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  3. 190107-184792

Hearing aid question

Decades ago I at least thought of myself as a bit of a "Golden Ear"; my Quad ELS/Pyramid supertweeter combo and associated electronics were a source of pride and joy. (All gone over the years, alas.) In recent years I have learned that I have essentially lost the top three octaves of my auditory frequency response, whether through natural aging or some other process I'm not sure; I also have a fair bit of tinnitus at this stage, but that has proved less of an issue in being able to enjoy music. So now I've gone from enjoying the transparent reproduction of great music to struggling to resolve the sibilants in my wife's speech. (In the overall scheme of things, the latter is arguably more important, at least in maintaining peace at home.) I still very much enjoy listening to music, but the high-end losses have somewhat diminished the joy of it.

I am of course starting to think about taking the leap into hearing aids as a genuine quality-of-life enhancement. I was wondering if anyone out there has dealt with similar issues, and perhaps formed opinions about which of the many available solutions has worked best as both a general lifestyle aid and a boost to their enjoyment of live and recorded music. Many thanks in advance.

ericrhenry5488

Showing 1 response by jbuhl

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jbuhl
1,009 posts
 

I have had Oticon and currently Widex (~$3K). The best pair I had were a pair of Widex top of the line $7k. They blue toothed to the phone and could be adjusted and changed with a phone app. Really handy. Lost one somewhere and had to fall back to the less expensive model. I highly recommend them for conversations and general daily use but I still like listening to my main system without them. Or have them tuned for a setting that is open but turn them down.

Insurance may cover some of the cost. When I worked for a big Euro based telco they paid $2.5K. now I work for a USA company and the insurance sucks. Didnt really understand how sh!tty our insurance programs are compared to western Europe. Pathetic.

+1 on all the recommendations to get hooked up with an Audiologist. If you pay some of them will come to your house and configure them for listening to your system.

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