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

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.

I am soon to turn 73 and suffer from what I consider "mild" hearing loss.
My left ear is down about 40% compared to my right.
I am fortunate that I ran across a Hearing aid training study at one of our local medical schools. Highly ranked institution, usually in the top 5 in the country. It is a 10 week trial designed to teach people to use their aids for maximum benefit. If I make it through to the end of the study, I get to keep the instruments.
Someone earlier mentioned using them only occasionally. What I'm learning is that consistent use is required to train the brain to recognize the new sounds you're hearing and create new auditory pathways in your brain. The jury is still out as we are only about half way through the program but hey, what's not to like about free.

LJK

Best Tweak . Save your money invest and put the cash in the bank. You might need for a rainy day

Does anyone use, "Bone Conduction Transducers", with or without,  "EQ,", and/or, "Signal Processing"? Just wondering where that particular technology is at the moment. But also, where is it going?
Wondering about applications in both "H.A.", and also, "HiFi", as well. 
    At the last "Axpona", which was actually held, I do remember some rather large adds involving this, (Not so new), "Tech", as I walked through. And there was some talk about this also, as I remember it. That talk, "Touting", it's use in the realm of, "HiFi". 
 The only one's of this type, "Bone conduction transducers", that I have used worked great and they simply, "Amazed", "Everyone", at that time. But this was back in the very early 80's. "USN".
    Anyone?