hearing loss and amp choices

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.

Honestly this has been the most informative thread for me ever almost here. I am near the end of litigation with work to cover hearing loss and of course in the ensuing discussions with Dr.'s et al. my info has been sold and I have been inundated with offers and appointments for hearing aids- real true info has been hard to come by such as cost of good tech, brand names to check out and etc. ; as for my listening habits for 2 channel; I just turn it up. Tho currently I just use some Harbeth 30.1's (love em) and a Nova 300 (passable) or headphones(Grado GH2). Anyway, thanks again y'all and especially curtdr for what sounds like some news I can use.

I have to agree with xcool, a great thread and informative. To the OP's original question, are high end amps a waste of money if you have hearing loss, my experience says no. I developed tinnitus in 2011 and went to an audiologist who measured my hearing. Other than the high frequency loss from old age, I have a moderate loss at lower frequencies (around the typical vocal range). Not severe enough to "require"' hearing aids but easily measurable.

Both of my 25 year old amplifiers quit last year so I made an upgrade when I purchased new this year. I could hear the difference, better detail and bass are obvious even with my somewhat defective hearing. So, for me, the extra expense was well worth it.

Jim S.

Expensive hearing aids from an audiologist are very different from cheap hearing amplifiers at Costco or wherever.

I use in-ear hearing aids for TV, music, and even headphones. Life was so vastly improved (and music started sounding so much better) when I started wearing hearing aids about 15 years ago. Glasses help the vision-challenged, hearing aids help the hearing-challenged - it's all good....