A Second Chance At Stereo

[SMcD]

Three years ago (long story involving a car crash in 2012, a slow-growing cyst, and SEVERAL ear surgeries) I permanently lost all hearing in my left ear. The loss is total - nothing involving bone conduction will work, because the relevant bones are damaged beyond use.

 

Since then, I've become painfully aware of all the finnicky realities of stereo vs. mono. I first learned about phase cancellation shortly after the ear switched off, when I was listening to Sympathy for the Devil and noticed the piano had disappeared (sidebar: as far as I'm concerned, the Stones are heroes for re-releasing their catalog in mono). Every time I have to learn a cover, it can be a struggle to pick out the necessary parts: check if they disappear in mono, switch back to stereo, flip my headphones around to check if they're in the other channel, see if other parts pop out more in mono, ad nauseum. And it's pretty disappointing when you pull up your own tracks on Spotify, only to find that the summed mix isn't quite right.

 

Then there's being on stage. I manage, but not without difficulty. I'm forced to be stage right so I can have a monitor facing my good ear, and even then my L-shaped rig guarantees that the sound is constantly shifting. On outdoor gigs, small stages, or anywhere where monitoring and stage plotting is suboptimal, my ability to hear everything I need to is a crapshoot.

 

Recently, I finally got serious about investing in IEM's. I want good stage sound that stays with me regardless of my location or direction. But the mono problem still remains. I can send DP's to the FOH in stereo if I like*, but in terms of what I hear myself playing, it's a choice between insufficient bass (R channel only), boxy weirdness (sum to mono), or the few generally-less-intricately-realistic mono piano programs on my PC4. I've bugged several of you over the past few months trying to learn more about my options here, most recently in the thread about mono PA systems.

 

Then, this afternoon, I finally put the right words into Google, and the sky opened up: https://www.sensaphonics.com/collections/custom-in-ear-monitors-earphones/products/221

 

The Sensaphonic 221 is a single earpiece that contains separate hardware for the left and right channels. Rather than electronically summing them to mono, it inserts partway into your ear canal so that both channels hit your eardrum (fairly) separately. As I understand the product description, it basically simulates what my good ear does in a room with separate stereo speakers: no directionality, but no phase cancellation either (because the sound waves interact with the matter between the source and the eardrum in all kinds of intricate ways). Alternatively, imagine cramming two earbuds right next to each other, but it still fits comfortably in your ear.

 

Honestly, the idea of "keep the channels separate, but in one container" seems so intuitive to me that I'm surprised it's not more commonplace. Hell, my old Traynor K4 does that, and it absolutely transmits the full "depth" of a stereo piano sample. In any case, if I understand this product correctly...it's a game-changer. Coping with my suboptimal hearing is not always easy, and my world has brightened just by learning about it. Plus, it won't just help me off-stage: I'll finally be able to listen to Pink Floyd in their properly-mixed (albeit non-directional) glory again.

 

I've sent them an email to clarify a few things. Next, I need to make a referral with an audiologist so I can send them impressions of my ears. In the meantime, I'm very [cautiously] optimistic about regaining some of what I've lost. And if any of you fellow ivory-tinklers have the same kind of hearing loss as me, then this could be something for you to look into as well.

 

 

 

*[THIS IS NOT A CALL TO DEBATE THE MERITS OF SENDING STEREO DP'S TO FOH]

[David Emm]

Allow me to speak on behalf of everyone in saying Ouch! I'm pleased to see the technology improve to such a degree. Hearing loss is the dark secret fear of every musician and engineer. I admire your persistence. I've hit a couple of walls, too. The best thing you can do is to emulate three-legged dogs: keep going anyway. Let us know how the next stage evolves.

[SMcD]

Thanks for the kind words, David.

 

Now for the catch: I need to find a small mixer with a stereo aux send so I can take advantage of this. Or, at the very least, something that can output two separate stereo mixes. Any recommendations (besides the Key Largo, which doesn't have quite enough inputs)?

 

EDIT: this seems to be the ticket: https://www.soundcraft.com/zh/product_documents/notepadusermanual_v-1-0-pdf-39904d60-489d-4d19-94f1-50f0975fbac8

 

This mixer has a button that turns the aux send into a headphone out (i.e. unbalanced stereo from a TRS cable).

 

Now, most stereo IEM transmitters take either dual XLR's or dual TS cables as input. So the question is: what's the best way to adapt an unbalanced TRS to either of those things?

[stoken6]

6 hours ago, SMcD said:

Now, most stereo IEM transmitters take either dual XLR's or dual TS cables as input. So the question is: what's the best way to adapt an unbalanced TRS to either of those things?

When you say "transmitter" do you mean wireless? Do you want a wireless IEM setup? The simplest thing is to go wired and connect your Sensaphonic IEM to the headphone socket using a 6.35->3.5 adapter. 

 

If you want to connect a TRS headphone out on the mixer to a wireless IEM transmitter with 2xTS inputs, something like the Hosa STP203 cable (https://www.amazon.co.uk/HosaTech-STP-203-inch-Insert-Cable/dp/B000068O1P?th=1). Similarly for TRS to 2xXLR, but those cables seem to be rarer.

 

Cheers, Mike.

[sherry]

Sensaphonics is located here in Chicago.   Dr. Santucci and his staff are great.  I've used their IEM products for years.  They really try and address every individual's needs.  Years ago I was in there getting a fitting and there were members of Ozzy Osborn's band picking up their IEMs.

[SMcD]

Update/thread necromancy:

 

Shortly after discovering the Sensaphonics 221, I discovered that Ultimate Ears makes a similar product (i.e. a single, custom-molded IEM with separate armatures for left & right channels). I emailed both to ask some questions. Sensaphonics didn't reply, UE did. After some back-and-forth, I ended up being reasonably satisfied that the UE offering would deliver a well-preserved stereo image to my good ear, and I made the order.

 

It arrived about three weeks ago and...I was disappointed (read: devastated). I used some internet test audio to verify that out-of-phase signals (i.e. things that disappear when electronically summed to mono) do come through with the earbud. However, they are extremely faint relative to in-phase sounds. As such, in practical applications (listening to music or playing a stereo DP patch), there is no discernable difference between mono and stereo with this thing.

 

The stereo mix of "Sympathy for the Devil" is my go-to test for these things -  the piano should be incredibly prominent when the source device is in stereo, and this is obvious with external speakers. The Ultimate Ears IEM failed this test: the piano is phase-cancelled into near-silence, regardless of the audio mode on the source device. And it makes no difference to the age-old problem of "boxy mono summation" when playing a DP, either.

 

I'm wondering if they made the "holes" too close together, so that the audio from the left and right channels is summing in the air before hitting my eardrum. Perhaps a few extra millimeters of space, or slightly different angles, would maintain enough channel separation to keep a fuller stereo image (the fact that I can hear the stereo difference through my Traynor K4 suggests that it should be possible to funnel some combination of channels into my ear canal in approximately the right way).

 

Alternatively, the fit may be off. Getting the impression was more uncomfortable than I expected, so the IEM may have ended up being too "big". The seal is good, but it does seem to sit further out than the ones in the stock photos, and trying to push it in further causes discomfort.

 

I'm waiting for customer service at UE to get back to me on these issues. Hopefully I can bounce it back to the lab and they can sort it out (I'm approaching the end of the 30-day return period). Failing that, maybe I'll get on the phone with Sensaphonics.