hearing loss and amp choices

Oh boy. Good topic. I can’t hear anything above 8k and I have tinnitus, but that doesn’t stop me from really enjoying music. I have several things to say about what has been said so far:

• Hearing aids: most of them are truly junk. They, and audiologists, focus on boosting perception of the human voice - all else be damned including the quality of that sound. If you think bad audio sounds bad, you haven’t heard bad yet. I have two pairs ($6000 and $6500 - one is Phonak Audeo) sitting in a drawer because they are irritating at best, and listening to music with them is like going back into the stone age of solid state music repro (think bad transistor radio in 1962). And if you have tinnitus like I do, they just aggravate the hell out of it. I am aware of Widex but have not been able to listen to them yet. Maybe....

• Audio systems: I guess equalizers might be helpful, but I find that even with my hearing loss I am easily able to discern the quality of gear and recording quality without making adjustments like that. A few specifics: The top tier series of Fyne speakers have a presence control that includes your hearing loss frequencies, though I keep mine at slightly minus of neutral. GaN based amplifiers are very clean in the upper mid to high frequencies which make it easier to perceive (avoid Pass and the like). Very high resolution gear, like ARC preamps, are also helpful (I have a REF 6SE on order). Yes, tubes!

Bottom line for me is I really enjoy quality music reproduction in spite of my hearing problems. Hope this helps.

I will not repeat this excellent advice from ghdprentice....I will only add this...

If you own a dedicated room work with basic acoustic/psycho-acoustic principle...This work marvel for me...Use your "impaired" ears to tune the room for what you are able to hear yourself and enjoy about timbre and imaging ...

My best wish for you in this journey....

Appreciate of music through a high end system has little to do with the details of your actually hearing specs unless they are severely compromised. Yours are not. Ignore it.

My hearing has always been compromised compared to my partner… most of us are… females have better hearing. I have taken her to most major auditions of equipment over the decades… she always had an opinion… “that sounds better… that hurts my ears.” But she always differs to my deep knowledge of the details and differences.

The only thing you need is a balance control. Forget about the measurements, work towards a system that makes you happy.

Curtdr is absolutely correct! I have fairly compromised hearing that happens to everyone in my family. The biggest improvement in my system was a pair of Oticon hearing aids. I have no idea why so many are so reluctant and advocate trying to tune your system to your hearing loss. What a waste of time and money.Hearing aids are programmable and your hearing will probably change over time. It pains me to see these threads when the answer is so obvious, just try it!

For sure you are also right...

It is relative to the specific individual and the level of impairment...

And hearing aids with an acoustically tuned room by the user himself and for himself  with his hearing aids in place  will be optimal...

Curtdr is absolutely correct! I have fairly compromised hearing that happens to everyone in my family. The biggest improvement in my system was a pair of Oticon hearing aids. I have no idea why so many are so reluctant and advocate trying to tune your system to your hearing loss. What a waste of time and money.Hearing aids are programmable and your hearing will probably change over time. It pains me to see these threads when the answer is so obvious, just try it!

This is a great thread.  I've been thinking about starting a similar discussion.   I too have some hearing loss and tinnitus, more so on my left ear.   I use my 2 separate gain controls on my preamp to boost the left channel.   For my 5.1 HT, I crank up the center channel so I can hear the dialogs better.

I'm on the borderline in terms of needing a hearing aid, but I think I will eventually.  I'm always curious if hearing aids will or will not affect the perceived sound quality coming out of your stereo system.  There seems to be some conflicting experiences here.  

So whoever is reading this, please continue to chime in with your experience if you use hearing aids regularly for your daily routine,  do you keep them on for music or remove them?  and if you use if for music, do you find that it degrades or enhances your music listening experience?  If you find it enhances your experience, please let us know which brand/model hearing aid do you use.

Anyway, don't mean to change the subject here.  Please do help out OP on his question on Amp choices.  Thanks.