Thank you both for your contributions to this thread.
Despite already having my new hearing aids I am still learning a lot from peoples experiences here & am feeling better equipped to face any further changes in the, hopefully, distant future.
I suspect that others here have started to evaluate their own situations & think that, in the longer run, this can only be a good thing.
As an interesting aside, the whole hearing loss question has made me wonder, like never before, about how different each of us is actually hearing regardless of whether your hearing is good or you are using aids. May go some way to explain why some think Brand A sounds great & others think it is awful & Brand B is much better?
A very helpful thread. Thanks so much. As you say our different Hi-Fi preferences may well be explainable by variations in our hearing. I often wonder we can’t have tone controls again, rather than being forced to buy another 2k cable to get the balance right. Now we have the potential to correct, perhaps more accurately near our ears. It is a much easier to correct at low power. One other thought: I understand that the brain often adapts to make the most of the information it receives, so as long as it gets the info, maybe your perception of Beethoven etc will recover. PS first post, hope it is ok!
About 5 years ago now I had a bad bout of vertigo so went to an ENT consultant who had an audiologist in his practice. He suggested a hearing test which was done immediately.
He told me of the sad cases of “social isolation” he came across by people logging off due to difficulty in hearing. The nervous laugh as one responds to something you haven’t picked up. The self defence of answers like “indeed” “absolutely” etc.
I’ve posted here previously about the worry that music would not sound good through them as it took a good few visits to get them to sound good with music. Thanks to @davidhendon giving me the information and encouragement to persevere, eventually I could actually hear that most of my previous years upgrades were trying to compensate for my hearing loss! All those dull sounding drums gone! When music doesn’t sound as good as you remember it’s probably because you’re not hearing as well as you did!
I’m now on my second set - P90s - and my experience of one’s brain compensating and acclimatising to hearing aids makes me smile at all the burn-in threads on the forum. And I take with a large pinch of salt the “speaker A is bright” “ BRIGHT if anything it’s dull and uninvolving” opinions.
What I initially thought of as a death sentence to my music/hi-fi hobby is nothing of the sort.
I think we all are a little bit conscious of them at the start but that goes as one becomes aware of quite frankly their life changing benefits.
Now if only Phonak would do a “Pub” preset- and if only I could have the opportunity to use it.
After a couple decades working in radio with the headphones up at the bleeding setting, I can sure relate to this. It’s a shame to have a nice system and not be able to enjoy the full range of audio. Congrats on your decision.
Excellent thread and very thought provoking. I’ve had some tinnitus in my right ear for the past 2-3 weeks. I’m hoping it’s wax, but, mostly prompted by this thread I’ll see an audiologist in Hove tomorrow afternoon, either for some wax removal or a consultation on what the issue might be…
It certainly hasn’t helped me decide in my home trial of a second 555 PS on my ND555, though I think the difference is still clear enough judging from reverting to a single supply.
The other thought that is provoked is to what degree our HiFi listening habits are possibly responsible for our hearing issues as we age?
I have read this thread with great interest, it seems that I am not alone in finding out that hearing aides are the best upgrade a person with hearing loss can make to a HiFi system.
My story is similar to Canary. Similar wife issues. Similar trepidation about hearing aides. Similar vanity issues.
I took the plunge. My audio world was transformed.My audiologist set up my aides to include a music setting which as I understand it takes some of the noise canceling off. Music now sounds just like I remember it used to sound.
Since getting my hearing aides I have upgraded my system by adding a Supernait3 and an XPSdr to my NDX2… Each step has resulted in an increase in sound quality. I wonder about any future upgrades.
I guess that listening is subjective but that doesn’t matter a jot if I believe I can hear quality increases.As far as I am concerned I am hearing what I could hear when I was much younger and that is good enough for me.
Don’t put up with hearing loss. Forget vanity no one will even notice your hearing aides, they will just be pleased that you can hear them.
Jim
Ey up, this reads exactly like my experience over the past six years or so, treble all gone etc, two digital tuned aids later, upgraded from a uniti lite to a Nova and pure musical heaven is back!
micro suction on my earwax this afternoon has de(a)finitely improved my listening and my hearing in general. £90 for both ears, but certainly highly recommended if you think you may have a wax build up issue…
I also had a hearing test after the wax clearance to check my frequency sensitivity. Here’s the result. I guess it won’t mean much to most, but for those with familiarity it may make more sense.
Fairly normal hearing to 2Khz, then down 40-45db at 4K and down 70-80K at 8K. Audiologist Judgement was borderline/ possible future need for hearing aids.
He demonstrated the Phonak P90’s for me to see what they do. Definitely a good boost to higher frequencies which was an interesting option for both general and conversational use and possibly also music. I was tempted to buy some just as an optional boost in particular situations like pubs, restaurants (remember those!?) and music listening, but don’t think I yet truly need them. I may need them in 2-5 years by which time I guess new, better models may be available so I’ll hold off for now.
To use an analogy, I think my hearing is at the stage where I can still read ok, but a +1.5 diopter set of glasses would make it easier, albeit with the need to adjust to the odd effects that come from wearing glasses for the first time. I have no issue with getting some hearing aids. I’m pretty sure I will at do so at some point. Great thread!!
With a loss like that I’d be at least trying some aids. My working ear is like yours and getting the aid makes a massive change. I’ve discovered that there are quite a few birds round here! The ability to chat easily with people I meet outside has been transformational. The guy who supplied mine let me try them for two months before paying and I have the option to return then for a further two months.
I believe they ( Sussex Audiology Centre in Hove) offer a ‘6 week return if not satisfied’ policy. I’m still at the considering stage and said I’d let them know if I wanted to go for it. To me, it’s almost a ‘free’ ( apart from the £2.5k cost!) option to have the ability to use them or not. I’ve just spent £800 on a switch, £6k on a second 555PS for the ND555. A big part of me is thinking this would be the best vfm upgrade I could make.
I have zero issues with needing to wear hearing Aids. Nor should anyone. Millions and Millions of folks wear glasses to correct their vision, we don’t consider that a handicap or peculiar. Well hearing aids are no different. They’re simply eye glasses for your ears!
Thank you for sharing your experiences. I’m heavily struggling with hearing loss in the past 12 months. Just came out of hospital and still lying in bed - my fourth intervention at my ears in one year - and I’m only 44! This is becoming really depressing and I wouldn’t have thought that before all this started…
So, although I cannot wear hearing aids at the moment, because my ears are still sick, I tried them last summer. I was really looking forward to try them because I was nearly deaf. Wearing them was a shock - positive and negativ:
I couldn’t believe what I could hear now / I couldn’t believe what I didn’t hear before.
I was shocked!
I was also shocked because of the bad sound quality. These hearing aids did cost around 3000 Euros and the guy said it the sound quality doesn’t get better with aids when you pay more for them.
It was great that I could hear so well with these things, but the sound itself was horrible. It was clear to me that I could kiss it goodbye to my hifi-system (that I just bought 6 months before!) and my hobby.
So, your post gives me hope. Hopefully I can wear hearing aids in the future. And hopefully I can have the same great experience that you have.
My question: I know that it takes a while to adjust the aids until they sound good. But it was so bad when I tried them, that I cannot believe they could be adjusted to well that they sound good - so good that it is fun again to listen to my music.
What are your thoughts and experiences about it?
To everyone: In case you are healthy and don’t struggle much with issues like hearing loss or whatever - enjoy every day and thank whomever you can thank for this!!!
I think they can certainly be adjusted to sound better for music, but whether your audiologist has sufficient understanding of high quality music listening is another matter. You might want to gently discuss that particular point and also try to put into words what it is about music that sounds so bad if you use your hearing aids.
An example was that my latest pair of aids sounded terrible on music and it turned out to be the maximum sound output (MPO) was set too low, so they were distorting whenever the music got loud. Also the fitting software tried to compensate for my high frequency loss by over-emphasising the upper midrange. This is a strategy that works to some extent for speech but it’s totally inappropriate for music.
I agree with HH. For music that loss is really significant and you could massively improve how things sound with a pair of hearing aids. You will be astonished. You shouldn’t wait to do it.
Firstly, thank you canaryfan for addressing a problem so many of us know we have but are in denial about.
Like so many other people, I didn’t think that hearing loss was happening to me until it became inevitable and something had to be done. The purchase of a pair of phonak 90’s proved to be a revelation ! I would estimate that my hearing (which is decimated in the upper frequencies) is back to about 95% of where is was. I also think that I owe Naim an apology. I worked my way through a few black pre and power amps but never really liked them - it’s probably due to my hearing rather than the amps themselves. However, I do have an urge to get something like a 42.5/hicap/160 or a 52/135 which are my favourite Naim amps.
I suppose what I am really saying is that it’s important to look after your hearing. One added benefit I was told was that wearing hearing aids decreases the rate at which hearing declines.
Certainly I could have cried the first time I listened to my hifi with my hearing aids - and not with joy!
Also even though I could hear voices they sounded artificial and my own voice really sounded weird and a bit upsetting really.
It’s then a matter of your brain changing the sounds you can now hear to the ones you expect to hear and a good audiologist working with you to get correct gain and modify some frequencies and choose the best algorithm for you.
Don’t despair after your initial trial , the first time wearing them can be a dire experience.
Mine are in ear. I was fortunate in as much as my audiologist appreciated the fact that I was a music lover and set my aids accordingly.
I find that the best setting is to have the volume turned down a couple of notches otherwise there is some distortion. One benefit is that the aids also work as earbuds so you don’t have to spend money on the apple/samsung “flavour of the month” earbuds.
