Easily the best and most significant sonic tweak one could ever make!

Had my hearing tested for the first time recently.  I hear well, wanted a baseline.  Pretty normal but a big dip around 4KHz in the left ear.  Her first question- 'Do you shoot guns?'  Apparently this left ear problem is commonplace.  

If you are anything like me, and I know I am, maybe some of us should be talking to a shrink!  

Glad you’re hearing better. I’ve been thinking lately about how all people probably hear different like eye sight. And it’s kind of pointless for somebody to think what sounds good to them is the be all end all. With speakers, amps, components etc who knows what people are actually hearing and why get into arguments about it? Anyways keep enjoying your music. 

Ten years in a rock and roll band in the 60's followed by a motorcycle accident that dislocated the bones in my right middle ear, I suffer from significant hearing loss in one ear and profound loss in the other. I have worn hearing aids for decades. As a hardcore music lover and audiophile, there is nothing more tragic than hearing loss of this magnitude. Two middle ear surgeries and a fabulous audiologist have helped tremendously. I cannot overemphasize the importance of the latter. I also have Oticon aids and consider them to be the best $8000 tweak to my system ever.

But it is also essential to find an audiologist with a PhD because tweaking the equalization and levels of the aids is all-important. I agree that an audiologist that treats musicians is a bonus. Tweaking includes the proper settings for crowed restaurants, quiet spaces, and music listening. Mainstream audiologists can test you and set the aids based on the graph generated by the test but that is it. If your speakers or amplifier cost $10,000, you should find a proper audiologist to fit you; and you should take the time to do this over a period of months.

I still do live performances using in-ear monitors. I have an excellent set of monitors, but have yet to find a manufacturer who makes a box to equalize the monitors using the same algorithm my hearing aids use. If they can put such an equalizer on a microcircuit inside a hearing aid, why not in a box for ear monitors to plug into; or, for that matter for high-end headphones to plug into.

Just sayin'...........

Costco is the best place to go.

Great selection and best pricing.

And their audiologists are as good or probably better than a private one because they see many more customers/patients.