Best of Hearing Aids for deaf Audiophiles? Huh???


A new wife or a hearing aid? Huh? Just kidding, happily married for twenty four years until now. The wife says I'm going deaf and making things up when I say I can't hear her or twist around what I think I hear. Any one else having this problem? Are you using a hearing aid? Does this have any effects on the quality of sound by using them? Which kind of aid is most preferred? Which one should we stay away from? Where can we get the best pricing, service and products? I figure a hearing aid is cheaper than a new wife. Ha! Lastly concerning comments on equipment. Would the Eggleston Andra I be huge improvement over the Paradigm's? Your input is appreciated.

Denon 8300 integrated
Parasound preamp
Sony CD player
Denon DVD player
Pioneer DVD/Tivo play
Paradigm Reference Studio's 100
Paradigm Reference Studio 450CC
fathertime
Ah Yes! Just a few more of the reasons to stay single. You just have to re-focus on the EAR-roginous zones
Has anyone tried hearing aids from etymotic research www.etymotic.com? Etymotic is a hi-fi company known for their vibration isolating earphones, but they also make high-fidelity hearing aids which they claim to be better than regular hearing aids. The also have a FAQ on hearing loss and hearing aids.
Mejames, I hear you...pun intended! I find that I can follow ANY sound in a recorded mix, be it a microphone opening on the control board, or even a door closing in the studio. But I do sometimes have trouble following an individual conversation with a lot of background noise, especially if the background noise consists of multiple conversations going on at once (party or nightclub setting).

I believe that hearing aides are non-linear. They emphasize the human speech vocal range especially between 1 and 2 kHz. Please correct me if this last statement is in error, though.
Today, I found the following bit of information stored and almost forgotten on my hard drive:

Background Noises Can Scramble the Brain

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (United Press International via COMTEX 10/03/2004) -- U.S. researchers said background noises actually may scramble brain activity as well as make conversations more difficult.

The discovery could explain why even perfectly loud speech can be difficult to understand in a noisy room, University of Florida researchers said.

The researchers studied how alert rats' brain cells responded to specific sounds while one of three standardized noises played in the background. They discovered that brain activity actually decreased in the presence of background noise.

Background noise did not simply cover up sounds, they said. It interfered with the brain's ability to process or interpret information about a sound, even though the sound was heard. Essentially, they said, the brain could not understand what the ear was telling it.

The phenomenon could play a role in an auditory processing disorder first noticed in children in the 1970s. The lack of coordination between the ear and brain that characterizes the disorder is thought to be widespread, although it is difficult to diagnose.

The findings could influence the design of hearing devices, MP3 music players and virtually any audio transmission technology, the researchers said.