Hard of Hearing Audiophile.


This is for my hard of hearing audio peers. I lost a lot of hearing from exposure to big guns in the military. Wasn't bad until my fifties then caught up with me and pretty much killed the hobby. With the virus quarantine, I set out to build a little system that would serve me. I was motivated by enjoying Spotify through my JBL 200 Life bluetooth buds. 
I went through four sets of speakers, six integrated amps and a set of headphones in my quest. I have Widex hearing aids and they do have a less than perfect Music setting. Kind of harsh and peaked in the upper midrange but not totally bad for live performances and listening in the car with road noise. 
For my audio system, I quickly realized that I had to listen through these hearing aids to get decent sound so my goal was to find something that was neutral to easy going and not peaky or harsh. 
I went through several sets of speakers. Got a good deal on some PSB XB bookshelf's but they lacked the body and bottom end I wanted. Klipsch M600 were too forward and brash. After reading some reviews, I settled on ELAC Debut 62 speakers. These are great $600 speakers. I later added two eight inch Outlaw M8 subwoofers and they really added to the sound quality and the PSB monitors were very nice with the subs. I kept both the PSB XBs and the Elacs.  I settled on Audience Ohno interconnects. They got a good review in Absolute Sound and are excellent interconnects. I'm using 3130 Mogami OFC speaker cables nicely terminated to look professional. Conductor size came out to about 9AWG. (two 12 gauge on each leg) The sub cables are some Belden 8412 with Canare F10 RCAs Terminated by me. Good sub cable but sucks as an interconnect. I cant speak highly enough of adding the Outlaw M8 subwoofers. It made a huge difference in the system. 
Sitting on a wooden shelf, I slipped an 18"x18" Ceramic tiles under subs. Seemed to tighten up the bass a fraction. 
I had a OPPO 93 DVD player and it is my CD source. 
Amps are where I had trouble. Luckily, I discovered the Yamaha S801 integrated, and it's calm honest influence makes the entire system sound really good to me. One of Steve Guttenberg's favorites along with the PSB XB speakers.
I passed on the Cambridge 100 receiver for being dead sounding. Denon PMA800 was nice but no sub out. Outlaw receiver had a characteristic sound to me and music seemed not to escape the front of the speakers. I ordered an IOTA  integrated from England and couldn't get it to work for me sonically.  The Vincent 500 had a nice midrange but lacking in bass control and fitness in the details. Parasound 200 integrated and great bass and the remote was the absolute best I've ever seen, treble, bass and balance being adjustable from your listening position and you can see the bar easily from, in my case eight feet away. Too harsh and forward for me. 
I found a used set of HiFi Man headphones for $130 on Ebay and they join the mix. 
This setup is in my garage/work shop. I got some foam sound material from Amazon and glued it to the wall behind the system. My speaker stands are a very sturdy work counter. I have limitations. The speakers can be set out from the wall one foot max. 
Thats been my adventure. If you have hearing problems, just experiment and look for the neutral sounding equipment that other may think are not exciting enough. For me it works. I don't know if any other hearing aid has a music setting or not.  I am super happy with my enjoyable system now. I even got a stamp of approval from an audiophile friend with good hearing. 
My thanks to Crutchfield for their generous patience with my returns and ditto for Audio Advisor. I expected to be red tagged as a return abuser but it never happened. 
Remember that my hearing is damaged and your mileage may vary. Objets in the mirror are closer than they appear.

fredcdobbs
fredcdobbs,

'Remember that the hearing aids don't give you anything that you don't have now.'


That's a shock to read, in 2020. A timely warning, thanks.

When I think of some of those pub gigs I went to with all that sound/noise bouncing off the walls... 
Ah, the joys of aging....

I have RAGING tinnitus and confirmed hearing loss above 7khz. 

Thankfully, I don't perceive missing  out  on "everyday" sound-normal conversation and general music listening and my guitar playing.

This past week, experienced 2 audio disasters. My ancient PS Audio Power Plant took its last breath, along with my beloved 1965 Macintosh MR 71FM tuner.
While those 2 are shipped off for service, I'm back to basics-amp straight to the wall, everything else plugged into a prehistoric PS Audio AVS3000 conditioner.

Even with my crappy hearing, I heard the immediate "veil" over the music.
Few days later, my hearing has adjusted to it, and it sounds...fine. Just missing the extra "kick" the Power Plant gives. As for FM listening...nothing beats an old FM tubed tuner. 

Keep on listening-whatever it takes
I've been obsessing and testing some more and I think I am just about through. 
While I liked the S801/Elac combo, I took a step up. 
I now have a Schiit Ragnarock 2, Revel Concerta 2M16 bookshelf speakers, the same Audience Ohno cables and have added a Denefrip Ares II DAC to my Oppo transport. I have SML 400 Dac coming on a 30 day audition and may even try the Schiit Bifrost. All in the $700 range. The Oppo on it's own was so good, it took some doing to best it. 
Had an interesting time hooking the audio out from the Oppo to my amp and the Oppo Digital out through the Ares into a different input on the amp permitting instant comparisons. So far an Ohno Coax sounds quite good. I also have a Nordost Blue Heaven to try. One anomaly took place with a half meter D 60 Kimber digital. After a while of working well and sounding capable, the Dac quit processing until I removed the cable and replaced it with a full meter Audience. 
Does it sound reasonable that a DAC wants to look at a longer cable of it quits working? With this cable I did have trouble getting the filters to work. I don't know. It was weird. At one point the Audience Ohno coax sounded sub par and now is very good, Lots of detail, sound stage, imaging etc. Might just have been me? 
Post removed 
Some years ago; I owned a California Audio Labs Delta transport and both their Alpha and Sigma DACs.     My first choice for an AES/EBU cable was a .5 M, Kimber Orchid.      Sounded horrible (which was diametrically opposed to my experience with their other cables)!     I recalled an article describing reflections in short digital cables and purchased a 1.5 M Orchid.     If ever my system requires another AES/EBU; it’ll be an Orchid.     Just my own experience.      Opinions vary.       ie (see comments, here): https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/technical-article-digital-audio-cable-reflections-and-dacs.7159/