Results of Actual Hearing Test and Next Steps

My wife tells me she just read a yahoo feed that the Maine shooter, still at large as I write this, apparently just started using hearing aids prior to then hearing voices.  I can’t wait until a firearm advocacy groups points out that while the right to own firearms is constitutionally guaranteed, that document says nothing about the right to use hearing enhancement devices.

  So I did my audiology test yesterday.  I have been having problems with conversations in crowded places for years.  I therefore wasn’t surprised when my results were similar to the OP, but slightly worse.  I asked the audiologist how this would affect my ability to hear music.  She said it would mainly affect the treble.   My speakers are B&W 803-D, now almost 20 years old.  They have diamond tweeters and were largely criticized for being excessively bright.  I listen to Classical exclusively, and perhaps I’ve adapted, but I don’t notice any issue with. Music.  Flute, piano, oboes, sopranos, if anything there are certain recordings that I avoid because there is to much treble for comfort.

  So I am going to get hearing aids for conversation but will be removing them while listening to music

The hearing aid recommended by ny audiologist at University of Chicago costs $5600 if I purchase through them.  Costco offers the same for $1500.  The Costco is also half a mile from my home, vs the 20 mile commute to U of C and the 10 buck parking fee there, which is an issue if one needs adjustments or has issues.  I’ve long heard (no pun intended) that Costco was the place to go for hearing aids, but this pretty startling 

@socalml528 

thanks for that.  My actual appointment with Costco is this afternoon (I have to go to work to turn in my laptop, ID Badge, etc in the AM-I retire today).

  I was at a wind band concert Friday night.  It was a great concert, but there was a lot of percussion, and at one point the triangle player (apparently) had a prominent part, whacking the thing, and I couldn’t hear any of it.  It’s the first time I’ve noticed any defecit listening to music

I ordered the Phillips from Costco.  They arrive in 2 weeks.  Apparently you can stream from an i device directly to the phones via Bluetooth, although not using the conventional BT pairing settings.  The tech said that his customers hated streaming with Jabbra hearing aids, complaining that music sounds screechy, which is kind of surprising because Jabbra makes conventional audio Bluetooth buds.  However I mainly plan to keep listening to my system and just stream for convenience 

@dweller thanks for the good wishes. I’ve already started by tackling some cleaning and downsizing projects that I always claimed that I would tackle in retirement. It’s a great excuse to pull CDs that have been unplayed for years off the shelf as background. There is enough to keep me going for a few months here. I have a pile of books that I’d been wanting to get too and have already read two of them. I started Piano lessons a year ago and now have more time to practice (unfortunately the results don’t seem to reflect the increased elbow grease). I have joined two book clubs that meet monthly and already me a great groups of people, and I am looking to sign up for a creative writing course. I haven’t missed work for one second. Last night I dreamed that I had to return to work for some reason and that I was going to be unable to do all of these activities. I’ll take this “nightmare” as a good sign, as I years past that dream would have had different content.

fwiw, I had asked my audiologist at U of C about having custom molds, and she blew me off.  I don’t think she understood the importance of music to me ( she also looked to be about 12 years old, and we all know that generation views music listening in a very different way than we seniors).  The audiology tech at Costco, who looked more like my contemporary and who also listens to my genre, was more sympathetic but advised me to try going without them first.  We actually have two family friends in the field, one a retired audiologist and the other in her early 30s, whom I intended to curbside