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Easily the best and most significant sonic tweak one could ever make!

Well hearing aids of course (if you need them and many don’t realize they do). I was diagnosed with asymmetrical hearing loss in my right ear over a year ago at only age 52. Entirely in the upper frequency. (As hearing loss per my ENT is almost always symmetrical, the protocol for this unusual diagnosis is a MRI brain scan to rule out a tumor; thank God everything was normal there).

Anyway, while expensive (partially covered by Insurance in most plans in the States), the different listening to music is in absolute terms startling. The proverbial veil is wayyyyy lifted particularly on lyrics but really the whole presentation is improved from the midrange thru to the top registers.

Keep this in mind before upgrading your electronics or speakers and perhaps instead upgrade the most critical precision instrument....your ears! I share this and if it helps one member on here, well that would be really great.
aj523
oldhvymec
5,101 posts
 
I Know you can get HA that will really increase your ability to hear. 25 % of the people I worked with were wearing them or needed them. Our company would help either side of the hearing problem. They would pay for your better hearing and the preventative side was a given. Even down to noise cancellation plug, inserts for noise pollution, or hypersensitivity.

That will keep you pissed off if your not careful. HIGH NOISE environments..or Hypersensitivity, exacerbated by a heart problem or something, like that. Like to drove me nuts a couple of times...Got the ol ticker fixed, helped a heck of a lot...

I forgot, saw my boss get knocked over by a backing PU as the BU beeper is at 113 or something like that.
I felt pretty good that day. Only problem, he missed his head...CRAP! He just wasn't paying attention, as 15 of us are waving orange vest and hardhats at him... Ka plunk... Dummy!

Regards
aj523 OP
373 posts
 
@stebut
Yes ! The doctor said it was more common than you think.  Anyway what an upgrade (if you need it)!
expat94
6 posts
 
AJ, one of the best posts I have seen on here.   It has always seemed to me likely that given the cost of our shared hobby that it is likely many of us are, shall we say, mature!   Much the same in my other dalliance, motor racing.  given that demographic, it is inevitable that a large proportion of us suffer age related hearing loss. I do. But worse is my tinnitus = and for that single line 3khz whine I use special HAs that teach my brain to ignore that frequency.  It works for me.  Thank you for relating your experience.  I may try using some and see just what I have been missing.
jdane
183 posts
 
I need them too.  But I only use them in particular situations--never when listening to live music (bec. in a sense, am I not then listening to miked music through a bad stereo system?)
burtlake
43 posts
 
Was a wondering exactly what the last poster referred to - with all the concern about every aspect of our systems I would think the sound quality coming from even the best hearing aid would be a compromise- it’s another microphone, amplifier and transducer in the chain...
Agree we don’t have many options but should makes us appreciate and protect our hearing while we have it.  
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