc. Extremely convenient filling a void in my daily life I didn't even know existed.

Is it as good or even better than perfect hearing? No not at all, you definitely want to keep your natural hearing as long as you can. But you grow older and things happen through life. If it happens to affect your hearing for the worst then this kind of technology might be a game changer. I know I personally prefer the inconvenience of my hearing aides over the loss living without them. For me its a no brainier since I can hear the difference and take the cost.

I still find the W5-2143 to be excellent, especially for vocals and spoken dialogs. But I also understand why I might prefer it more than others when I compare the response of the element with my hearing loss. It also explains why I found some flaws in the 3WC sound initially. Just know that those flaws was not due to a flawed 3WC design, it was due to my flawed hearing...