Hearingaides

...'ve said this before but when I first got my hearing aids one of the first things I did was sit down and listen to Dark Side of the Moon. My hearing aids gave me better sound than any Bose speaker I ever heard....
Are you talking about listening via speakers using your HAs, or streamimg audio into them? I'm guessing the former.

I've had basic Costco HAs (Kirkland/Sivantos) for a few years now and they're pretty good, although the "Listening to Music" setting is only "sort of OK." This is for listening via speakers. (I'm mostly into classical, but that prob. doesn't matter too much.)

From what I've read, most newer HA's (2018+) have pretty good "Music" settings, which basically remove most of the DSP (digital signal processing) that is useful for conversation etc., but detrimental to music. But it also depends on the audiologist knowing what to adjust, and adusting for music reproduction is not something that many audiologists know about.

Mine are still good enough that I'm going to wait a year or so before thinking about replacing them, and I now know enough about the technology to help the audiologist set up the Music program. Phonak is one of the better brands, esp. for music reproduction. One young woman out here who has serious hearing loss - a sound mixer in her 30's - started with Phonak but ended up using Oticon, which she felt were better. But that's a very specialized application and I think she had a very good audiologist.

I, too was diagnosed with "the notch", long before I ever needed HAs. When I told the audiologist I had worked as a rec. engineer, they assumed that was the cause, but I did mostly classical and only part-time. Probably it was from doing a lot of .22 shooting when I was in my teens, initially on an indoor range. Anyway, now I have HF loss in both ears and reduced sensitivity in the right ear, diagnosed as "sensio-neural hearing loss", which seems to be techno-speak for "we don't know the cause." :)

Oddly, when I listen over my Grado headphones (GW100 wireless, which are superb), I am barely aware of the loss, aside from a little less level on the right.

SweetMK said:
I can cup my hand over my ear, and hear the radio 3X better, and more clear sounding
That works for me, too. Even just bending my ear in a bit can help. You're focusing the sound, not unlike an ear trumpet. Possibly also some HF boost from your hand. Put some tin foil on your hand and it'll be even brighter!
 
Are you talking about listening via speakers using your HAs, or streamimg audio into them? I'm guessing the former.

I've had basic Costco HAs (Kirkland/Sivantos) for a few years now and they're pretty good, although the "Listening to Music" setting is only "sort of OK." This is for listening via speakers. (I'm mostly into classical, but that prob. doesn't matter too much.)

From what I've read, most newer HA's (2018+) have pretty good "Music" settings, which basically remove most of the DSP (digital signal processing) that is useful for conversation etc., but detrimental to music. But it also depends on the audiologist knowing what to adjust, and adusting for music reproduction is not something that many audiologists know about.

Mine are still good enough that I'm going to wait a year or so before thinking about replacing them, and I now know enough about the technology to help the audiologist set up the Music program. Phonak is one of the better brands, esp. for music reproduction. One young woman out here who has serious hearing loss - a sound mixer in her 30's - started with Phonak but ended up using Oticon, which she felt were better. But that's a very specialized application and I think she had a very good audiologist.

I, too was diagnosed with "the notch", long before I ever needed HAs. When I told the audiologist I had worked as a rec. engineer, they assumed that was the cause, but I did mostly classical and only part-time. Probably it was from doing a lot of .22 shooting when I was in my teens, initially on an indoor range. Anyway, now I have HF loss in both ears and reduced sensitivity in the right ear, diagnosed as "sensio-neural hearing loss", which seems to be techno-speak for "we don't know the cause." :)

Oddly, when I listen over my Grado headphones (GW100 wireless, which are superb), I am barely aware of the loss, aside from a little less level on the right.


That works for me, too. Even just bending my ear in a bit can help. You're focusing the sound, not unlike an ear trumpet. Possibly also some HF boost from your hand. Put some tin foil on your hand and it'll be even brighter!

Just turning my head a few degrees one way or another does wonders to what I can heard. Kind of like thing the radar antenna to get the best feedback.
 
Are you talking about listening via speakers using your HAs, or streamimg audio into them?

Streaming audio through them.


If I listen to my stereo through my headphones it levels everything out and it just sounds flat
 
Streaming audio through them.

If I listen to my stereo through my headphones it levels everything out and it just sounds flat
That's surprising, but Phonak are supposed to be very good. I would have thought bass response would be weak (unless you have full ear molds) and level a bit restricted, as well as poor battery life. But if it works, HURRAH! :)
 
Removing the wax from my ear has made a huge difference.

I can watch the tv with the volume turned down from 99 to 60. BIG difference for the $50 to clean the wax out of my ear.

The audiologist still thinks I need HAs and I’ll continue to follow up, but the urgency has lessened now.
 
That's surprising, but Phonak are supposed to be very good. I would have thought bass response would be weak (unless you have full ear molds) and level a bit restricted, as well as poor battery life. But if it works, HURRAH! :)

I said that wrong. If I'm wearing my Phonaks and I turn on my Kenwood component system it sounds great. It's when I try to listen to music through my Bose SoundLink while I'm wearing my Phonaks that I have a problem. I also have a problem with the Bluetooth on my phone not being able to decide which device to pair with.

I don't listen to music through my hearing aids very often because invariably as soon as I do my wife wants to start a conversation and gets pissed off at me.

I'm not sure what normal life is for hearing aid battery but as long as I stay out of the gym my hearing aid batteries last at least 3 days.
 
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I said that wrong. If I'm wearing my Phonaks and I turn on my Kenwood component system it sounds great. It's when I try to listen to music through my Bose SoundLink while I'm wearing my Phonaks that I have a problem. I also have a problem with the Bluetooth on my phone not being able to decide which device to pair with...
Now that's a bit odd... :confused: I don't have a Soundlink, but I think Bose does a lot of electronic jiggery-pokery with theIr small single speakers to get good sound and it could be that some of that processing is interfering with the Phonak's own DSP. My next-door neighbour has a Bose Revolve (I think) which probably uses similar technology. Next time she has it on I'll see if my HAs are affected.

Pairing can sometimes be a problem with multiple devices. I've heard that sometimes you should turn off Bluetooth on one device, but I've rarely had to. When I fire up my Grado wireless cans, they usually announce "Pairing!" twice, once for my iPhone and also for my laptop.

I get around a week from my HAs (which use a 312 battery) but I don't wear them all day, just when I feel I'd need them, usually if I'm out shopping or visiting with a number of people with a lotof conversation going on, which isn't often.

I don't listen to music through my hearing aids very often because invariably as soon as I do my wife wants to start a conversation and gets pissed off at me.
"I'M SORRY DAVE. I CAN'T FIX THAT" :D
 
Listening to music when streaming thru the Phonak hearing aids sounds tinny to me. Reason being that the HAs are still bringing in outside sound as well. I have not tried listening with hearing aids in and using headphones...
 
A few months ago I was trying to remove some wax with a q tip and ended up jamming it into my ear.

The GP tried removing it with a hand held squirt bottle. It didn’t work.

Then I found an audiologist that would remove it prior to the ear exam. I signed up for the hearing test and sails pitch for hearing aids to get the wax out. She had a device that amounted to an electric psquirt bottle which produced a higher pressure pump.

She got the wax out and my hearing improved 100% immediately.

Nevertheless, she tried to sell me hearing aids. For $5000!

I think I’ll look around.

Other than Costco, where would you look for reasonable priced hearing aids?
I went for a free audiology exam at Costco, and they found a rather large lump of wax in my left ear. They offered to remove it (for a fee) and then re-do the hearing exam (for an additional fee of course).

I went to Walgreens and got a Debrox ear wax removal "kit" for a few bucks. I followed the directions for using it to the letter and LO' AND BEHOLD the big lump of wax came right out.

I then went to another audiologist for a re-exam and they said my hearing impairment was JUST on the borderline of what they considered NEEDING correction. Mainly because the loss was only really pronounced in on selected frequency range - the upper frequencies.

After a little internet research I decided that the Jabra Enhanced Pro hearing aids looked like a pretty good deal. So I took their online hearing test, and ordered a set of their hearing aids (they are actually a set of re-labeled Resound One Premium model hearing aids that have VERY good reviews online).
The total cost to me was $1495 delivered with a life-time repair or replacement warranty and audiologist support if I need them tweaked as my hearing changes.

They connect to my phone via Bluetooth for adjustments using the Jabra app. They also have the ability to stream music and phone calls, if you have a phone with a new enough version of Android or IOS. My phone is too old, for that, but the adjustment functions still work, and I don't care much about streaming through the hearing aids anyway. Maybe my next phone will do all that - if and when I decide to upgrade it.

Meanwhile, they do everything I need them to and I've had them for about a year now. I have been VERY happy with my purchase. They are very good quality and an excellent value. I only wish I had bought them sooner.
 
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Listening to music when streaming thru the Phonak hearing aids sounds tinny to me. Reason being that the HAs are still bringing in outside sound as well. I have not tried listening with hearing aids in and using headphones...
Bringing in outside sound is probably not the problem, aside from unwnted ambient noise if there is any.

I'd guess it's same reason my HAs sounded tinny- when I was watching the audiologist try to adjust the EQ, I noticed that there appeared to be a high-pass filter in the system which he apprently couldn't over-ride. I think that everything below about 800Hz was basically cut off, so the HAs were just "hearing" and amplifying everything above that, ie basically mid-range and HF.

This makes sense for helping most people's hearing loss, which is the HF. Amplifying LF takes a lot more power (same for loudspeakers) so there's no point wasting battery power on frequencies that are not relevant. Now for music, if you are streaming through the HAs - essentially treating them as in-ear earphones - you need the full range.

HAs + headphones are not likely to work!

If you are serious about playing/listening to music through your HAs, you'll need to find an audiologist who fully understands how to set them up, and not everyone is knowledgeable in this area. One website that I've found useful is called "Grand Piano Passion". They have a consultant from Toronto who is apparently a very well recognized audiologist, Dr. MArshall Chasin, who specializes in music reproduction with HAs. This link from their website may be useful.
 
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