Does anyone use hearing aids when listening to your hi-fi audio system?

I sometimes do. Cymbals otherwise have no shimmer, and so forth.  A hearing aid is an equalizer matched to the curve of your hearing loss, for each ear, with some extra processing (admittedly, some compression.) 

Inexpensive aids won't do.  Mine are adjustable out to 10 mhz and have 4 eq curves, including one which is uncompressed.  Few of them adjust anything above 8 khz. 

I rationalized the $6K cost in part by considering them a component of my hifi system.  Not ideal, but what can you do if you have a big dip in your hearing in the typical 2-4 khz range?  Which, I suspect, considering their average age, most audiophiles do. 

Like you, @2psyop, I have hearing damage from shooting guns in my adolescent days and although I scored 100% on word recognition, I have trouble hearing normal conversation in a noisy setting like a restaurant. All the consonants like ch, sh, ng, th, etc. tend to smear and are at a lower level than the rest of conversation. It’s right around the 3Khz level where my hearing drops well below the rest of what I can hear. Anyone who’s gone shooting without ear protection, just once, will have this deficiency and never get it back. Once, broken.....

I find I don’t need hearing aids since the drop starts from 2Khz and continues slightly after 3Khz area and my brain, such as it is, easily makes up for it. The only downside is a loss of shimmer, air and presence with some music in that area.

Granted, you’ve had years of abuse from your service but I think you can work around it all unless your tests show that the damage is more severe than what I think you have. I wish you the best on this.

One thing I’ve found is that ribbon tweeters go a long way towards restoring some of that lost area of hearing. When I had speakers with them, everyone thought my system was a bit too bright but it sounded fine to me.

All the best,
Nonoise

Thanks for the response and tips. Interesting notion thinking of your hearing aid as part of your hi-fi (lloydc). Another thing, I did spend much of my time on the firing range, and back in the 80’s not too much hearing protection was provided or thought of .. as a safety net for hearing...like today in the US Army. Although I am not whining or finding fault at all. Guess like all things I will get used to them even though they still make me feel old!

lloydc, what make and model?

psag, I have Oticon Intiga 10 hearing aids.

The newer aids have faster processors and software.