Best of Hearing Aids for deaf Audiophiles? Huh???

Albert- Are you sure you're not married to my wife's twin? Although on the third try now, its about 50/50. Sometimes she says never mind (can you hear Emily Latella aka Gilda Radner); sometimes she shouts it at me. Either way, it makes me nuts. Although I will admit my hearing in terms of sensitivity is sub-normal. Any hers is super-normal, esp. to the pitch that us guys mutter in ;~).

All kidding aside, I am interested in the answer to this question, myself.

I hear ya! There ought to be rules for spouse speak:

1. Before speaking, address your spouse by name, or pet name, to get its attention.
2. While speaking, try being in the same room as the addressee, and if possible, point your voice apparatus in the intended direction.
3. Expect the recipient to hear the words you speak rather than the thoughts inside your head.
4. Should you choose to respond, raise your voice at your own peril.
5. When all else fails, mutter and mumble incoherently.

All kidding aside, I too am interested in the answer to the question about hearing aids, as I've lost a bit of hearing in one ear due to an infection in there a number of years back. One of my former partners got a special hearing aid for his ear that is in the ear canal and helps in that it is unaffected, relatively, by ambient noise but helps him hear people speaking directly to him. Might be what I need, though I understand it is pricey.

On your question about the Andras, my only thought for you to keep in mind is that you'd need a home audition with your electronics. Sometimes a more revealing speaker tells us more than we want to know about the limitations of the equipment feeding it. I'm not that familiar with your equipment, but I have seen people try to drive very expensive Sonus Faber floorstanders with home theater receivers with very unsatisfactory results. So be careful; system synergy is often more important than the price or quality of one component.

My wife and I have very good hearing but at times suffer from difficulty in communicating when competing with other sources. You have some great suggestions listed above and I suggest that after you've had your hearing checked you pay attention to those. Living with someone allows you to develop bad communication habits that you don't use with other people. Addressing someone by their name/endearing term, looking at each other and defeating the competing sources solve most of these types of problems. We found that both of us, while walking away, would say a short sentence. This shows either a comfort level or a type of agression that we would never do to a friend or coworker. As we age our voices grow weaker too. Talk and change your habits. Your marriage will be better for it.