pipebro, you won't want to wear your hearing aids while listening to music. They don't sound that hot for music. It is just a mater of volume and EQ. The best way to go is to get a DEQX unit, Anthem STR or Trinnov Amethyst. These units not only provide room control but they allow you to alter the frequency response any way you want and you can keep multiple profiles in memory so you can easily switch back to a normal EQ when you have company over. I think the visceral nature of music becomes more important with hearing loss. Beethoven said he could conduct by feeling the music. He never heard the 9th symphony, he felt it! Anyway, all these units have digital bass management which makes adding a subwoofer a breeze. I think it will really add to your enjoyment. These room control units will also keep you in the hobby as they are a riot to play will and give you an unbelievable amount of flexibility as long as you don't mind playing with computers.
A detailed audiogram will give you an idea where you need to go but frankly their resolution is not that good and they stop at 8,000 Hz. In the end you will have to fine tune it by ear. You can also keep different profiles for different types of music. As an example, music with a lot of energy between 2 and 4 thousand Hz you will find annoying maybe even painful. You can make a curve with a 2-3 dB dip in this region which will improve things quite a bit.
This will definitely improve your enjoyment of music but for how long I can't say. People's hearing declines at different rates. Very few of us become stone cold deaf. The major problem for people with hearing loss is maintaining a conversation in noisy conditions like a loud restaurant and frankly, most hearing aids to a poor job of dealing with this situation. Bose makes a product called Hearphones. I now recommend them to all of my patients with hearing loss and they universally love them. They are directional hearing aids. All you have to do is point yourself at whatever you want to hear and the rest of the environment gets cut off. They are the best for conversation and stuff like watching TV. They will even work well at concerts and lectures. I still would not wear them for Hi Fi listening as your system will be one very large programmable hearing aid with limited if any interference. And, by the way they only cost $430.00. Dirt cheap relative to even inexpensive hearing aids (which you will learn are a big racket) For people on a budget they are the only way to go.
