Hearing Aid Confusion

There is no universal solution, Photon46 is correct. Everyone's ears are different, and you need to figure out what works best for you by trial and error. You should definitely go by what an audiologist recommends, what worked for a fellow audiophile may be very wrong for you.

possibly off topic, but if your hearing loss is due to otosclerois (middle ear bone no longer working due to hardening), it can be fixed with surgery.

I've had both my ears done and don't need hearing aids as a result.
The surgery is called Stapendectomy, and they replace the middle ear bone (stapes) with a metal prosthesis.

Only takes about 45 minutes and you go home hr later.

First, I am an expert listener. Second, I have used hearing aids for almost seventy years, so I think I know what is important in getting hearing aids to help 'listening'.

Having said all that I suggest the following: Find a good audiologist, one who has a large base of clients that are professional musicians. Read Mead Killion's stuff. Mead also has been at it for almost fifty years. Get your hearing tests from a medical provider who is not going to be the audiologist that sells you the hearing aids. Avoid BJ's. Make proper fitting of the mold a top priority, it makes all the difference. Look into aids by General Hearing that feature the DigitK amps/circuits. Killion was involved in the design work on the latter. Killion is the design genius behind the ER ear buds.

About three years ago I paid $3K for a pair of General Hearing aids, olds, fitting and a ten year supply of batteries. Very pleased. They are programmable, and allow four programs, one of which can be a music program. Do not go for aids that are 'rechargeable', stick to batteries. A lot of audiologist do not carry General Hearing stuff, so you may need to search by getting a list of providers from General. The mark up on hearing aids is very high, like hi end on steroids.

Your effort will reward you with many, many more years of listening, not to mention that you will be able to understand what your grandkids are saying.

I have Oticon Intiga aids. yes, hearing aids will improve your stereo listening experience. they are just very samll equalizers, which compensate for loss of sound above 4khz. they can restore proper balance and the highs you have been missing. The bad news: the best ones cost $6K per pair.

unfortunately, if you have mild hearing loss, only the top of the line aids will help. the behind the ear types do not affect bass at all, they only operate above 4khz, where most of us over 50 have losses, and where speech intelligibility is affected. The best have multiple eq curve, more bands of eq than the lesser models, are individually programmable for each ear, and mine have wireless bluetooth connectivity to my iphone. the "music" progam can turn off the compression and algorithms designed to extract speech data from noise.

A friend of mine designed the Lyric, which is the absolute best sound available from an aid. Only good one left on the market which is analogue. Not for mild loss, they are completely imbedded in the ear canal and invisible. you don't buy them, you subscribe for about 8K/yr. Ear wax clogs them and they have to be replaced often. Supposed to even be a waterproof model now. Very popular in Hollowood and for anyone for whom vanity is a priority.

I have the Lyric in one of my ears, and it is programmed to compensate for the frequencies where I have hearing loss due to an infection years ago. It works very well, though it can be overloaded and compress when hit with loud sounds in the higher frequencies (I have to turn it down to its lower volume settings when attending concerts or listening, for example). The frequency ranges where it can help are in the highs and midrange, not the bass. Costs a lot less to subscribe to than Lloydc writes, at least where I am ($1700/yr), and the subscription is handy because you just replace it when it stops working without worrying about changing batteries, extra costs, etc. It does have its limitations in terms of precise equalization--you're not going to get a flat response curve--but it has been a help to me. It also takes a bit of getting used to, and sometimes it can wiggle its way out of the ear canal or gets lodged in the canal in a way that blocks it to varying degrees, which requires me to visit my audiologist for him to adjust if I can't do it myself (it is not easy to reinsert it properly after pulling it out, at least for me). As the others above say, each person's needs are different, you really need to go to a good audiologist, find out which frequencies you need to address and go through the various options.