I got my hearing aids through an HMO. They paid $3600 for the pair. There was an option for an improvement from Denmark for $1,800. I paid it. The hearing aids are the most important piece of my system. There was a discussion on the PS Audio chat with Paul McGowan. The hearing aids users felt pretty the same. The aids I have include four different levels of boost. I am using the weakest one. I have bought a Pass Labs XA 25 and a Denafrips DAC since being fitted. I would have no qualms about upgrading any part of my system. I know I cannot hear what younger audiophiles do, but when the alternative is silence, the decision to buy the best hearing aids available to me, was easy to make.
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.