Hearing aids

No regrets here. Mine have app control so the amount of tip up in frequency response can be changed by slider or semi permanently by AI interface. Musically I find them mostly a positive. It depends on the source, music and volume. They’re Bluetooth connected to my smart phone and TV. Dialogue piped directly to the ear is amazingly clear. Movie soundtracks are absolute audiophile quality in the percussive instruments.

I use the 10K tone control to compensate for my 40db down at higher frequencies. Any negative resulting from a tone control goes unnoticed.  Perhaps, there is a slight change in soundstage.

Hearing aids have a reputation of being horrible for sound.  they traditionally amplify voice frequencies with the goal of making a person barely functional to hear directions from a caretaker.  That comes from past days when people didn't get hearing aids until they were just short of totally deaf.  

Today, hearing aids on base settings are still very voice focused but not nearly as bad.  More younger people are getting hearing aids before their hearing goes fully away.  Think about glasses.  I magine if people refused to wear glasses until they were legally blind.  But now people are realizing that hearing aids are a great help, even if you have only mild hearing loss.  

With these changes, hearing aid manufacturers are becoming more and more accomodating of the needs of users who still have a lot of hearing.  Long story how I ended up with hearing aids about 5 years ago but people were shocked when I started wearing them.  they said "i didn't know your hearing was so bad."  I said, "It's not, but now it is much better, almost like being a kid again.".  Now I can name half a dozen people at work who have followed my lead and gotten hearing aids long before they were struggling.

So what about listening to music?  for music you do not want the heavy Artificial Intelligence playing with the sounds to make them more understandable.  What you want is just amplification in the frequency ranges where you have losses.  Most hearing aids now have a "music" setting which does just that.  

I have phillips from costco and they have a "Hifi Music" setting that makes me feel like I'm a kid again.   There is an ap on my phone that I can control them with.  Now the HIFI music mode can get tiresome in a busy restuarant or noisy car.  So I use the normal mode when not listening to music.  And when I turn on hifi mode, my face just smiles.

Jerry

I've worn prescription hearing aids for over 20 years now, and they're great - everything sounds better and clearer. Music sounds much, much better. Without them, it sounds like I've got cloth over my ears. My hearing loss is part age, part hereditary and part environmental.... I'd no more go without hearing aids than I would without vision aids like glasses. 

Thank you all so far this has been helpful.