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I tried doing some measurements of the Austrian Audio Hi-X15 which arrived yesterday, but I am having some problems which are probably related to my ear-canals getting blocked. I attached a measurement of the HD600 I did some months ago (on top) and for comparison done now (below).

You can see that there is a big difference especially the deviation between left and right became larger. I already noticed it during my recent recordings that I am getting a slight imbalance but didn't pay much attention to it.

Obviously the influence of my ear-canals on the overall measurement or even capturing of sound is larger than expected. I wanted to talk about this topic in a separate video once, how ear canals getting stuffed by earwax over time can have a huge impact on the perceived sound, although the brain accomodates and compensates for this, you will usually not notice this in everyday life. 

The first time I  noticed this issue was when I started my work on the Earfun Free Pro, the difference in perceived sound before and after professional ear cleaning by an Otologist was frightening. It seems that this also affects the perception of sound and even shows up in measurements as well.

I need to wait until I can get my ears cleaned professionally again to continue all my work, as I cannot even judge the sound of an IEM correctly, as all peaks are shifted to other frequencies.

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Comments

Anonymous

That sucks big time, lets hope there will be a place for you soon. Is it the same with speakers? I don't think so right?

oluvsgadgets

Yea the difference will be captured within the recording as well. Current recordings appear more muddy and with some imbalance compared to before

Anonymous

Could it be maybe your custom microphones rather than your ear canals? Any kind of clogging of the microphones could muffle the highs like that. Do you have any reference recordings with your artificial head wearing the microphones? That would take your ears out of the equation so you can see if your microphones are recording frequencies the same over time.

Anonymous

I am fine with this.

Anonymous

Yeah, i experience this kind of problem too. One day the EQ i always use for my speaker sounds really different from what it should sound. I notice that my hearing is changing from time to time and my taste of sound. We really cannot trust our ears and we need to come up with a good measurements to ensure we are on the right place and to calibrate our ears we need to have a trusted speaker as a reference for the right sound.

oluvsgadgets

I thought it may be the microphones first, but closing the opening to block out the ear canal left and right becomes more consistent. I still assume it’s the influence of the ear canal and I will get sure as soon as I was at the doctor. Mine is on holidays until next week though

Anonymous

I very appreciate that you do your work for the best possible accuracy. Even with slight differences user will get best result which is possible remotely. From my experience I can say that some ears catch more impurities than others which is not possible to affect even with correct hygiene habits. I am fighting with this almost whole my live (even after I changed my job to very clean environment) and going to professionally clean my ear canals regularly.

Anonymous

My boombox 2's got another update today, they sound really amazing for what they are now, i was in progress to send them back but will defenitly keep them now. What a sound

Anonymous

I think audiophiles in general don't get there ears cleaned.

oluvsgadgets

My Otologist told me that sound engineers from public TV and radio come to him every 3 months for ear cleaning. I also think that with more “normal” shaped ear canals or for someone who doesn’t use an Etymotic this issue shouldn’t be that severe. I started to get the problems after I had started to use the Etymotic again. Although I love it I will simply stop using it anymore to avoid these issues or at least to extend that period a bit