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!
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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!!!
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Usually the NHS only funds one hearing aid. At least that’s what they do in Sheffield.
Music sounded even worse with just one
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.
Anyway don’t give up!
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.
Best
David
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My first post for some time…
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.
.sjb
Do people use behind the ear, in the ear or in the canal types?
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.
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Ask your audiologist to increase the MPO in your music setting by 3 dB. That should get rid of the distortion.
Best
David
Thanks for the advice. I’m due a review now but don’t fancy visiting the audiologist until the NHS have stuck a needle in my arm…
Great topic, one I would probably have (incorrectly) dismissed until one day last July.
A sunny day, I was sitting in the garden listening to albums through my Hugo2 and Ether headphones, bliss. During the night, I woke up at four AM, and sensed something was wrong; now I know it was the lack of rustling you take for granted as you move slightly on your pillow. Went to toilet and could only hear the slightest crackle as I pulled the chain. Into bed and music player full volume, nothing at all in right ear!
Ignored Doctor’s advice to first take drops for 7 days, and after a quick google, realised time is critical with SSHL (sudden hearing loss) so went to A&E who got me straight to ENT. Test confirmed severe loss and had steroids, followed 5 weeks later (too late) by direct injections into ear.
To cut a long story short(er!), I got lower frequencies back, but nothing much above 3k so hearing aid arranged.
Like I expect most here, I expected something low quality to get started and I would then have to move to a private better model. Had a call before fitting appointment from Audiology at the hospital and explained my love of music. She gave me links to read before fitting of studies that have been made into Music and H Aids and encouraged me to ask for Music Mode as a separate program.
I read that TWO aids are preferable for music however slight loss in good ear is, and it’s a MUST to have all enhanced settings for speech turned off as said by posters above. Fantastic advice.
Sent in post, I was amazed that the models sent, already tuned to hearing test and including Music mode as requested, were Oticon top range models of two years ago, that then cost in excess of £1500 each! Slippers on wooden floor and birds in garden were scary and an eye opener.
As this loss was so sudden, I realised that a lot of benefit was from the ‘good’ ear that had slightly deteriorated in high frequencies without me realising. So glad I asked for two and NHS didn’t question it. Made sense like others had said that I’d moved over the years from equipment that tamed CD, to brighter sounding speakers and iems.
Anyway, to music, and although an improvement and different, not spellbinding as I had hoped. Changed to Music mode and wow, closed in sound moved to wide stereo, and crispness was superb.
But, some frequencies were disturbing in bad ear, which I later found was not, ‘brain needing to get used to aid’ but that damage at 4 and 8k was so bad, that for music you cannot increase what’s not there without a crackling-type artefact. So I turned down bad ear on music mode, and enjoyed good ears boost to treble.
I then read on an American forum how a music lover with hearing problems was enjoying a product from Aumeo Audio Hong Kong, a ‘headphone personaliser’, that enabled equalisation after a self-taken hearing test on accompanying app (similar to Audiologist test at different frequencies) to use with 3.5mm headphones or iems. Only one and a inch square and it enables all my iems to be used with equal quality to hifi through the aids. Few niggles and no easy correction to automated change at each frequency, I had to pretend I could hear a bit at frequencies I know in my case can’t be boosted in the bad ear. But remarkable bit of kit that saved me selling all my iems.
With this information I phoned hospital Audiologist department and asked if my Oticon OPN aids could have a 3rd program, Music -, just for right ear, where problem frequencies only have half the issuing correction made, and after a few attempts and bringing in top Audiologist, they made change and sent it over the net directly to my aid/iPhone App. Better still, I now have an Apple Watch that can alter programs and volume in seconds using Oticon’s watch and phone app.
Sorry for long post, but I was so thrilled to find two solutions to my sudden severe loss. Most would not have such severe loss in one ear so hearing aids won’t have the problem I had to get past.
But anyone who has hearing aids on a general setting, please do see the change that a dedicated Music mode brings to the soundstage, whole sound opening up. If you don’t ask, you are only getting 50% of the I improvement. It’s like buying a good TV and leaving all the artificial sharpness and motion controls on, losing naturalness.
And finally, Kudos to NHS who in my case have far exceeded my expectations in what was initially a harrowing experience. I didn’t even know hearing aids were free, especially a pretty good model, and the time taken to try and get music back for me.
Regards Andrew
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From my own experience, something you also might ask them to try on your normal music programme is to increase the MPO in your bad ear at the higher frequencies by say 6dB.
MPO is maximum output power and if you hit that level you do indeed get a crackling artefact. 6dB is 4 times the power, but that isn’t as scary as it sounds. You may well find that the artefacts largely go away and as your brain gets used to hearing more from the aid on the bad ear, you may find it more enjoyable than listening with one ear turned down!
Best
David
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Put this into the “thinking out loud” box, but if you could get aids to equalise your hearing frequency response in a music hearing aid setting, maybe a more natural musical experience could be achieved by using something like Roon to do the rest so avoiding driving aids into distortion as some have said can happen? There’s even that guy who does room correction filters-maybe with a post aid hearing frequency response some filters combining room and hearing loss (or at least that part that aids can’t fix) could be made.
Am I taking rubbish?
Good morning, and thank you for sharing your experiences which are very insightful.
About three years ago I developed Tinnitus - after going to the cinema and watching an action movie - can’t remember what it was but during the performance I thought it was very loud. I thought it would fade away after a while, but three months later it was still present and getting me down.
I got my ears tested and the audiologist said I had reduced hearing in the higher range in one ear. She said it could be contributing towards the tinnitus and recommended a hearing aid. I was 59 at the time and like you, the thought of wearing a hearing aid was appalling.
Since then I’ve not gone down the route of purchasing a hearing aid. In fact I went to another audiologist last year who said my hearing was fine for my age.
My tinnitus does get me down from time to time. Sometimes it’s significant, others less so. It often depends on how tired or stressed I am.
I really miss hearing nothing but the breeze or nature’s sounds. I wish they weren’t accompanied by noise that sounds like I’m at a dentists.
Perhaps I should reconsider the hearing aids issue.
Once again, thanks for sharing.
I’m afraid that anyone with serious hearing loss is beyond what you could do with something like Roon. You can easily have 60 dB or more (a lot more actually) difference in the response at different frequencies. And it is often completely different for one ear than the other. Hearing aids are designed to deal with this. Hifi amplifiers and loudspeakers are not.
Best
David
Adding to that, every 3dB boost is a doubling of applied amplifier power - so it doesn’t take much boost to lead to clipping by the amp, and destruction of speakers. Also, it would likely sound unbearable to anyone else in earshot!
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Yeah, I know that 3dB is a doubling of power, and looking back at this thread I can see some people do have a 60dB loss at some frequencies so should have been able to work this out myself. Must have been wine-o-clock and indeed I was talking out of my ar$e.
Interesting…just did an online hearing test (via earphones) from one of the best known UK high street chemists…
Did it twice and got similar results each time. Perhaps not as bad as I thought, but enough to indicate I have a problem.
Nigel
I wonder if it would be possible to touch base with you outside the forum? A very good friend of mine who loves music has suffered from hearing in only one ear for all the years I have known him. Your post looks like there may be hope for him and it would be much appreciated if you wouldn’t mind having a chat with him or even exchange of emails. I have tried to temporarily insert my email address in my profile but I could have put it in the wrong slot! No problem if you consider this approach inappropriate.
Peter