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Easily the best and most significant sonic tweak one could ever make!

Well hearing aids of course (if you need them and many don’t realize they do). I was diagnosed with asymmetrical hearing loss in my right ear over a year ago at only age 52. Entirely in the upper frequency. (As hearing loss per my ENT is almost always symmetrical, the protocol for this unusual diagnosis is a MRI brain scan to rule out a tumor; thank God everything was normal there).

Anyway, while expensive (partially covered by Insurance in most plans in the States), the different listening to music is in absolute terms startling. The proverbial veil is wayyyyy lifted particularly on lyrics but really the whole presentation is improved from the midrange thru to the top registers.

Keep this in mind before upgrading your electronics or speakers and perhaps instead upgrade the most critical precision instrument....your ears! I share this and if it helps one member on here, well that would be really great.
aj523
agosto
45 posts
 
Interesting discussion. I am close on getting hearing aids but have a question of principle understanding:
The hearing aid - from a principal point of view - consists of a microphone, an amplifier and a speaker. If you listen through this device, doesn't that have an influence on the sound quality, i.e. isn't what you are hearing the sound quality (?) of the earpiece rather than your hifi system?
aj523 OP
373 posts
 
@agosto.  The answer is no. I forget how it was explained to me by the audiologist and doctor, but basically the HA needs to be programmed /calibrated/EQ’d whatever the right technical term is to fill in or raise the volume at the frequencies that are no longer audible.  Like having a volume control at those specific frequencies, for me entirely at the high frequencies where I couldn’t hear anything to begin with. And it’s very simple to do an a/b with or without test to see and the results for me at least were startling - it fills in the missing information you aren’t hearing to begin with so it’s not altering the sound and if it was you wouldn’t know cause you can’t hear it to begin with lol.  
Someone else may be able to explain better or talk to your ENT. 
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condosound
130 posts
 
AJ, Thanks for the good post. Could you pm me as well?
dickieboy's avatar
dickieboy
58 posts
 
Oticon user for several years. Definitely provides a huge improvement to music enjoyment and life in general. Don't put it off and the concerns about will a hearing aid not provide good sound quality are baseless, at least with my setup. You really can't (and IMHO shouldn't try to ) tune your system to accommodate hearing loss. Modern hearing aids are much more accurate and better for that. Oh, and I wouldn't waste my time with the in the ear canal type. They are a big compromise for vanity. The behind the ear versions work better and are now very small and discrete. Mine have no external controls and automatically adjust to volume and ambient noise levels. They work incredibly well, including for live music. Just do it and don't put it off, you'll be glad you did!
johnmohr
18 posts
 
 @agosto .  I had similar concerns about the sound being degraded with hearing aids. It depends on the type used. I use open type with microphone outside ear and tiny tweeters inside canal. The small tweeters do NOT block natural sound. They only fill in some missing higher frequencies. I got mine from Costco for about $2600 and I am very happy with them. My insurance paid for the majority of the cost. I sometimes use a Schiit Loki EQ to boost the highs but I think the hearing aids work a little bit better. Good luck. 
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