What a curse and why not could be called a blessing contextually. I went to measure my hearing and even on the graphs it’s looking unnaturally acute. Subjectively it’s so much worse (well, “better”) that I seriously can not listen to most music at reasonable dB without a CNS relaxant to prevent the ears from rattling distortedly.
I can hear up to 23kHz and it’s not exactly hyperacusis nor tinnitus, seems more like the suspensions on my tymphanic membranes are over-compliant and respond nearly painfully unless curated with medicine.
It’s not even the gear, it’s to do with all sound.
I’m forever chained to pregabalin and benzodiazepine treatment if I want to be able to enjoy music at all.
Or, in all seriousness, some proper earplugs - I have several friends for whom level reducing earplugs are essential whenever they go out or are involved with anything involving sounds (two autistic, two not) and they make a big difference.
Me I always wear them for a gig, but that is, i think, mostly for hearing protection.
Relating to the problem as described is an ear-specific set of peak areas in the audible spectrum that trigger surplus characteristic resonance modes in the ear(s)
Vanishing and pure 2nd order harmonic content with a good tube setup might help. Or not.
…and yes, an equalizer would help if correctly tuned, but that’d be more or less haphazardly listening to “not the original track”
I forgot to mention though, living for me is all in all necessarily bearable thanks to the mentioned meds. Can’t complain, and yes, they fix the ears too!