2. tech-talk
  3. 168111-110341

Hearing Aids

Well Folks, I had to bite the bullet and get a pair. Went to an audiologist and the result is moderate hearing loss with tinnitus. I had already read some discussions here and researched other places as well and settled on a pair of Widex Moment 440's. I've had them in for 5 hours now and the clarity they provide with speech is astounding. Just got home and starting to listen to a wide variety of music. They have a "music" mode that is definitely more natural sounding than the other modes. I think it's going to take me a while to get used to hearing frequencies/sounds I was missing but these do have the ability to tweak a bit so I'll explore that later. I am finding right away I'm listening at lower volumes and there is now a crispness to notes along with textures I didn't have before. I'll update later as I progress with these. But overall very happy I made the move.
128x128ratboysr
lloydc's avatar
lloydc
751 posts
 
The music mode is likely just a flatter eq curve.

unfortunately, hearing aids are designed with no thought at all given to sound quality.  Seriously, none.  Except for the implanted Lyric, they are all didital now.They are equalizers that bring up the volume in the frequencies where the consonants at the beginnings of words are, which help humans distinguish speech, mostly in the 2-4k range. 
tsushima1
1,165 posts
 
Most pleased for you @ratboysr....
erik_squires
16,039 posts
 
Awesome.  Never be afraid to use technology to improve your enjoyment of life. 
mlg
56 posts
 
@ratboysr, I have the previous model, the Widex Evoke 440.  I found that using the SoundSense Learn program to customize the sound, while listening to music, allowed me to create an equalization curve that made music much more enjoyable than the Music program.  You may want to experiment with this a few times.  Again, you need to go through the program while listening to music to fine tune the sound.  Good luck!
ratboysr's avatar
ratboysr OP
60 posts
 
@mlg I found that as well. However I was listening to instrument-only jazz when I first ran it and it sounded terrific. But every other genre sounded absolutely terrible. Ran it again listening to some Steely Dan and that seemed much better for most music. It will be fun continuing to tweak it and see how good I can get it.
More to discover