Hearing Aids for audiophiles?

Dguitarnut

Dguitarnut

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St Petersburg Fl
I have noticed an increasing difficulty understanding the spoken voice especially in noisy ambiences. I have even resorted to putting on captions on my tv viewing......dang Brits might as well be speaking French lol...... And of course when commercials come on at twice the volume I can’t find the remote fast enough. The only positive I find is that my frequency response loss is where the wife’s voice is.
:P
So I went over to my local Costco and had the dreaded hearing test done.
Yep, moderate to moderately severe hearing loss in the spoken word region.
I couldn’t find much current information on what’s the SOTA in hearing aids for audiophiles. Pretty much all new models have multiband programs which can automatically or manually be switched to depending on the situation or need. Phonak, Resound and Starkey were the most mentioned as having better music capabilities.
Of course the price is commensurate with the technology which includes user apps that can control the various parameters with sticker prices up to 7K per pair.
The audiologist told me that the primary design of hearing aids are for voices and not music. They may not do anything for your music in some conditions although in more severe cases it could very well help.
I went with their Kirkland Signatures which are made by Phonak.
They are very high quality with blue tooth for iPhone streaming. Missing the rechargeable battery option but the batteries are cheap.
Costco has a 90day return policy so I thought I would try these and if my music enjoyment with them in place is an improvement I may splurge for the Resound aids but they jump to a hefty $2.7 K per pair.
Here is my graph
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As you see Mike those Magicos M2´s would be waste!
:upthis:
i will give updates after I get them in a couple of weeks of my journey.
 

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That is good info, interested in how they work. I know I have some degree of loss from 25 years in Machine Shops and Press Rooms. I plan to get a full physical in the new year and include a hearing test.
 
I know this might be blasphemy for some, but what about using EQ to boost the appropriate frequencies? If you use Roon, it could be done with their DSP engine. Just a thought!
 
Hearing aids process the signal for speech characteristics. It’s not just an EQ which is another reason I have my doubts of a ‘musical” improvement.
You may be able to understand the spoken word better but the music may sound artificial or processed. We will see, I mean hear soon.
It may be that I will have to replace ALL my audio gear once my hearing is corrected.
Mike has been selling high end audio to a bunch of partially deaf old guys.......the emperor has no clothes!
Shame on him!
:rolleyes:
 
Hearing loss is a natural occurrence for all of us. Part of it is genetics and the other part the environment(s) we've been subjected to in our daily lives.

As a former homicide detective who was on the SWAT Team (as a sniper and hostage negotiator ...) and a firearms instructor and previously served in the military I have fired 100s of 1000s of rounds of ammo on the range and elsewhere. My doctor remains in awe that I can still hear at all, much less be tested and have perfect hearing by his equipment standards. Part of the reason though is genetics and the wearing of at least double if not triple hearing protection. But I still have hearing loss. All of us do.

One of the reasons why high-end audio is so subjective is because we all hear differently. Even the shape of our ears may allow more or less audio waves into our ear canals which waves are then coded and transmitted to our brains so we hear what we refer to as sound ... If we receive more waves then of course logically we hear more details. So, some systems may sound better to us than others. But it's not necessarily that one is bad and the other good, but what works best for us at a specific moment in our lives! So, as an attentive audiophiles' we should recognize that as our hearing changes so might / should our equipment!
 
Calvin said:
.....

One of the reasons why high-end audio is so subjective is because we all hear differently. Even the shape of our ears may allow more or less audio waves into our ear canals which waves are then coded and transmitted to our brains so we hear what we refer to as sound ... If we receive more waves then of course logically we hear more details. So, some systems may sound better to us than others. But it's not necessarily that one is bad and the other good, but what works best for us at a specific moment in our lives! So, as an attentive audiophiles' we should recognize that as our hearing changes so might / should our equipment!
Click to expand...

This is an interesting observation. From what I have noticed, the most renown reviewers of the high-end are old guys. Yet not a single reviewer, from what I can tell, posts their hearing curves on a regular basis (if at all). So that makes you question if those reviewers's (unknown) hearing issues are being reflected into what they write about.
 
nicoff said:
This is an interesting observation. From what I have noticed, the most renown reviewers of the high-end are old guys. Yet not a single reviewer, from what I can tell, posts their hearing curves on a regular basis (if at all). So that makes you question if those reviewers's (unknown) hearing issues are being reflected into what they write about.
Click to expand...
I agree. One would think that a hearing test would be a regular requirement for any reviewer. But sadly it doesn’t appear to be.

This statement, “So that makes you question if those reviewers's (unknown) hearing issues are being reflected into what they write about” is an incredible and very valid point and one that IMO should be brought to the likes of Stereophile and the entire audiophile community ...
 
Just turn the music up. I am 70 and I suspect my hearing has slightly declined, but a bit of volume fixes that. I do take care of my hearing, and wear ear protectors around loud noise. For example, the vacuum cleaner, or the lawn mower.
 
This is one funny thread, as in humour to you yanks.. I was born with hearing loss.
I have heard things in machinery before trained technicians & alerted management when I was operating machinery in the gold fields of Western Australia as I operated that machinery, that, there was critical failure about to happen. It did 4 weeks later. The technicians denied & refuted etc. etc.
I hear cars, different noises etc, out of the norm, pull up outside my house. Perhaps because I have developed an effect that my brain implies because of my hearing deficit. All my life I have strived to make this a null & moot point... It never happened.
Hearing aids are good. I've used them more off than on in the last 2 years. Mine were free because of work place cover & the industry.
 
Good luck with your hearing aids Larry.

4 years ago I finally succumed to my wife's requests to get hearing aids.

I had reservations as to what it might do to music listening should I choose to use them at that time.
I chose Widex for my equipment. Once I received them my Audiologist was very helpful with tweaking one of the programs in mine specifically for music listening. I took 3 or 4 adjustments to achieve it but, I think, she took personal satisfaction when we finally got it right. Possibly because she had worn hearing aids since she was a child.

I found harmonies of voices once again sounded like a group of separate voices instead of a slightly distorted vocal that made me think my audio equipment was having a problem.
At no time did I get the feeling of any negative effects on the music from the hearing aids.
Whether what I think sounds wonderful is the same for othe is not my main concern, as it may not. That said I am 100% behind anyone trying hearing aids for music listening.

In the end, I feel I received more benefit listening to music then existing in day to day life from the hearing aids.
 
I've been a hearing aid wearer for 30 years. I lost all of the hearing in one ear, and am probably 40% deaf in the other. It's kind of a joke that I like audio equipment so much, given my hearing deficits. I didn't know all of the highs I was listening in music unitl I started wearing them while listening around 10 years ago. Prior to this, I just turned the volume up, but I was still missing the full range of music tonality until I started listening with my aids.
 
I'm going on my third pair. An expensive adventure. I'm at the stage I wake up in morning one of the first things I do is put my aids in.If I don't it's just not fair to the people around me. I don't want to be saying what.
Some comments: make sure you are seeing an audiologist and not a hearing aid specialist, your first challenge will be getting over the itchyness this takes 1 to 2 months, I use over the ear type (OTE). I also use a streamer for my phone which I can not live without. I also use my streamer for my multi line phone at the office. One of the leaders in the hearing aid business is Oticon out of Denmark. They are widely available through out North America.
I suspect a lot of Audiophiles have a hearing loss as we try to compensate for our loss.( just my guess)
 
Those of you that have hearing aids, which ones do you use? Can you rate them for us? Are yours rechargeable or do you have to constantly purchase batteries? How well can you hear? How much have they improved your hearing or not improved your hearing?

I would think this info would be valuable for most here.
 
I have used Phonak for years and am trying Oticon aids now. Being deaf in one ear I use a type of aid called a bicros. It has a microphone on the dead ear side which transmits the sound into the other ear’s aid. Other good brands include Starkey, Resound, Siemens and Widex. Oticon just came out with the first bicros aids to enable streaming music and phone calls directly to the aids from an iPhone or Android phone. It’s really terrific as the music or phone call is sent directly to the aids so no need to hold a phone to your ear during a call and no extraneous noise between Tidal music and my ears! Both brands have rechargeable aids but I’ve gotten use to batteries. They only need to be changed around once per week. Hearing aids to me make the music more crystalline, for lack of a better description. I cannot function without them and those around me are thankful I have them. For me, one unfortunate drawback, even with the latest digital technology, is that they are still terrible in crowds or where there is a lot of background noise. I tend to do better without aids in this situation. perhaps this deficit is due to the fact that I don’t hear binaurally, ie, in both ears. However, in all other listening environments, they are indispensable. If you or your loved ones notice your hearing isn’t what it used to be (for example, your wife complains you’re turning up the volume on the TV too high), you owe it to yourself to go first to an ENT for a thorough exam, and then, if your physician informs you that you would benefit from hearing aids, to a licensed audiologist to be fit for hearing aids. under state law, they have to give you a 30 day trial period, so you can make sure the ones you purchase are right for you. It takes your brain a week or so to get used to hearing aids, so even though they will at first seem very unnatural (for example you’ll hear your own voice and it will sound strange to you), after you adjust to them, you’ll find them to be indispensable.

They are quite small and virtually unnoticeable to others, even if you believe everyone is looking at them in your ears. They aren’t. In any event, vanity should take a backseat to functionality every time! And believe me, your friends and family will appreciate you more for being able to hear them versus having them think you’re ignoring them or having them have to shout to get your attention!

As to hearing aids being expensive, they cost a fraction of what many of us spend on audio components. Meaning no offense to those of you in the audio industry, what’s more important, having a $20,000 amplifier or a $5,000 pair of hearing aids that enable you to hear sufficiently and function better in life?

Hope this helps those of you considering hearing aids.
 
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