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
OMG I thought I was wasting my money in this hobby as I have tinnitus.  Just realized this last year.  I’ve always thought the ringing was normal.  Turns out my dad like to put me on his motorcycle growing up in Vietnam.  Thanks for sharing and making me feel like I’m not alone.  You guys are the best. 
Due to injury suffered in the military, nerve damage, I have used HA (Both ears - diminished hearing @ 3k hz dropping drastically above that) since 2004. Compliments of the VA, who get an undeserved bad rap, the benefit has been like removing a hand from in front of your mouth to reveal an openness that I really didn't realize was missing. What I found myself doing prior to the HA was getting brighter speakers/components to compensate.

Now, working closely with my audiologist who equalizes the sound according to my wishes and not applying an exact reverse compensation that my testing reveals combined with getting open HA so low frequencies are not amplified, I can again enjoy my music played through my not-insubstantial audio investment. When I first got HA they adjusted to a reverse curve, but this was always way too bright. 

The key to my current satisfaction is admitting that...I WILL NEVER regain the acuity/sensitivity of my natural hearing, a thought that depressed me because of my love of music. My hearing continues to deteriorate and I get new HA every few years (due to covid the VA is not seeing patients with partial hearing loss), so I'll enjoy as much and as long I can. 

On a more positive note, I seem to suffer less when listening through headphones...my last move until giving up completely and giving the rig to one of my kids!
Another extremely satisfied Oticon user. I put off getting a hearing aid to correct high freq loss in one ear, because I thought it would distort music. Boy was I wrong. Now I don’t seriously listen to music without them.
The Oticons are a tiny computer that dymanically ajusts frequency response in response to sounds in the environment. It won’t boost background noise, but just fills in your hearing gaps when directed voice or music sounds occur.
Very, very sofisticated software. Expensive, but cheaper than high end electronics.
Avoid cheap sound booster types. Nowhere near as effective as a state of the art hearing aid - about $7k three years ago.
@sokogear. Agree not a tweak, that was a creative way in doing my part to get a majority of the members to click on the post!
The sound quality of hearing aids are hindered mostly by the poor performance of the little microphones. I find that if I insert the earpieces gently, the domes allow more sound to enter with proper phasing from my speakers for a more natural presentation