Buy a good set of headphones. Then all is good
Hearing aid question
Decades ago I at least thought of myself as a bit of a "Golden Ear"; my Quad ELS/Pyramid supertweeter combo and associated electronics were a source of pride and joy. (All gone over the years, alas.) In recent years I have learned that I have essentially lost the top three octaves of my auditory frequency response, whether through natural aging or some other process I'm not sure; I also have a fair bit of tinnitus at this stage, but that has proved less of an issue in being able to enjoy music. So now I've gone from enjoying the transparent reproduction of great music to struggling to resolve the sibilants in my wife's speech. (In the overall scheme of things, the latter is arguably more important, at least in maintaining peace at home.) I still very much enjoy listening to music, but the high-end losses have somewhat diminished the joy of it.
I am of course starting to think about taking the leap into hearing aids as a genuine quality-of-life enhancement. I was wondering if anyone out there has dealt with similar issues, and perhaps formed opinions about which of the many available solutions has worked best as both a general lifestyle aid and a boost to their enjoyment of live and recorded music. Many thanks in advance.
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Headphones are at just as much a disadvantage without hearing aids as speakers are; I never knew what my headphones actually sounded like until I started using in-canal hearing aids with them. @peter_s - It would be nice if you could, but no, you cannot; this is specialty equipment. There is a reason that hearing aids cost what they do, even ones from Costco. |
I got hearing aids about 1 yr ago. Since I'm retired, my health Insurance has a deal with Tru-Hearing. The audiologist works in an ENT dr's office, and the hearing aids offered are made by Signia. My hearing loss is in the same range as yours OP. I got the RIC type which are made for TH by Signia. They are the AX series which Dr Cliff (audiologist on Youtube) considers to be among if not the best. BTW his videos were quite helpful in knowing what to look for in the process. The audiologist is the most important part of the process. They have to program for your hearing. Bottom line is that I am very pleased with the hearing aids. I now hear the highs. Yet everything about the sound is natural. I recommend these tru-hearing or the Signia AX RIC. First, a good dr/audiologist. BTW mine cost $700. The app allows me to tone down the highs or lift them up. If anything I sometimes have to tone it down of some more bright recordings and it still sound very natural. Here's Dr Cliff speaking about the newest gen IX vs AX. His other vids are very informative. BTW I found this vid AFTER i already had my Signia's
Signia IX Detailed Hearing Aid Review (youtube.com) Here's mine |
For those interested in the ASI 3DME IEM’s, attached is their response on their utilization by audiophiles. Thank you for contacting us! We also received your comments from Grand Piano Passion. We greatly appreciate your interest in 3DME and hope the information provided to me by our design engineer proves to be helpful.
As Heather Nancy indicated, the 3DME was designed primarily with the performing musician in mind, with very high fidelity audio reproduction and very wide dynamic range capability. While this dynamic range capability is greater than would be needed in a home listening environment, there is nothing that precludes the product’s use in that use scenario. As you have noted, even high quality hearing aids tend not to do well with music, as they are typically optimized for speech frequencies and characteristics, and with limited dynamic range handling. We expended considerable effort in making the ambience reproduction as natural and neutral as possible. The tiny MEMS microphones inherently have a very flat frequency response, with some low frequency rolloff and high frequency boost, which we do equalize out. But the net response through the system to the user’s eardrum is decidedly not “flat” as conventionally measured and would sound very unnatural if it were. That response needs to take into account the placement of the microphone in the earpiece and the ear, but also very significantly, the blockage of the natural ear canal resonance by the sealed earpiece. All this is not easily describable in a conventional frequency response plot. But your ears will reveal it. Tapping into the audiophile market does seem to be a natural direction: natural reproduction with the ability to compensate for individual hearing issues. In addition to loudspeaker reproduction, the excellent sound quality is also available for direct earphone listening. A cable adaptor is necessary to take the headphone or line output of a preamp into the 3.5mm Monitor In jack on the side of the unit. While there are many very high quality headphones out there, the 3DME can match up to the best of them, but with the added benefit of its sound adjustment capabilities. At present, we are still concentrating on our expanding live musician market and secondarily the concert attendee, but we would be well-advised to be looking seriously into the audiophile market. Modifications to the frequency equalization aspects could also be considered, although this would need to be balanced with the need to keep things intuitively interpretable. |
Their answer was in response to the following: For ASI, it appears the audiophile market is untapped although your product may be the best available solution. An audiophile wish list would be very high quality microphones with known frequency response curves with your electronics flattening that curve. (You may have that, but don’t publish it). Just 20-20,000 hz, without +/- on db. You should also expand the number of adjustable frequency bands, with potential slope adjustments on the bands. I believe Audiophiles would spend $K’s on such a product. |
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