The unwelcome day has finally arrived! I am 62 and hearing was not as good as it used to be. I have had some pretty sophisticated hearing aids fitted. I was apprehensive that they may get in the way. In fact, they have helped restore my hearing of higher frequency notes (high frequency notes are the first to go). The aids are controlled from my phone and I can simply turn them off very easily. It’s a bit embarrassing and an unwelcome acceptance that you’re getting older but if your hearing is not what it was, do try them. The litmus test for me was that I struggled to hear some dialog on the TV
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Exactly same problem for me although I am now 71.
I don’t wear them for listening to the hi fi system but do use them for tv.
No surprise that Phonak, one of the worlds best hearing aid company also does one of the worlds best in ear headphones.
My hearing aids are Phonak - they are great!
Hearing Aids are a compromise. Full stop. Ask my wife if she can hear you. NOT a joke.
She finds my hi-fi TOO loud at most volumes. Totally deaf in one ear and 25% only in the other.
She bought a new one.This has Blutooth connectivity to a smart TV so you can play your hi-fi and the TV will send the audio to the aid indipendantly. Further more a second adaptor on the other ear will give 360 deg sound to the principal aid enhancing the audio experiance. A further, 2nd more, you can programme the aid by the use of a small remote to adjust volome and on/off switching etc.
All this at some £2.5K is siotting on the mantle piece as I type, unused. She prefers the old one with no bells and whistles.
Value your hearing. Seriously!
Douglas.
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You are quite right - they are a compromise. They are a compromise if the alternative is having the aural equivalent of twenty-twenty vision. But I don’t have that and not many people over sixty do have the same hearing ability as they had when they were younger. There is wear and tear on the delicate filaments in the ear canal. Good hearing aids target the frequencies where there is impairment is causing important hearing loss. It’s about 8.15 and I have just put the kettle on after inserting the hearing aids. I have listened to music with the aids working and turned off. It’s better with them on.
I use Halos. They have made the difference that allows me to hear music and Hi-Fi the way I feel I used to, subjectively, without excluding others with normal hearing — we can all listen together, at agreed volume AND EQ, with joy. The day will probably come when no aid spans the gap for me; but today I am completely satisfied. Age 59, three years with H-aids.
Nick
NickSeattle has got it absolutely right: if hearing loss is profound hearing aids will be of little use when listening to music but the level of loss through wear and tear age produces can be ameliorated by good quality aids
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As an old timer of 75 I feel lucky to not think I need a hearing aid. Or am I fooling myself? Who knows. An audofile friend has a CD of test frequencies and the last time we played these through my B & W 802D3’s I could hear 10K and I think 11K. 12K, no. If you can’t hear it DO NOT turn up the volume. Your tweeter will not like it. The 40 hertz tone rattled a book case door.
Another compromise caused by the small size of the Aid is the fact the batteries are round and shiny and can be a bit of a pig to fit. So my wife gets me to change this along with the filter.
As one ear is non functioning and the other works only on 25%, and it gets blocked with wax she has no hearing at all. We have found an audioologist who has a portable suction unit which is much safer than the old fashioned syringing.
Douglas.
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