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Hard of Hearing Audiophile.

This is for my hard of hearing audio peers. I lost a lot of hearing from exposure to big guns in the military. Wasn't bad until my fifties then caught up with me and pretty much killed the hobby. With the virus quarantine, I set out to build a little system that would serve me. I was motivated by enjoying Spotify through my JBL 200 Life bluetooth buds. 
I went through four sets of speakers, six integrated amps and a set of headphones in my quest. I have Widex hearing aids and they do have a less than perfect Music setting. Kind of harsh and peaked in the upper midrange but not totally bad for live performances and listening in the car with road noise. 
For my audio system, I quickly realized that I had to listen through these hearing aids to get decent sound so my goal was to find something that was neutral to easy going and not peaky or harsh. 
I went through several sets of speakers. Got a good deal on some PSB XB bookshelf's but they lacked the body and bottom end I wanted. Klipsch M600 were too forward and brash. After reading some reviews, I settled on ELAC Debut 62 speakers. These are great $600 speakers. I later added two eight inch Outlaw M8 subwoofers and they really added to the sound quality and the PSB monitors were very nice with the subs. I kept both the PSB XBs and the Elacs.  I settled on Audience Ohno interconnects. They got a good review in Absolute Sound and are excellent interconnects. I'm using 3130 Mogami OFC speaker cables nicely terminated to look professional. Conductor size came out to about 9AWG. (two 12 gauge on each leg) The sub cables are some Belden 8412 with Canare F10 RCAs Terminated by me. Good sub cable but sucks as an interconnect. I cant speak highly enough of adding the Outlaw M8 subwoofers. It made a huge difference in the system. 
Sitting on a wooden shelf, I slipped an 18"x18" Ceramic tiles under subs. Seemed to tighten up the bass a fraction. 
I had a OPPO 93 DVD player and it is my CD source. 
Amps are where I had trouble. Luckily, I discovered the Yamaha S801 integrated, and it's calm honest influence makes the entire system sound really good to me. One of Steve Guttenberg's favorites along with the PSB XB speakers.
I passed on the Cambridge 100 receiver for being dead sounding. Denon PMA800 was nice but no sub out. Outlaw receiver had a characteristic sound to me and music seemed not to escape the front of the speakers. I ordered an IOTA  integrated from England and couldn't get it to work for me sonically.  The Vincent 500 had a nice midrange but lacking in bass control and fitness in the details. Parasound 200 integrated and great bass and the remote was the absolute best I've ever seen, treble, bass and balance being adjustable from your listening position and you can see the bar easily from, in my case eight feet away. Too harsh and forward for me. 
I found a used set of HiFi Man headphones for $130 on Ebay and they join the mix. 
This setup is in my garage/work shop. I got some foam sound material from Amazon and glued it to the wall behind the system. My speaker stands are a very sturdy work counter. I have limitations. The speakers can be set out from the wall one foot max. 
Thats been my adventure. If you have hearing problems, just experiment and look for the neutral sounding equipment that other may think are not exciting enough. For me it works. I don't know if any other hearing aid has a music setting or not.  I am super happy with my enjoyable system now. I even got a stamp of approval from an audiophile friend with good hearing. 
My thanks to Crutchfield for their generous patience with my returns and ditto for Audio Advisor. I expected to be red tagged as a return abuser but it never happened. 
Remember that my hearing is damaged and your mileage may vary. Objets in the mirror are closer than they appear.

fredcdobbs

Showing 6 responses by fredcdobbs

fredcdobbs OP
127 posts
 
Hi Brian, I'm not an expert on subs. I just have a placement situation where I have to ue bookshelf speaker so I got a couple Outlaw 8 in h subs to add fullness to the sound. I cant say I'm impressed with the quality  of the outcome but it is nice to have the bottom filled in. 
Outlaw and Emotiva have 8 in hers at about $300. I heard great thing about the Emotiva sub. You might want to try one. 
fredcdobbs OP
127 posts
 
I forgot to mention a pair of Kanto 6 self powered speakers. I couldn't get them to work with my hearing, and the remote had this weird volume adjustment that was so touchy, it would zoom up to max volume with little encouragement. Also had a toslink hook up as an option. I cant say that I've ever heard a toslink sound any good for anything no matter how expensive the cable. Not for me. Maybe except for subs, I want more control than self powered speakers allow. Hated to give up the beautiful piano black finish. 
Another curiosity. The Vincent remote was built like a tank, all metal but few controls. It had odd spacing on the volume control, the increments of increase in volume were gross rather than fine and even one notch up seemed to always be too much. 
While the Elacs are nicely made and finished great sounding speaker, the walnut vinyl covering reminded me of a cheap discount store coffee table. It is only available in two finishes and black isn't one. I'm perfectly happy with black. The PSB speakers have a nice black fake (I'm guessing) black ash finish. 
I think one day, I'd like to check out a Marantz 8006. I like the idea of a midrange adjustment. Also Revel makes a little bookshelf speaker the model 16 that calls to me. A review by Guttenberg said things that fit my M.O. 
fredcdobbs OP
127 posts
 
Well, I got bored and wrote a murder mystery novel a while back. Also not for people with ADD
fredcdobbs OP
127 posts
 
Thanks for your responses...including those of you who don't have normal reading skills.
I am not quitting my quest. Due to not spending money in restaurants and other diversions, I will be taking some visa liberties and I will be testing more equipment. Some Parasound electronic and probably a set of Bucharest 300 speakers. Who knows?
Somehow my font has changed and I need to figure that out later. However, I have noticed that there are some really excellent near buds being made and are actually quite expensive. Seems like a lot of technology is being poured into better and better ear buds for your phone. Instead of hooking them up to bluetooth, I wish someone would make a pair quality in ear listening buds with a good microphone on the exterior.
You have all seen the cheap hearing assist devices for people who cant afford or don't want hearing aids, hunters use them to detect game etc. I want a high quart version of those things, even with a little shirt pocket amp would be great. With the size and appearance not being an issue because they would be used for indoor music and TV listening, they could be substantially bigger and better than hearing aids that have to stuff a small microphone and speaker in ones ear canal. It's the obvious choke point for better sound. Whats frustrating is they already make the high quality drivers for the inside half of the deal, they just need to add a small quality microphone to the exterior. That and a phone app to tailor the sound would be ideal. I'd be a customer for sure.
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fredcdobbs OP
127 posts
 
I was told that one of the reasons not to wait too long to get hearing aids is that if your brain doesn't get the stimulation from hearing certain sounds, it will forget what they sound like. I don't know if this comes back with amplified hearing or not. Anyway, Seems a shame to throw your hearing away like that but thats just what I did. My wife got tired of "What" Remember that the hearing aids don't give you anything that you don't have now. They just amplify what is left. 
I have a DB meter app on my iPhone so I tested my system at a level I like to listen to it. I listen around 60 to 65 DB. Not loud, Its about what a friend with normal hearing uses. That said, I would need to add in any DB increase in amplification from my hearing aids. I don't want to listen too loud causing further accelerated hearing loss. 
I guess the boredom is getting to me living like an indoor cat. I did order some Buchardt's and a Parasound pre and amp. What the heck. Nothing else to do and I might like it better. 
fredcdobbs OP
127 posts
 
I've been obsessing and testing some more and I think I am just about through. 
While I liked the S801/Elac combo, I took a step up. 
I now have a Schiit Ragnarock 2, Revel Concerta 2M16 bookshelf speakers, the same Audience Ohno cables and have added a Denefrip Ares II DAC to my Oppo transport. I have SML 400 Dac coming on a 30 day audition and may even try the Schiit Bifrost. All in the $700 range. The Oppo on it's own was so good, it took some doing to best it. 
Had an interesting time hooking the audio out from the Oppo to my amp and the Oppo Digital out through the Ares into a different input on the amp permitting instant comparisons. So far an Ohno Coax sounds quite good. I also have a Nordost Blue Heaven to try. One anomaly took place with a half meter D 60 Kimber digital. After a while of working well and sounding capable, the Dac quit processing until I removed the cable and replaced it with a full meter Audience. 
Does it sound reasonable that a DAC wants to look at a longer cable of it quits working? With this cable I did have trouble getting the filters to work. I don't know. It was weird. At one point the Audience Ohno coax sounded sub par and now is very good, Lots of detail, sound stage, imaging etc. Might just have been me? 
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